Professional identity of faculty members at higher education institutions: a criterion for workplace success

Abstract

This research aimed to develop and validate a psychometrically sound and convenient measure of the professional identity questionnaire (PIQ) and to determine the level of professional identity among faculty members employed by higher education institutions in Jordan. The PIQ was administered to a sample of 551 faculty members employed by three universities in Jordan. The data set was subject to exploratory factor analysis utilising principal axis factoring with oblique rotation to uncover the underlying structure of the PIQ. Four factors emerged with 25 items retained. These factors were self-related identity, skill-related identity, work-related identity and student-related identity. Internal consistency reliability coefficients for these factors ranged between 0.89 and 0.94. The results indicated that faculty members possessed high levels of self-related and skill-related identities, moderate levels of work-related identities and low levels of student-related identities. The study ended with a number of theoretical and practical recommendations for the field of study.