Type of Submission
Poster
Keywords
College, moonlighting, motivation, professor, second job, university
Abstract
Historically, research indicated that educators were financially motivated to hold multiple jobs (Bell & Roach, 1990). However, recent research indicates that both older and more educated workers in all fields had increasingly nonpecuniary motivations. In fact, 68% of those with a doctoral degree and 46.9% of those 55 or more years old were not primarily motivated by money (Hipple, 2010). Those interested in secondary education have long wondered about the motivations and subsequent consequences of university faculty maintaining secondary positions (moonlighting). We hoped to understand the motivations and implications of this sometimes controversial practice. For this present qualitative study, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 16 full-time, tenure track professors from multiple departments of a private Mid-western university. Each professor interviewed stated that they held a paid, second position that was not affiliated with their university position. Using open coding of the transcripted interviews, four themes emerged: (1) In terms of monetary incentive, most faculty appreciated the added income but stated that the additional money was not their primary motivation. (2) Interestingly, however, the majority stated that the added income probably strongly motivates others to maintain second jobs. (3) Professors believed their second job had a positive impact on their teaching and their department. (4) Personal enjoyment strongly influenced these professors’ decisions to maintain the second job. These four themes reveal some perceived benefits of the practice of professors holding second jobs.
Faculty Sponsor or Advisor’s Name
Ruth L. Markham
Campus Venue
Stevens Student Center
Location
Cedarville, OH
Start Date
4-16-2014 11:00 AM
End Date
4-16-2014 2:00 PM
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Motivations and Implications of Secondary Jobs Among University Faculty: A Qualitative Study
Cedarville, OH
Historically, research indicated that educators were financially motivated to hold multiple jobs (Bell & Roach, 1990). However, recent research indicates that both older and more educated workers in all fields had increasingly nonpecuniary motivations. In fact, 68% of those with a doctoral degree and 46.9% of those 55 or more years old were not primarily motivated by money (Hipple, 2010). Those interested in secondary education have long wondered about the motivations and subsequent consequences of university faculty maintaining secondary positions (moonlighting). We hoped to understand the motivations and implications of this sometimes controversial practice. For this present qualitative study, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 16 full-time, tenure track professors from multiple departments of a private Mid-western university. Each professor interviewed stated that they held a paid, second position that was not affiliated with their university position. Using open coding of the transcripted interviews, four themes emerged: (1) In terms of monetary incentive, most faculty appreciated the added income but stated that the additional money was not their primary motivation. (2) Interestingly, however, the majority stated that the added income probably strongly motivates others to maintain second jobs. (3) Professors believed their second job had a positive impact on their teaching and their department. (4) Personal enjoyment strongly influenced these professors’ decisions to maintain the second job. These four themes reveal some perceived benefits of the practice of professors holding second jobs.
