Abstract:
The context of higher education business faculty is changing as a result of the chronic degradation in the production of traditional faculty with doctorates in business-related disciplines (Mauldin, McManis, & Breaux, 2011). As a result of the decline in traditional (first) career path business faculty, non-traditional (second) career path business faculty are transitioning into the academy with a breadth and depth of professional business experience that is now being sought by business schools (Garrison, 2005). The purpose of this study was to identify and compare the factors related to job satisfaction for full-time first and second career business faculty teaching in accredited business programs at public, master’s level colleges and universities located in the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) accreditation region. Herzberg’s Motivator-Hygiene Theory was used as the theoretical framework for this study. Utilizing the constructs of personal characteristics, job characteristics, job satisfaction, and perceived work environment, an online survey collected data from full-time first and second career college and university business faculty. The researcher investigated the importance of and differences in perceptions of Herzberg’s motivator-hygiene factors for first and second career business faculty. Additionally, the researcher investigated the relationship between job satisfaction and the motivator-hygiene factors for each category of faculty. Finally, the researcher investigated differences in job satisfaction based on business school accreditation agency and predictors of job satisfaction for first and second career business faculty. Study results indicated higher overall mean scores and identical individual rankings of the motivator factors and lower overall mean scores and nearly identical rankings of the hygiene factors. No statistically significant differences in motivator and hygiene factor mean scores were observed between first and second career faculty. Study results revealed medium to moderately strong positive correlations between job satisfaction and the motivator and hygiene factors for first and second career faculty. No significant difference in job satisfaction was observed for first and second career faculty. Multiple regression analysis produced a predictive model of four motivator and hygiene factors for first career faculty and a second career model including personal and job characteristics and motivator and hygiene factors.
