The Impact of Human Capital and Selected Job Rewards on Community College Faculty Job Satisfaction

Abstract

Community colleges accommodate nearly half of all United States college students. Increased reliance upon community colleges is driven by the current economic downturn, rising costs of higher education, and changing expectations for today's workforce requiring advanced skill sets. Community colleges offer more affordable options for broader spectrums of students including traditional and nontraditional college students and dual-enrolled high school students. Community college faculty facilitate student learning and program completion. A shortage of community college faculty will likely emerge as numerous faculty retire. Community college administrators need strategies for retaining and recruiting faculty amid increasing retirements. One effective strategy is to offer a work environment that cultivates positive work-related attitudes (e.g., job satisfaction). This study examines the ability of select human capital investments, intrinsic rewards, extrinsic rewards, and sociodemographics to predict overall job satisfaction for full-time community college faculty. A cross-sectional predictive design was used with secondary analysis of the 2004 National Study of Postsecondary Faculty (NSOPF:04) dataset. Logistic Regression was utilized to determine predictive ability of the independent variables on overall job satisfaction. Results indicated that faculty were more likely to be satisfied with their work if they were satisfied with their salary, benefits and workload; were satisfied with the teaching support they received from their institutions; and if they perceived that females and minorities were treated fairly by the organization. Conversely, minority faculty were less likely to be satisfied, as were faculty who indicated they would again choose a career in academe if given the choice.