Factors Leading to the High Turnover Rate in Patriot University - Essay Example

? Factors Leading to the High Turnover Rate in Patriot Literature review In the last two decades a substantial research has been focussingon determining the types of teachers who are prone to leave teaching and the reason for such a step. According to a study conducted in the University of Virginia, it has been revealed that faculty turnover tends to afflicts all disciplines. The market for the Ph.D.s outside the field of academic has grown with dispersion of knowledge based performance within the economy. The non academic positions are highly attractive, the reason being that the professors are paid about 25% to 30% less as compared to educated professionals. While a minimum amount of mobility of faculty is healthy, high rates of turnover exist and entrances are not favourable. The departure of any faculty member disrupts the teaching and research program and leaves the students without any familiar advice. High turnover usually leads to soaring administrative cost requirement for recruitment, selection of faculty, training and development of the new faculties. In addition, the remaining faculty shoulder the increased workloads without any increase in pay. The turnover rates can affect the prospective employees of the universities and leave a negative impact. High turnover is often associated with poor productivity, lesser job satisfaction and also stress among the members. The disruption and cost of faculty turnover has also lead to other undesirable outcomes which tend to be less noticeable than dispirited and overworked remaining faculty. In a survey conducted by Virginia University, it was analysed that the computer science department had the highest rate of turnover and the female’s undergraduates represented the highest rate of turnover. The unwanted outcome which gets associated with turnover often get exacerbated when faculty for replacement are hard to find (Cohoon, Shwalb & Chen, 2003, p. 1). According to a study conducted in Texas it was analysed that the faculty turnover rate averaged to about 6% for public universities and is said to have remained unchanged from the fiscal year 1999. The faculty turnover is lower at better and larger established universities. It was found that universities with 500 tenured had overall turnover rate of about 5% and it was 7% for other institutions (Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, 2001). Faculty turnover has different meanings at different ranks. For example, at the level of assistant professors, turnover reflects voluntary movements with respect to other institutions and involuntary mobility and at this stage it reflects voluntary mobility. At the professor level, it reflects voluntary mobility and also retirement decisions. Studies have suggested that, in addition to other factors, the faculty member’s salary is one of the major influences leading to faculty turnover but no study has yet addressed the extent to which the salaries or compensation tends to affect the faculty turnover rate (Ehrenberg, Kasper & Rees, 1990, p. 3). As per research, it was found that the reason for faculty members to stay or leave depends on the age of the professors. The relation between the age of the faculty and rate of turnover tends to follow a U-shaped curve as researchers have found that younger members have a high rate of departure, which declines during mid-career and rises again during retirement period (Ingersoll, 2001). As per the findings from other universities, most of the universities have researched and found the reason behind the high rate of turnover mainly through primary research based on questionnaires. The respondents will be the senior professors, associate professors and also the assistant professors. The same technique was used by Texas Higher Education to arrive at the conclusion as to why the turnover rate was high (Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, 2001). Similarly, the Patriot University in Boston would follow the same technique to determine the problem statement of high turnover rate at the University. Research methodology The research is driven by one main objective and that is to determine the high turnover rate at the Patriot University in Boston. The main mode of research will be primary, based on quantitative data from the questionnaire. All the departments will be taken into consideration and a questionnaire will be distributed in order to determine the reason for high turnover in the university. Based on the research conducted by various other universities, quantitative analysis is much more suitable and helps in gathering accurate information from the respondents. It will be followed by interviews and focus groups at the various departments, mainly those where the turnover is maximum, the quantitative data will be collected from the faculty and the chairperson through mail, web and surveys. The chairpersons of various departments will be surveyed with regard to issues such as faculty turnover. This will help in determining the annual turnover of faculty, both full-time and part-time, and also the reason other than retirement for the turnover in each case for the past five years, along with the gender analysis. Thus, the data will provide an analysis of annual turnover rate and also determine whether female faculties tend to have a high rate of turnover. A stratified random sampling technique will be used and a sample size of about 25 faculties for each department will be selected through the stratified random sampling. The question will aim to address issues such as the thoughts of faculty members on leaving the department and the reason behind the decisions. The investigation will not just focus on a particular subset of turnover and mobility but will examine the overall turnover in the existing department of Patriot University. In addition, it will also aim to find out both voluntary and involuntary rates of turnover of faculties in the university. Usefulness of the Data The next step in the research is to indicate how the data derived from quantitative analysis from the university departments, faculties and chairperson is used to analyse the reason for turnover in Patriot University in Boston. The data obtained through questionnaire will enable people to gather accurate information as to why the faculty intends to leave the university and the reason behind it. The exact turnover ratio will be determined as the chairperson will be interviewed with set of questions. Making the faculty the primary sample of the research will make the result much more accurate and believable as the information revealed will be true and the main factors behind the turnover of faculties will be revealed with the questionnaire distributed to the different faculties and different departments. The survey will also be conducted through interviews of the faculty members and of the chairperson, apart from gathering information through questionnaire. The interview process will enable the research team to gather data of turnover ratio in the past five years in Patriot University and through it the rate of turnover will be determined. Once the turnover ratio is determined, it will be easy for the team to determine ways to retain the faculties. Thus, this form of questionnaire and survey will help Patriot University to determine the major reason as to why the rate of faculty turnover is higher and also to determine ways to reduce the turnover ratio and retain the faculties, by paying them well, by motivation and by other factors which help in retaining faculties. Reference Cohoon, J. M. Shwalb, R. & Chen, L. Y. (2003). Faculty Turnover in CS Departments. Retrieved from http://people.virginia.edu/~jlc6j/Publications/FacTurnover/p%20182-cohoon.pdf Ehrenberg, R. Kasper, H. & Rees, D. (1990). Faculty Turnover at American Colleges and Universities: Analysis of AAUP Data. Retrieved from http://www.nber.org/papers/w3239.pdf Ingersoll, R. (2001). Teacher Turnover and Teacher Shortages: An Organizational Analysis. Retrieved from http://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1093&context=gse_pubs Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. (2001). Faculty Turnover and Retention. Retrieved from http://www.thecb.state.tx.us/reports/pdf/0400.pdf Read More