Structural Empowerment

Abstract

Higher education has been transformed by access to online degree programs, with millions of students across various academic levels taking courses online. The increase in online enrollment has also led to an increase in the use of geographically dispersed adjunct faculty. Extant literature shows that online adjunct faculty experience feelings of isolation, and want a stronger sense of collegiality and community with their full-time counterparts. This chapter presents the theoretical foundation of Kanter's structural empowerment (1993) as a framework for use in the context in higher education that can empower online adjunct faculty. A case study is presented on how this framework was implemented at one institution and could be replicated in other institutions to support online adjunct faculty.