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Notwithstanding the rise of contingent faculty, tenured and tenured track faculty continue to play vital roles in US higher education and the tenure decision is central to the lives of many academics. While the literature is replete with anecdotes about faculty complaining about the process to which they were subject, there has been surprisingly little empirical research on faculty perceptions of the clarity and fairness of the tenure process and the relationship of these perceptions to work outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to examine the motivational impact of these processes on faculty who are pre-tenure as well as those who had successfully navigated the tenure process.

Self-reported survey data were collected from 410 full-time pre-tenured and tenured faculty at three universities in the Northeastern USA. Participants were assessed on their uncertainty and their perceptions of justice in the tenure process as well as their affective and continuance organizational commitment and work engagement. Data were subject to exploratory factor analysis, correlation, and hierarchical regression.

The results indicated that there was a lack of clarity with respect to both the criteria for tenure and the procedures by which institutions made tenure decisions. The results indicated no gender differences in the perception of clarity, but the results suggest women perceived the tenure process as being less just than men do. Perceived justice was positively related to both affective organizational commitment and work engagement with affective commitment fully mediating the relationship with there being no relationship between continuance commitment and perceived justice. These relations held for both tenured and later career faculty and pre-tenured and earlier career faculty.

The study extends understanding of the dimensionality of justice perceptions in higher education setting. The design was cross-sectional and data common was self-report.

The results provide empirical support to anecdotes of faculty feeling that tenure processes often lack clarity and appear to be capricious and unfair. It provides evidence that the negative impact of a process being viewed as unfair may affect the dedication and effort that the faculty who are granted tenure and remain at their institutions for decades afterward. At a time, when higher education is resource challenged, it behooves both faculty and administrators to critically review their tenure processes against best practices.

This study adds to the limited empirical literature on the tenure process and does so from a motivational perspective.

Self-employment is often viewed as a more desirable work arrangement than working as an employee for a firm. Women are pushed into self-employment due to organizational factors, such as a shrinking workforce or limited job opportunities, while being attracted to self-employment by the many psychological and social benefits (e.g., independence, flexibility, work-life balance, job satisfaction). Despite more women moving into self-employment, this type of employment still has different financial consequences for men and women. This article investigates whether a pay gap exists for self-employed women after controlling for industry, occupation, and hours worked and seeks to quantify the gender wage gap for the self-employed. A sample of 467 self-employed independent contractors in the United States was examined from the 2008 National Study of the Changing Workforce. The results indicate a large financial disparity between self-employed women and men. On average men earned $54,959 as compared to women who earned on average $28,554. Regardless of the parity in education, work experience, number of hours worked, or occupations, women earn less than men in self-employment. Findings suggest the existence of the glass cage‐a phenomenon whereby self-employed women earn significantly less than self-employed men with limited abilities to narrow the economic inequality.

In this chapter, we review empirical research evidence regarding coping and work–family conflict. Limitations and gaps associated with the existing literature are discussed. Of special note is the finding that there is little systematic research that examines the process of coping with work–family conflict. Building on the general stress and coping literature, we present a theoretical model that is specifically focused on the process of coping with work–family conflict, and highlight presumed personal and situational antecedents. Finally, the chapter concludes with an agenda for future research.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the relative influence of personality (locus of control) and situational control (job autonomy) on the experience of work‐to‐family conflict (WFC), family‐to‐work conflict (FWC), and positive work‐family spillover (PS).

Using data from the 2002 National Study of the Changing Workforce (n=3,504) and from O*Net, an independent database of occupational characteristic ratings, regression analysis was used to test direct effects, relative weights analysis was used to determine the relative influence of locus of control and job autonomy on work‐family outcomes, and mediation analysis was used to examine the mediating influence of perceived job autonomy.

Dispositional control (i.e. internal locus of control) was more strongly associated with the outcome variables than was situational control (i.e. objective job autonomy). As expected, internal locus of control was negatively related to WFC and FWC, and positively related to PS. Job autonomy, however, was unexpectedly related to higher levels of FWC and was unrelated to WFC and PS. Relative weights analysis revealed that situational vs dispositional control were differentially related to the outcome variables. Perceived job autonomy mediated the relationship between locus of control and WFC and PS.

