The involvement of university faculty members in social planning: motivating and hindering factors

Abstract

The research examines factors that affect the involvement of university faculty members in social planning activities. It examines the impact of philanthropic views compared with the exchange relations approach, both on personal and organizational levels, as well as the contribution of several characteristics of the relationship between faculty members and institutions.

Regional Science and State Rural Policy Research

“…The two are related because the university provides incentives to align faculty behaviors with institutional goals. Hence, Boehm (2008) finds a positive relationship between community involvement and institutional attitudes toward such activities, and Lee (2007) shows that institutions have more influence on departmental culture than the department's discipline. We start with institutional incentives because they shape the incentives that the university provides to the faculty.…”

“…Many projects attract attention only in the aggregate and long run, not as individual efforts, and thus provide no reward in the form of recognition and prestige. The research of Boehm (2008) demonstrates the important effect of institutional attitudes toward engagement on faculty members. Overtime, faculty who become reliable policy advisors should be able to obtain agency support to answer policy questions that also fit the into a research agenda.…”

“…Therefore, in this section we address incentives for engaging in SRP research, including incentives in acquiring local institutional knowledge and other skills idiosyncratic to such research. For related discussions of policy engagement see Werts and Sandmann (2008), Boehm (2008), Harris (2008), Dubb and Howard (2007), and Macke et al (2003).…”

“…This is one of the reasons why a university's location influences the focus of policy research and why great urban universities are underrepresented in rural policy research. Boehm (2008) finds that negative incentives to state policy research are relatively more effective than positive incentives. Although there are negative incentives (e.g., Frey and Eichenberger 1992), positive incentives frequently outweigh them.…”

“…Academics derive personal satisfaction from having their research influence policy (Boehm 2008). Intrinsic motivation may be high for projects with great potential impact.…”