Walter H. Gmelch

Dimensions of stress among university faculty: Factor-analytic results from a national study

Previous studies on the role of the professor reflect the existence of a multifaceted complex of strains on faculty. This research study investigated identifiable patterns of faculty stress. From a sample of 80 doctorate-granting institutions, 1,920 professors were selected and stratified by academic rank and Biglans academic discipline model. The response rate was 75.28%. The multidimensionality of the 45-item Faculty Stress Index, investigated through factor analysis, resulted in five distinct dimensions of perceived stress: reward and recognition (55% common variance); time constraints (12% common variance); departmental influence (7% common variance); professional identity (6% common variance); and student interaction (6% common variance). Each factor was also analyzed according to professional and personal characteristics, and the analysis resulted in significant differences in the areas of tenure, rank, age, gender, and marital status. No differential pattern was discovered among disciplinary categories.

Sources of stress in academe: A national perspective.

The purpose of the national faculty stress research project was to examine stress experienced by faculty in institutions of higher education. The study sample of 80 institutions was drawn from the population of all U. S. doctoral-granting institutions in the United States. One thousand twenty faculty were selected and stratified by academic rank and Biglans academic discipline model. The response rate was 75.28 percent. In general, faculty reported 60 percent of the total stress in their lives came from work. The majority of the top 10 stressors related directly to time and/or resource constraints. When faculty stressors were compared across disciplinary groupings, more similarity than difference existed. Also, faculty reported similar degrees of stress associated with the teaching, research, and service functions, with teaching as the most stressful activity.

The department chair as academic leader

This important new work will help department chairs, faculty, and administrators understand and address the increasing complexity of relationships within higher education, as well as the growing influence of external factors. The Department Chair as Academic Leader is a completely updated revision of Allan Tuckers seminal contribution, Chairing the Academic Department, last published in 1992. This work reflects the approach used in the ACE Workshops for Division and Department Chairs and Deans.

Coping with faculty stress

Check Your Stress Level Identify Your Stress Traps Use the Power of Perception Balance Your Personal and Professional Pressures

Sources of Stress for Academic Department Chairpersons

Seeks to answer the following research questions: What job dimensions are perceived as stressful by department chairs? To what degree do chairs exhibit stress from their dual faculty and administrator roles? What influence does academic discipline have on chair stress? and What influence do personal attributes have on chair stress? Over 800 department chairs, stratified by discipline, were selected from research and doctorate granting institutions and completed the Department Chair Stress Index along with demographic questions. A response rate of 70.2 per cent was achieved. The results of the study indicate that, overall, stress among department chairs appears to be monolithic in its effect. Also chairs expressed high stress both in faculty and in administrative areas of concern.

The Impact of Personal, Professional and Organizational Characteristics on Administrator Burnout.

The purpose of the study was threefold: to identify the most salient personal, professional, and organizational characteristics contributing to administrator burnout; to determine those correlational relationships that are most salient; and to assess the role of social support’s impact on job satisfaction, burnout, and performance. A total of 1,000 principals and superintendents from Washington State were administered the Administrator Work Inventory. The authors identify different strategies to be taken to mitigate the various dimensions of burnout.

The cost of academic leadership: Department Chair Stress

Department chairs find themselves trapped between the stresses of performing not only as an administrator but faculty member as well. Over eight hundred chairs from 101 doctorate-granting and research universities were surveyed using the Department Chair Stress Index to assess (1) their most stressful situations, (2) emergent themes from these Stressors, and (3) the differences between chair and faculty Stressors. Chairs experienced most stress from their “heavy workload” and the general stresses of time pressures, confrontation with colleagues, organizational constraints and their faculty duties. Chairs were found to be in a paradoxical situation; feeling double pressure to be an effective leader and productive faculty member. Suggested actions for the institution and individual are provided.

A comparison of department chair tasks in Australia and the United States

Virtually every managerial book written lists and expounds upon the tasks, duties, roles and responsibilities of administrators. This paper reports a portion of the findings of the third phase of a study of Australian and U.S. academic department chairs in colleges and universities. In it, we seek to clarify how chairs in the two countries define the tasks that exemplify their role as chair. The driving question behind this inquiry is: Do academic department chairs, independent of country, define their tasks in the same way? And, if so, how might universities in both countries benefit from this knowledge?

The Role of Department Head in Australian Universities: Tasks and Stresses

ABSTRACT This study of the academic department head in Australian universities continues the discussion explored in the article entitled, “The Role of Department Head in Australian Universities: Changes and Challenges” published in the April edition of HERD, 16(1), 1997. The current article examines the role in terms of the departmental‐specific stress factors of administrative relationships, role ambiguity, administrative tasks, academic roles, and perceived expectations. Four discrete roles of the department head are also examined, namely: leader; manager; scholar; and academic staff developer. Findings indicate a job where the major chair stressors include administrative demands, as well as balancing the needs of scholarship with the everyday responsibilities of chairing a university department. An examination of the tasks chairs perform indicates that the leadership and academic staff development roles take precedence, followed by scholarship and management imperatives. Implications of the findings fo...

The Department as Double Agent: The Call for Department Change and Renewal.

The well-known and respected Pew Foundation recently suggested four prerequisites for departmental change and renewal—a dedication to teamwork, collective dialogue and inquiry about effective teaching, a commitment to quality control and rewarding collective goals, and the leadership of a purposeful chair (Pew Foundation, 1996, pp. 7-9). Many realities that surround academic programs work against these critical conditions for renewal: conflicting faculty interests, turbulent environments, unclear institutional goals, to name a few. This paper examines teamwork, teaching, quality, and leadership as means to mitigate the contradictions and enhance department renewal.