Làm việc ngoài luồng: Nghiên cứu Lao động Adjunct trong Giáo dục Đại học

University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2018 Working Off-Track: Adjunct Labor In Higher Education Chad Gregory Evans University of Pennsylvania, chadgevans@gmail.com Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.edu/edissertations Part of the Educational Sociology Commons, Higher Education Administration Commons, Higher Education and Teaching Commons, and the Organizational Behavior and Theory Commons Recommended Citation Evans, Chad Gregory, "Working Off-Track: Adjunct Labor In Higher Education" (2018). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations.edu/edissertations/2727 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons.edu/edissertations/2727 For more information, please contact repository@pobox. Working Off-Track: Adjunct Labor In Higher Education Abstract The proportion of non-tenure track faculty has grown over the last decade and adjuncts now constitute two-thirds of the academic workforce. Despite this growth, there remain important limitations to our understanding of this new faculty majority.

For one, typologies for conceptualizing adjunct diversity are often poorly aligned and make limited use of information valuable for classification. This study addresses these issues by employing the multivariate typological method of cluster analysis. The analysis implied a “natural typology” for adjunct faculty and suggested important nuances for fully recognizing adjunct diversity in higher education. This dissertation also addresses limitations with regard to adjunct job satisfaction and turnover.

With lower earnings and less job security, it has typically been assumed that beginning off the tenure line carries with it a greater risk of early career departure. However, the empirical evidence of this has been weak. Using survival analysis and a behavioral measure of career attrition, this study confirmed the risks of beginning off the tenure track. Furthermore, using a structural equation model, this study examined nuances in the satisfaction and turnover intentions of different subclasses of contingent faculty members.

Satisfaction with benefits and financial satisfaction are distinct among aspiring academics and career-ending adjuncts and this has important implications with regard to faculty retention policies. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Sociology First Advisor Paul D. Allison Keywords adjunct, contingent, new faculty majority, non-tenure, tenure, track Subject Categories Educational Sociology | Higher Education Administration | Higher Education and Teaching | Organizational Behavior and Theory This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.edu/edissertations/2727 WORKING OFF-TRACK: ADJUNCT LABOR IN HIGHER EDUCATION Chad Evans A DISSERTATION in Sociology Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2018 Supervisor of Dissertation _____________________ Paul Allison Professor of Sociology Graduate Group Chairperson ________________________ David Grazian, Associate Professor of Sociology Dissertation Committee Frank Furstenberg, Zellerbach Family Professor of Sociology, Emeritus Jerry Jacobs, Professor of Sociology ABSTRACT WORKING OFF-TRACK: ADJUNCT LABOR IN HIGHER EDUCATION Chad Evans Paul Allison The proportion of non-tenure track faculty has grown over the last decade and adjuncts now constitute two-thirds of the academic workforce. Despite this growth, there remain important limitations to our understanding of this new faculty majority.

For one, typologies for conceptualizing adjunct diversity are often poorly aligned and make limited use of information valuable for classification. This study addresses these issues by employing the multivariate typological method of cluster analysis. The analysis implied a “natural typology” for adjunct faculty and suggested important nuances for fully recognizing adjunct diversity in higher education. This dissertation also addresses limitations with regard to adjunct job satisfaction and turnover.

With lower earnings and less job security, it has typically been assumed that beginning off the tenure line carries with it a greater risk of early career departure. However, the empirical evidence of this has been weak. Using survival analysis and a behavioral measure of career attrition, this study confirmed the risks of beginning off the tenure track. Furthermore, using a structural equation model, this study examined nuances in the satisfaction and turnover intentions of different subclasses of contingent faculty members.

Satisfaction with benefits and financial satisfaction are distinct among aspiring academics and career- ending adjuncts and this has important implications with regard to faculty retention policies. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT. II LIST OF TABLES. VI LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

VII CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION. 4 CHAPTER 2: CLASSIFYING NON-TENURE TRACK FACULTY. 11 Classification of Full-time Adjunct Faculty. 12 Classification of Part-time Adjunct Faculty.

21 iii CHAPTER 3: NON-TENURE TRACK JOB SATISFACTION AND TURNOVER INTENTIONS. 26 Satisfaction of Adjunct Types. 28 Limitations of Earlier Work. 30 Adjunct Job Satisfaction Hypotheses.

48 CHAPTER 4: ATTRITION: NON-TENURE TRACK FACULTY LEAVING ACADEMIA. 52 Theory on Turnover. 53 Prior Research on Faculty Career Attrition. 55 Limitations of Earlier Research.

77 v LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Crosstabulation of Full-time Adjunct Clusters.12 Table 2: Crosstabulation of Part-time Adjunct Clusters .14 Table 3: Descriptive Statistics of Quantitative Variables in the Analysis.22 Table 4: Variables Used in Cluster Analysis .23 Table 5: Adjunct Satisfaction .38 Table 6: Bayesian Structural Equation Models Predicting Turnover Intentions .40 Table 7: Descriptive Statistics (n=8418) .48 Table 8: Standardized Factor Loadings .49 Table 9: Latent Factors with Satisfaction Items.50 Table 10: Cox Proportional Hazards Models.64 Table 11: Life Table .74 Table 12: Study Entrants by Year .74 vi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure 1: Bayesian Structural Equation Model (Full Model with All Covariates) .36 Figure 2: Survival Curves .63 Figure 3: Changes in Tenure Systems (1993-2015) .74 vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION Decades ago, the work of higher education was conducted mostly by long-term faculty with tenured contracts. Visiting, clinical and in-residence faculty had a role, but that role was limited to short-term course assignments or ancillary support that tenured faculty were not able to provide. In recent years, however, there has been an eruption of criticism regarding the use of adjunct faculty, as it has become clear that adjunct faculty are now permanent fixtures on college campuses. Scholars have documented the uptick in non-tenure track faculty, tracing back to the late 1960s.

