Aligning Incentives with Institutional Values: Reforming faculty evaluation to promote (and reward) scholarship for the public good
Dougherty, Michael
Dougherty, Michael
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Abstract
Why do faculty evaluation and incentive systems focus so heavily on the so-called three-legged stool of Research, Teaching, and Service? Are there alternative ways that we can think about faculty evaluation that might better align both with what faculty deem important and with the mission and values of the modern public university? In this workshop, we will rethink faculty evaluation through a values-based lens that empowers faculty to engage in meaningful and impactful work that truly fulfills the University’s core mission of advancing solutions that improve the lives of Kansans and the lives of the broader global community. Instead of thinking about ‘research’, ‘teaching’, and ‘service’, as “buckets” to be filled, we will instead explore ways in which values such as ‘accessibility’, ‘integrity’, ‘transparency’, ‘rigor,’ and ‘public impact’ are rewarded. This workshop will involve hands-on activities in which you work collaboratively with colleagues to identify key faculty behaviors that support these values and how these values can be used to rethink processes involved in hiring, promotion, tenure, and annual reviews in your own departments.
Description
Michael Dougherty is Professor of Psychology and Chair of the Department of Psychology at the University of Maryland, College Park. His research (haha!), when he has a chance to actually do it, focuses on the nexus of decision making, attention, and memory. His non-research time is spent managing the 3rd largest major on campus with a shoestring budget, making lemonade from lemons, convincing faculty that their committee time was well spent, and making ice cream. A good day is when his 'research' self meets his 'non-research' self to make data-informed decisions, develop sensible policies, and generally improve (hopefully) how things are run. His research and administrative efforts have been driven by a commitment to the view that basic research ought to be guided by real-world problems. He received the 2023 NINDS Rigor Champion Prize in recognition of his efforts to reform the academic incentive system to focus on behaviors that more directly promote rigor and transparency. He has also received numerous research awards, including the Hillel Einhorn Early Investigator Award from the Society for Judgment and Decision Making, and the early investigator CAREER award from the National Science Foundation. He received his PhD in 1999 from the University of Oklahoma and his BS from Kansas State University in 1993.
Date
2025-10-21
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Keywords
Tenure, Promotion, Incentives