Abstract
This article speaks to the debate regarding the proper size of university administrations by presenting the results of an examination of how the relative size of administrative components within U.S. research universities affects the job stress of faculty members. Using national survey data merged with workforce data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), results from statistical modeling reveal that a higher ratio of faculty to some types of non-instructional workers is associated with increased faculty member stress. These findings suggest that shadow work—administrative tasks that are shifted to faculty members when the number of available clerical and support workers is reduced—may negatively affect faculty stress levels.
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Notes
The terms “non-professional” and “professional” administrators are technical terms used by the Integrated Postsecondary Education System (IPEDS) to designate different job functions and are not intended as comments on the professionalism of different positions within universities. More explanation of these terms is in the “Data, Variables, and Analysis” section of this paper.
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Acknowledgements
The data analyzed in this project were collected under the auspices of the project, “Women in Science and Engineering: Network Access, Participation, and Career Outcomes,” (NETWISE I), which was funded by the National Science Foundation (Grant # 0529642) (Co-PI’s Dr. Julia Melkers, and Dr. Eric Welch.).
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Taggart, G. Administrative Intensity and Faculty Job Stress. Innov High Educ 46, 605–621 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755-021-09573-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755-021-09573-7