Deborah DeZure , Ph. D. Assistant Provost for Faculty and Organizational Development Michigan State University

1. Charting Your Path WorkshopNorth Carolina State University, Raleigh, NCMay 12, 2014Understanding the Terrain of the Mid-Career Faculty Experience: Implications for Faculty and Administrators Deborah DeZure, Ph. D. Assistant Provost for Faculty and Organizational Development Michigan State University

2. Learning Objectives • At the close of this session, participants will be able to identify: • A framework for supporting faculty success • Needs, interests and challenges of mid-career faculty • Productive strategies to support them • The need to cultivate the next generation of academic leaders • Promising practices to build a pipeline into leadership • Implications for participants and their institutions

3. What Motivates Faculty at Work?Blackburn, R. & Lawrence, J. (1995) Faculty at Work: Motivation, Expectation, Satisfaction. Baltimore, MD, Johns Hopkins University Press. Intrinsic Interest: (Intrinsic Motivator) • Long-standing or emerging personal beliefs/values/interests • Ideological origins Social Knowledge: (Extrinsic Motivator) • Perception of what is valued and rewarded in the organization • Institution, college/school/department expectations and rewards • Disciplinary values, expectations and rewards • Perception may/may not be accurate but is still powerful Self-Efficacy: (Belief in Competence) • Personal belief that you know how to do what is expected. • “I know how to do it and I can do it well.”

4. Bottom Line • Make the most of existing intrinsic interests. • Address needs for BOTH • Social Knowledge (accurate understanding of expectations and rewards) AND • Self-Efficacy (training to fulfill all roles)

5. Faculty Career Stages • Academic careers progress through stages • Each offers new experiences and challenges • Each requires professional development/support. • Challenges and development needs may vary by: • Academic discipline and sub-field • Type of institution • Life situation: Family, health, finances • Individuals vary within each stage • Best TO ASK, not assume, what faculty want and/or need

6. Mid-career faculty are a large and important component of the academic workforce. Mid-life and mid-career are transition periods with distinctive challenges leading to reflection and reassessment. Academic life has a very short career ladder. Extrinsic motivators (tenure, promotion) decrease at mid-career. Mid-career faculty often reach a plateau when opportunities for growth and advancement decline. Continuous learning helps prevent professional obsolescence. The National Picture: Mid-Career Faculty – Associate Professors (Post Tenure) Growth? Maintenance? Advancement Stagnation?

7. National Context Limited research on mid-career faculty Institutional Context Large, public research university (MSU) F&OD Mission: “To support faculty across the career stages and across the tripartite mission of teaching, research, and outreach F&OD Advisory Board said to “map the terrain of the mid-career experience.” MSU Research Team: Baldwin, DeZure, Shaw & Amoretto 2007 POD Menges Award for Outstanding Research in Faculty Development Need for A Study of Mid-Career Faculty

8. To identify the expectations, experiences, challenges and support for mid-career faculty perceived by mid-career faculty and chairs at MSU. To identify promising practices, recommendations and implications for practice Interviewed 20 Chairs, 20 Mid-Career Faculty (1-5 and 6-20 years post-tenure) about their needs, experiences, and challenges. Study Goals & Participants

9. Expectations of mid-career faculty High or enhanced performance (especially in research and grants) New roles, new duties (especially service; also leadership, administration) Newly tenured faculty surprised by the increase in work High Performers Network, collaborate, build teams Exhibit adaptability, flexibility Obtain external grants Findings: Themes

10. Findings: Themes (cont.) • Experiences Post Tenure • Tenure was liberating (1-5 years post tenure) • Energy level varied post tenure • Chairs “tolerated” up to two years disengagement (1-5) • Confusion/Now what do I do? (1-5, 6-20) • Time to reassess directions (1-5), priorities (6-20) • Evolving/renegotiating roles (1-5, 6-20, chairs) • Move from short-range to longer-range projects (1-5) • Unclear expectations for promotion to full professor (1-5) (6-20)

11. Participant Voices: Achieving tenure was “liberating.” • “I just relaxed. I wasn’t going to be fired. I just stopped being so nervous.” • “The ax is removed from your back.” • “They need ways to recover from the hazing ritual. It was bad.”

12. “What do I do now?” • “Some hit this wall and it’s like ‘what am I going to do now?’” • “You reach a certain plateau and you’ve been aiming there for a long time and you get there and you look around and say, ‘What’s next?’” • “How do you know what your options are? I don’t.”