The correlational design prevents conclusions about causality.

Knowing that both personality and job autonomy are important in understanding work‐family outcomes enables managers to intervene appropriately.

This study increases our understanding of the role of personality in relation to work‐family outcomes. In addition, it used a novel technique to partial the effects of situational and dispositional control, and used an objective measure of job autonomy.

Occupational stress and the role of the family and other non-work activities continue to be an important area of research for organizational scientists. In our sixth volume of Research in Occupational Stress and Well Being, we offer seven intriguing chapters that examine several key issues in work and non-work stress research. The theme for this volume is exploring the work and non-work interface.

Tammy D. Allen, Ph.D., is a professor of psychology at the University of South Florida. She received her Ph.D. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from the University of Tennessee. Her research interests include work and family issues, occupational health psychology, mentoring relationships, career development, and organizational citizenship behavior. Her research has been published in journals such as Journal of Applied Psychology, Personnel Psychology, Journal of Management, and Journal of Vocational Behavior. She is currently associate editor for Journal of Occupational Health Psychology and serves on the editorial boards of Journal of Applied Psychology, Personnel Psychology, Human Performance, and Journal of Vocational Behavior.

“Jessica’s dilemma: honesty or loyalty” is the true story of a Staff Accountant, Jessica, who discovered embezzlement by the controller, Michael. Jessica worked at a US subsidiary of a multinational organization. One of the company’s vendors contacted Jessica regarding unpaid invoices. Following up on the inquiry, Jessica found suspicious manual journal entries in the general ledger. When she questioned her boss, Michael, about her findings, he first denied the situation, then blamed another employee, and ultimately tried to intimidate Jessica so that she would not press the issue. Jessica’s investigation led to the discovery that Michael had been embezzling money from the company. To complicate matters, Jessica and her husband had a close relationship with Michael and his wife outside the office. Jessica had to make a choice between being loyal to a family friend and being honest and loyal toward her employer.

The authors obtained the information for this case from the staff accountant and her husband via a series of interviews. The information was verified via publicly available news articles on the presented case. Additionally, legal documents, which were publicly available, were also used for information. The name of the company and the names of the individuals in the case were changed to protect the identities and privacy of the involved parties.

An instructor can use this case in business ethics, introductory management, human resource law or accounting courses targeting undergraduate or introductory MBA students. This case is best used in the beginning of the suggested courses, as the instructor introduces ethical dilemmas, ethical frameworks, and stakeholder theory. The case is designed so that students do not need a background in business or business ethics to be able to successfully complete the case analysis. Additionally, the case provides a platform to discuss the differences in an ethical vs an unethical manager and how to respond to such a situation.

Many employees are afraid to report ethical wrongdoing to upper management, or to engage in ethical dissent. When upper management is receptive to reports of wrongdoing, ethical dissent within the organization to upper-level management has more organizational benefits than when the issue is shared with coworkers or external agencies. This is because upper management has the power to make a difference in the situation and may be able to keep the situation within the organization to eliminate possible reputation problems for the organization. The presented case can be utilized to discuss the importance of feeling safe in an organization as it pertains to reporting wrongdoing within the organization and how organizational culture and leadership can enhance or diminish that feeling.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the effect of high-performance human resource practices on job satisfaction across four cultural regions – Asia, Europe, North America, and Latin America. High-performance human resource practices were used to predict job satisfaction for each region and then compared to determine significant differences. Hofstede's cultural dimensions were employed as a basis for structuring hypothesized differences across cultural regions.

Data were collected from a proprietary industry survey on employee work attitudes. The sample consisted of over 70,000 employees from four large multinational organizations with at least four offices in each of the four regions. Data were analyzed using regression analysis and comparison testing across models.

There are significant relationships between job characteristics and job satisfaction across all regions of the world, with a sense of achievement universally the most important driver. Although job characteristics impact job satisfaction across all regions, there are significant differences in the relative importance of job characteristics on job satisfaction, consistent with Hofstede's cultural dimensions.

The findings have implications for tailoring human resource management practices across locations within multinationals.

This research is believed to be the first cross-cultural study of human resource practices affecting job satisfaction using multiple organizations and industries.