Intent to Leave the Professoriate: The relationship between race/ethnicity and job satisfaction for pre-tenured professors in doctorate-granting universities.

Abstract

This study investigated pre-tenure faculty satisfaction and intent to leave their institution using the 2005 - 2008 data from the COACHE Tenure-Track Job Satisfaction Survey. The purpose of this study is to identify salient variables influencing faculty of color retention and to explain the lack of progress in diversifying the professoriate by exploring the associative relationship between racial/ethnic group membership and pre-tenure faculty job satisfaction and the collective relationship these variables have with departure intentions. The study was limited to faculty working at doctorate-granting universities in the U.S. Results of the study suggest faculty of color are more likely to have intentions to leave their institutions than their White (non-Hispanic) counterparts. Specifically, the study's findings suggest satisfaction with tenure processes and procedures, teaching, advising, service, and research expectations, and collegiality negatively influenced departure intentions of pre-tenure faculty overall and for specific racial/ethnic groups. The study concludes by offering ideas for expanded research on pre-tenure faculty job satisfaction and intent to leave. Additionally, strategies for pre-tenure faculty retention in the aggregate, and targeted approaches by racial/ethnic group, are offered.