Professors can’t help but communicate with their department chairs and deans; it’s a necessary part of the job. But not all interactions are created equal. According to recent research, faculty members say certain exchanges that they have with those administrators don’t really matter.
A paper titled “Social Rewards Perceived By Faculty in Their Relationships With Administrators” provides an interesting look at just what kinds of interactions fall short in the eyes of professors. Department chairs and deans who visit them in their offices periodically? Not important, said the bulk of professors surveyed for the study that was detailed in the paper. Deans who engage them in problem solving? Thanks, but no thanks, the professors said. What if deans or department chairs make an effort to know their families? That doesn’t really matter to faculty members either, the report says.
The paper’s authors surveyed assistant, associate and full professors in eight disciplines — chemistry, physics, mechanical and industrial engineering, education, social work, political science, and sociology. The study was an attempt to tap into what faculty considered to be socially rewarding in their interaction with department chairs and deans, who were also surveyed. However, only faculty perceptions are reported in the paper.
The professors and administrators are all employed at 10 flagship institutions in the South. Professors were asked to rate 25 behaviors associated with both department chairs and deans as “not important,” “important,” or “extremely important.” Of the 1,454 faculty members who received the survey, 30 percent responded. Marietta Del Favero, an associate professor in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of New Orleans, is the lead author of the paper that was presented at the American Educational Research Association’s annual meeting this spring.
The paper notes that professors attached higher levels of importance to interactions with department chairs than to deans, most likely because faculty members have more day-to-day dealings with their chairs than their deans. So department chairs, if you’re reading, here are some of the things that 90 percent or more of the respondents consider “important” or “extremely important”: Demonstrating respect for them as colleagues, showing appreciation for their professional abilities, considering them an asset to the department, respecting their opinion, responding to phone calls and emails in a timely manner, and understanding their scholarly interests.
Also important to professors: 85 percent of them want department chairs to hold them in high esteem, and, in a nod to collegiality, 77 percent said it’s important to be acknowledged by their department chair in passing.
The two most important “rewards” faculty said they wanted from deans turned out to be respecting their opinions (91 percent) and appreciating their professional abilities (90 percent). Apparently, it’s more O.K. for deans than for department chairs to pass professors in the hall without speaking to them, since only 60 percent of respondents deemed that interaction with deans to be an important one.
Ms. Del Favero wrote that she hopes her research will help strengthen faculty-administrator relationships since the study gives department chairs and deans some suggestions on what kinds of social exchanges professors find valuable. If administrators take heed they might have “greater success in their dealings with faculty,” the paper said, and that could ultimately translate into professors being more willing to participate in institutional decision-making.
What do you think? If professors and administrators built up a track record of past exchanges that yielded “social rewards” — such as respect, good will, and harmonious dialogue — would faculty be more motivated to participate in the shared governance process on campus?
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