Measuring academic motivation

Abstract

Conventional management practices in universities do not rely upon modern theories that explain the varieties of employee behavior. We generalize different theories of motivation to develop a comprehensive toolkit for measuring academic motivation. Our analysis shows that it is possible to motivate academic employees without additional financial reward. The review of literature on economic, psychological and social models of human behavior in the academic field confirms these findings. We studied the sources on the theories of professional identity, internal and external motivation, the theory of displacement and de-motivation, narrative economics, the theory of subjective well-being, as well as practical issues related to employee engagement. We propose a new approach and the system of indices for measuring various aspects of effective or ineffective employee behavior in universities. The case of the Southern Federal University (Russia) exemplifies the study of the employee motivation relying on our analytical framework. The analysis involves the factor of engagement, as well as that of the assessment of economic, social and psychological indicators of employee behavior. Our methodology makes it possible to reveal negative trends in motivating employees, identify the ways to improve academic motivation.

Academic inbreeding in the Spanish public university system: a review of its institutional and context determinants (Endogamia en el sistema universitario público español: una revisión de sus determinantes institucionales y contextuales)

“…En cuanto a los estudios empíricos sobre endogamia, la revisión de la literatura muestra que la mayoría utilizan microdatos (información a nivel del Personal Docente e Investigador — PDI) normalmente obtenidos a través de encuestas. Estos estudios suelen centrarse o bien en la medición de la endogamia (Yuret, 2018), o bien en el análisis de sus consecuencias (por ejemplo Alipova & Lovakov, 2018; Horta, 2013; Lovakov et al, 2019; Tavares et al, 2019 para en análisis del efecto de la endogamia en la productividad investigadora; Cruz-Castro & Sanz-Menendez, 2010; Mikhalkina et al, 2019 analizan la relación entre la endogamia y el desarrollo de la carrera académica y/o profesional), y/o en el análisis de las características del PDI endogámico y no endogámico (Kosmulski, 2015).…”

“…Our literature review on academic inbreeding shows that the majority of empirical studies use microdata (information at the level of academic staff) usually obtained via surveys. These studies tend to focus on either measuring inbreeding (Yuret, 2018) or analysing its consequences (such as Alipova & Lovakov, 2018; Horta, 2013; Lovakov et al, 2019; Tavares et al, 2019, which analyse the effect of academic inbreeding on research productivity; Cruz-Castro & Sanz-Menendez, 2010; Mikhalkina et al, 2019, which analyse the relationship between inbreeding and the development of an academic and/or professional career) and/or on the characteristics of inbred and non-inbred staff (Kosmulski, 2015).…”

The study of the genesis and stages of the competence approach formation based on a comparative analysis of the main scientific schools and directions

“…2. The European school, unlike the American one, has gone through a number of stages of evolution, changing the content of theoretical and methodological parameters, and therefore the competence-based approach is decomposed into three directions: a "functional" approach and practical application of competencies (Great Britain), a "mixed" approach combining behavioral and functional aspects (France), a "multidimensional" approach focused not only on achieving efficiency in the implementation of functions, but also on the development of the individual and society (Germany, Austria) [6].…”

“…The competencebased approach in the French interpretation was formed as "mixed", combining the developments of the behaviorist American school and the English functional direction. The most key works of this direction belong to G. Le Boterff (1994), K. Levy-Leboiler (1996), P. Merle (1996) [18].…”

Teaching English as a foreign language to rural education students

“…The response will be determined by the learner's schema and world perception. Humans have a tendency to react differently when they are at different levels of autonomy to compensate for the difference in height; for example, a person with more power, the ability to transform a situation, such as a knight on a chessboard, will have different behavior or ways of moving than a pawn (Mikhalkina & Skachkova, 2021).…”