What factors of satisfaction and motivation are affecting the development of the academic career in Portuguese higher education institutions?

Maria De Lourdes Machado-Taylor,José Brites Ferreira,Odília Maria Rocha Gouveia,Virgílio Meira Soares

doi:10.1590/s0034-76122011000100003

Abstract

An important constituent group and a key resource of higher education institutions (HEIs) is the faculty or academic staff. The centrality of the faculty role makes it a primary sculptor of institutional culture and has implications for the quality of the institution and therefore has a major role in achieving the objectives of the institution. Demand for academic staff in higher education has been increasing and may be expected to continue to increase. Moreover the performance of academic staff as teachers and researchers determines much of the student satisfaction and has an impact on student learning. There are many factors that serve to undermine the commitment of academics to their institutions and careers. Job satisfaction is important in revitalizing staff motivation and in keeping their enthusiasm alive. Well motivated academic staff can, with appropriate support, build a national and international reputation for themselves and the institution in the professional areas, in research and in publishing. This paper aims to identify the issues and their impacts on academic staff job satisfaction and motivation within Portuguese higher education institutions reporting an ongoing study financed by the European Union through the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology.

Highlights

Today’s higher education institution (HEI) is an extremely complex social organization
One must examine a multitude of factors and their numerous interactions in order to even approach an understanding of its functions
The performance of academic staff as teachers and researchers determines much of the student satisfaction and has an impact on student learning and the contribution of the higher education institutions (HEIs) to society

Summary

Introduction

Today’s higher education institution (HEI) is an extremely complex social organization. 2011 academic career in Portuguese higher education institutions?. We will pay attention to a particular group — the academic staff — as a key resource within higher education institutions and his major role in achieving the objectives of the institution. For Altbach (2003), with the era of mass higher education the conditions of academic work have deteriorated everywhere. The performance of academic staff as teachers and researchers determines much of the student satisfaction and has an impact on student learning and the contribution of the higher education institutions (HEIs) to society. Satisfaction and motivation of the academic staff assumes importance. Most typical is the mistaken belief that pay incentives alone will create effective levels of motivation and overall job satisfaction. There is ample and somewhat obvious evidence that job satisfaction is related to employee motivation

Theorethical background: the state of the art

Instruments and sampling

Findings

Final thoughts