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Beyond Teaching and Research: Faculty Perceptions of Service Roles at Research Universities

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Abstract

Faculty members in higher education institutions frequently have the responsibility of providing service activities to their institutions, professional societies, and external communities. This responsibility, however, generally carries little reward in the workplace and does not play a major role in promotion criteria. For the study we report here we drew upon a sample of 4,400 research university faculty members to explore their satisfaction with service roles by academic rank. Findings showed that mid-career faculty members at the associate professor rank were significantly less satisfied with their service functions, including workload, equity, work balance, recognition, and institutional support, when compared with both assistant and full professors.

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Acknowledgement and Disclaimer

The authors acknowledge that the reported results are based in whole on analyses of the COACHE Data Set. These data were collected as part of a multi-site survey administration and supported by funds from participating colleges and universities and made available to the authors by the Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education. This article has not been reviewed or endorsed by COACHE and does not necessarily represent the opinions of COACHE staff or members, who are not responsible for the contents.

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Correspondence to Ketevan Mamiseishvili.

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Mamiseishvili, K., Miller, M.T. & Lee, D. Beyond Teaching and Research: Faculty Perceptions of Service Roles at Research Universities. Innov High Educ 41, 273–285 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755-015-9354-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755-015-9354-3

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