Making the Ideal Work

Rethinking Faculty Work: Higher Education's Strategic Imperative
Judith M. Gappa, Ann E. Austin, and Andrea G. Trice. San Francisco: Jossey Bass, 2007.

Reviewed by William S. Simmons

The starting premise of Rethinking Faculty Work is that the forces affecting higher education today “far surpass” those of even the recent past. Those who lead institutions of higher education do so with increasing difficulty in a time of fiscal constraints, increased competition between traditional institutions and new for-profit alternatives, intensifying calls for accountability, shifting loci of control, growing enrollment pressures, increasing student diversity, and pervasive technological change. The capacity to manage these forces tops the list of abilities sought at most levels of academic leadership.

The authors argue that changes in American academia resulting from this combination of forces are substantial. They observe that faculty experience these changes primarily in terms of new patterns of faculty appointments, decline in professional autonomy and control, accelerating pace of work, and expanding workloads; faculty are also affected by a surge in entrepreneurial practices, diminished community and institutional commitments, and the need for continuous professional development. Such changes in experience, however, are happening more quickly than changes in the conception of the “ideal worker.” For much of the past century, the ideal worker was envisioned as part of a homogeneous male workforce for which longer work weeks and unquestioned dedication to work were accompanied by expectations of continuous employment. This one-size-fits-all model constricts today’s workforce, with its varied religious calendars, gender and ethnic diversity, single-parent families, dual-career households, and childcare needs.

According to the authors, the ethos of the ideal worker still reigns in the ranks of the tenured faculty. Those who are tenured and on the tenure track can reasonably expect secure employment and academic freedom protections as well as sabbatical leaves, research support, professional and public prestige, and health care. What is changing rapidly is the increased importance of temporary, contract-based, and fixed-term faculty appointments. Life on these nontenure tracks involves low status, less employment security, less academic support and remuneration, a lack of professional recognition, little or no voice in institutional governance, attenuated collegiality, and less secure academic freedom protections. The ideal worker model is proving to be a tight fit even for faculty on the tenure track because of increased diversity of all kinds, growing demands on faculty members’ time, and changes in what faculty must do to fashion fruitful careers.

Concerned about abundant evidence of stress and dissatisfaction in faculty careers and a resulting decline in the attractiveness of the academic calling, the authors declare that “the challenge today is to provide an environment where, regardless of appointment type or individual demographics, all faculty members have the opportunity to maximize their intellectual talents . . . , to have their work respected, and to be members of the academic community.” Why is this critical? Because the faculty’s collective intellectual capital is a campus’s most important and “only appreciable asset.” Faculty intellectual capital is truncated most clearly for contingent faculty but also for the increasing population of tenure-track faculty who do not fit the ideal worker norm.

The authors envision comprehensive changes to remake the academic workplace into one that nourishes the many kinds of academic talent and categories of faculty. Only a collaborative strategy will change the existing culture, which is based on hierarchy and status, into one that cultivates respect for what each category of faculty member brings to the collective effort. Issues of respect are of particular concern to non-tenure-track faculty, and the authors cite the AAUP’s 2003 policy statement Contingent Appointments and the Academic Profession as a useful guide in this area. To transform the workplace culture to one based on respect will require commitment from department chairs, deans, provosts, and presidents working through shared governance.

The authors propose a five-part framework to inform changes in policies and practices. They developed this framework with guidance from four advisory groups, two of which were composed of scholars actively engaged in research on higher education, and two of which were composed mainly of administrators “from various types of colleges and universities, as well as leaders from a number of national associations.” According to this framework, all faculty members, whether tenured or contingent, are entitled to (1) equity in academic appointments, (2) academic freedom, (3) flexibility in academic appointments, (4) opportunities for professional growth, and (5) a collegial working environment.

Each of these elements is the subject of a separate, well-documented chapter with recommendations and strategies for action. The authors argue that each of the three categories of academic employment (tenure track, contract renewable, and fixed term) “is governed by its own set of institutionally based employment policies”; whatever category they belong to, faculty should be treated respectfully, be afforded flexibility, and be given access to the tools they need to do their jobs well. The authors also argue that to bring contingent faculty into the collegial community, academic freedom policies and procedures for hearing complaints must be expanded to include them.

The authors conclude that “colleges and universities must strategically pursue a course of recognizing and understanding the significance of the changes taking place instead of simply letting the environment control them or operating as if the environment were not changing.” The costs of not pursuing this course, they argue, far outweigh the costs of implementing the workplace transformation they propose.

This book is surprising for its ambition. Many have written about the problems of higher education, and some have presented sound ideas about where change is most needed. Among these, Gappa, Austin, and Trice propose the most comprehensive and original rethinking of the academic community in ways intended to enhance collegiality and to expand the faculty’s collective intellectual capacities. How better to serve society? Those who are interested in the academic commons and its relevance to the academic mission should read this important and carefully constructed book.

 Printer-Friendly Page