Achieving academic promotion: The role of work environment, role conflict, and life balance

Abstract

Fifty-two faculty at two Canadian universities were interviewed about the impact of work environment, role conflict, and worklife balance on career-related experiences and decisions to apply for promotion to full professor. Faculty described conflicts between their academic responsibilities of teaching, research, and service (including limited time for research despite long work weeks) as well as work-life imbalance. These issues were often gendered; women took slightly longer to achieve the rank of associate professor, accepted tasks of lower reward value, held decreased expectations for promotion, and experienced workplace conflict and bullying more than their male counterparts. Even so, faculty identified colleagues as a valuable career support. Our data lead us to theorize that the decision to apply for academic promotion is informed by a cost-benefit analysis, early career experiences, conformity with academic norms that over-emphasize research productivity, as well as access to career-advancing resources (especially time for research). We recommend that the gendered nature of the academic reward system be re-imagined to promote equality, and provide suggestions as to how to do so.

Staying Engaged and Achieving Promotion: The Role of Collegial Support and Career Reflection and Assessment for Mid-Career Faculty

“…Many of the issues encountered by MCF are further demonstrated in the pursuit of promotion to full professor. As noted by Bowering and Reed [15], academia is very competitive, and there is intense performativity pressure even though "promotion targets are neither transparent nor well-operationalized, that variations exist in the processes within and across university departments and faculties and that the decision makers can lack adequate training" (p. 2). Faculty members are unable to accurately assess their progress and improve their performance if the targets are vague and are open to interpretation [8,15].…”

“…As noted by Bowering and Reed [15], academia is very competitive, and there is intense performativity pressure even though "promotion targets are neither transparent nor well-operationalized, that variations exist in the processes within and across university departments and faculties and that the decision makers can lack adequate training" (p. 2). Faculty members are unable to accurately assess their progress and improve their performance if the targets are vague and are open to interpretation [8,15]. The standards for promotion to the rank of full professor focus on research productivity, even though associate professors are under pressure to take on more teaching, supervision, and especially service, impacting their capacity to conduct research [15,16].…”

“…Faculty members are unable to accurately assess their progress and improve their performance if the targets are vague and are open to interpretation [8,15]. The standards for promotion to the rank of full professor focus on research productivity, even though associate professors are under pressure to take on more teaching, supervision, and especially service, impacting their capacity to conduct research [15,16]. This focus on research productivity aligns mostly with research-intensive universities, and expectations regarding teaching, supervision, and service will be informed by disciplinary standards.…”

“…Bowering and Reed [15] contended that work environment, role conflicts, and worklife balance contributed to difficulties with career progression. The faculty members in their study "described a work environment where the expectations were unclear, little time to meet research obligations was afforded, bullying and incivility occurred, and grantsmanship and publication were difficult" [15] (p. 14).…”

“…Bowering and Reed [15] contended that work environment, role conflicts, and worklife balance contributed to difficulties with career progression. The faculty members in their study "described a work environment where the expectations were unclear, little time to meet research obligations was afforded, bullying and incivility occurred, and grantsmanship and publication were difficult" [15] (p. 14). Many associate professors, especially women, were not sure they wanted to pursue promotion to full professor, and Buch et al [16] noted that it seemed as if "women were standing still at associate professor" (p. 39).…”