At that point, a mere 22% of faculty members were tenure-ineligible (Schuster and Finkelstein 2006). However, by the Fall of 2009, nearly two-thirds of all faculty were non-tenure track. This dramatic change has revolutionized the academic workforce: fixed-term faculty are now the new faculty majority. This fundamental shift in the academic workforce has attracted substantial research for decades.

Considerable efforts have been made to understand the historical and economic reasons for this extensive growth (Schuster and Finkelstein 2006). Others have examined how uncoordinated and decentralized hiring practices relate to fixed-term faculty (Cross and Goldenberg 2003). Some have focused on the job conditions and work responsibilities of these faculty members (Baldwin and Chronister 2001, Schell and Stock 2001). Others have examined student persistence and undergraduate academics under the instruction of adjuncts (Jaeger and Eagan 2009, Eagan and Jaeger 2008).

These are only a few of the many themes undertaken due to this revolutionary change in the contracts of postsecondary faculty. The scope of this dissertation is focused on two key aspects of non-tenure track faculty and their work. First, faculty adjuncts are far too often treated as a homogenous block with uniform experiences working in academia. They are portrayed as struggling with poverty wages, disrespected by their tenure-line peers, and universally exploited.

No one would dispute the importance of these topics and possibilities. No doubt, some members of the adjunct population do work under such regrettable conditions. However, before implementing policies to ameliorate these conditions, it is of great importance to consider just how widespread these conditions and experiences are. It is possible that not all adjuncts experience them—maybe not even a majority.

After all, we know that some adjuncts teach outside of a professional career because they enjoy sharing their expertise. Others work part-time to stay productive during their early retirement years. In short, there is surely diversity among postsecondary adjuncts, and an understanding of this diversity is sorely needed. The second component of this dissertation relates to the job satisfaction, turnover, and permanence of non-tenure track faculty in higher education.

It is a fact that non-tenure track faculty earn less and are less likely to receive health and retirement benefits. By definition, they also do not have tenure—a desirable contractual guarantee encouraging faculty commitment. Adjuncts also have less autonomy, control over their work and professional support. It is intuitive that employees working in such circumstances would be less satisfied and more likely to abandon their jobs and 1 potentially their careers.

However, demonstrating this empirically is a formidable challenge. Theoretical Framework Extensive research on employee withdrawal and turnover exists. Researchers in this line of work typically approach the topic from one of four theoretical angles. Some focus specifically on the psychological commitment that bonds employee with employer (Porter, Crampon, and Smith 1976, Porter et al.

1976, Meyer and Allen 1991). Workers commit due to the implied costs of leaving as well as normative pressures. Another group of researchers has approached turnover from the theoretical lens of embeddedness (Mitchell and Lee 2001). This line of research draws on social networks, employee “fit,” and cost-avoidance to understand worker decisions (Lee, Burch, and Mitchell 2014).

The unfolding model—a third perspective—highlights the importance of unexpected shocks causing employees to leave (Hom et al. 2017, Holtom et al. 2008, Weller et al. Vroom’s (1964) work on expectancy theory may be the most influential of all.

Expectancy theory views motivation as a cognitive process and focuses on how structural, attitudinal and environmental factors influence this process. In the context of work, this perspective implies that employees maintain the work arrangements that fulfill their job expectations. When unfulfilled, workers pursue other options like exerting less effort, detaching from their work, or leaving a job altogether (March and Simon 1958). Job satisfaction is central to expectancy theory because it is viewed as an expression of “fit.” Satisfied workers feel more aligned and connected to their employer and colleagues.

Dissatisfied workers feel alienated and detached from their work. Researchers integrate job satisfaction into turnover models in several ways. Herzberg, Mausner, and Snyderman's (1959) argued that there were two principal dimensions to job satisfaction. Some work conditions mapped explicitly onto a factor measuring satisfaction while other work features mapped onto a factor measuring dissatisfaction.

These factors were viewed as entirely independent in their framework. A second important job satisfaction model is Hackman and Oldham’s (1980) “Job Characteristics” model. This framework was very important for elaborating on the intrinsic aspects of job satisfaction like task variety, meaningfulness and task feedback. In the domain of higher education research, however, the work of Kalleberg (1977) truly stands out.

Like Hackman and Oldham (1980), Kalleberg also recognized the intrinsic components of job satisfaction. However, his model was valuable for its incorporation of external factors of job satisfaction as well. Specifically, he found six dimensions to the job satisfaction construct: intrinsic value, convenience, financial, relationships with co- workers, career and resource adequacy. Problem statement While research often treats non-tenure track faculty as a homogenous block, there is an important line of typological scholarship recognizing adjunct heterogeneity.

Notably, Gappa and Leslie (1993) identified career-enders, adjunct experts, freelancers and aspiring academics. Baldwin and Chronister (2001) classified full-time adjuncts according to principal work responsibilties. While these studies (and others) have done a great service, they have important limitations that this dissertation aims to address. For one, this line of research has led to a proliferation of labels for adjuncts without 2 clearly demonstrating that actual differences exist in new classes.

As a result, there has been redundancy in some cases and conceptual vagueness in others. To truly carve out distinct classes of adjunct faculty members, this line of research would benefit from a method inferring how many clusters are justified in the adjunct population. The second limitation this study aims to address relates to the failure to utilize information that is potentially valuable for creating an adjunct typology. Commonly, researchers build typologies around two or sometimes three characteristics they believe to be self-evident.

The problem is that this approach potentially excludes variables important for classification. Ethnographers get around this to some extent by pouring over fieldnotes. However, even there, it is not certain that the right information is employed for the purposes of creating a robust typology.