Work life balance and job satisfaction among faculty at Iowa State University

摘要

This study utilized the existing database from the Iowa State University 2009-2010 COACHE Tenure-Track Job Satisfaction Survey Report to explore faculty work life balance and job satisfaction among academic disciplines at Iowa State University. The articulation of work and life, cast as work life balance, has become a key feature of much current government, practitioner and academic debate (Eikhof, Warhurst, u26 Haunschild, 2007). It is believed that balancing a successful career with a personal or family life can be challenging and impact on a personu27s satisfaction in their work and personal lifeu27s roles (Broers, 2005).This research sought to determine if: (a) work life differs by academic discipline group: (b) job satisfaction differs by academic discipline, and (c) there is a relationship between faculty work life and job satisfaction and whether this relationship differs by academic discipline group, and (d) if academic discipline has a unique effect on faculty work and life balance. In addition to exploring academic discipline, job satisfaction, and work life balance, this study used gender, age, salary, race, rank and professional experiences as control variables. The study employed exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), t-test and multiple regressions. Participants for this study included 143 tenure-track faculty members.Results indicated that the work life balance and job satisfaction has no significant among academic disciplines at ISU. However, the results indicated that there is a significant relationship (r = .595) between work life and job satisfaction. When controlling for demographic and professional experience, the result also indicated that age and climate, and culture were significant predicators for work life balance. The results also showed that female faculty have lower job satisfaction. Age and climate, culture, and collegiality were also found to be predicators for job satisfaction. The results also indicated that the level of job satisfaction was lower for hard pure disciplines as compare to soft pure disciplines.The findings of this study provide valuable insight for educators and policy makers who are interested in factors that contribute to work life and overall job satisfaction among academic disciplines at a large research institution in Midwest. Limitations, conclusions, and recommendations are discussed