13. Themes • Challenges for Faculty • Defining goals, not pre-established (both MC/chairs) • What should I do now? What’s next? (1-5) • Unclear expectations (both 1-5, 6-20) • Unclear criteria (for promotion to Full)(1-5) • More and different demands on time (both) • Dramatic increase in service/leadership roles without leadership training (1-5) • Mid-career faculty often neglected/ignored (both) • Joint appointments can be very difficult (1-5)

14. “Neglected” and “Ignored” • “I think mid-career faculty are feeling unloved and unwanted, and I think they are hitting tough walls… to get funding.” • “Mid-career faculty are off the radar screen. The theory is the ball will bounce by itself and have momentum.” • “To sum it all up, you’re pretty much left to your own devices.”

15. Themes (cont.) • Challenges for Faculty (6-20) • Changes in field, Staying on top (6-20) • Maintaining their motivation (6-20) • Need to broaden criteria for promotion to full professor to accommodate those who take alternative paths into administration, outreach, national organizational leadership, teaching (6-20, chairs)

16. “Burnout” • “The biggest challenge is staying interested, staying alive, staying engaged. It’s difficult to do after 20 years.” • “How am I going to do another 20 years of this?” • “Most of the mid career faculty I know have lost grants … and find it difficult to continue.” • “You’re chained to your equipment.”

17. Themes-Challenges • Challenges for Chairs • Time: Goes to early career faculty • Budget: Few discretionary dollars • Understanding needs of mid-career faculty • Lack of training in personnel and HR issues • Lack of clarity and info about what support and options are available for career development • Lack of flexibility in promotion system • Motivating later mid-career faculty (6-20)

18. Themes • Special Challenges Related to Gender, Race, Ethnicity, Sexual Orientation, Age • Women and faculty of color continue to have challenges in mid-career • Higher service demands • Less access to information • Women have challenges with child-bearing (1-5) and aging parents (6-20) • Men and women have challenges with child-rearing • Cultural conflict for some international faculty to lead committees with elders from their culture (sciences)

19. “Higher Stresses” “There’s a burnout factor for highly talented women with kids… They’ve gone through so much to get tenure, they’re just burned, just depleted.” “Anyone who is not mainstream has higher stresses.” “They (faculty from under-represented groups) are the hardest to protect.” (from service demands)

20. Themes (Support) • Chair role: • Can be instrumental in providing support, guidance, funding, motivation & jumpstarting careers at all stages • Annual reviews are helpful when well implemented (Standardized Forms/Protocols) • Chairs and Mid-career faculty unclear about options and institutional support for mid-career faculty • Sabbaticals could provide renewal/retooling but not working for many (expense, mobility of family, quality control) • Need to individualize/diversify support, options, rewards (6-20)

21. Themes (Support Continued) • Training and development: Unmet needs • Leadership training for mid-career faculty • Orientation/workshops for newly tenured faculty on what to expect, what is expected, how to succeed, options • Mid-career faculty may also need and want mentors • Mid-career faculty want training in how to mentor effectively • Chair training in personnel issues

22. Findings: Themes • Disciplinary differences • STEM: difficult to change areas due to funding and lab and equipment investments • Disciplines rooted in performance and collaborative work (labs, music ensemble) keep faculty engaged • Programs within departments can differ with regard to mid-career faculty experiences

23. Contested Topic In the context of a research university, expectations for promotion to full professor and merit increases should be broadened and differentiated.

24. “Diversify Expectations” • “When you get to be 62, I don’t think the expectations should be what they were when you were 30.” • “…taking seriously the notion that people’s interests in research and publishing might change over a life span and …not penalizing someone who says ‘I don’t want to do research anymore. I’ve done enough of it. I’d rather focus on teaching, and outreach’… I don’t see why people shouldn’t have broader options.” • “We still say that everybody does the same thing (teaching, research and service) and we know that most people aren’t good at everything. At some point it would be better to allow some specialization.” • “We need to re-engineer faculty jobs.”

25. Contested Topic: Audience Poll • Expectations for promotion to full professor should be broadened and differentiated. AGREE NEUTRAL DISAGREE • Expectations for merit increases for senior faculty should be broadened and differentiated. AGREE NEUTRAL DISAGREE

26. New MSU Initiatives Orientation for Mid-Career Faculty • “From Associate Professor to Professor: Productive Decision-making at Mid-Career” • Winner, POD Innovation Award 2009

27. New MSU Initiatives Cont. • Leadership Development for Faculty • Workshops for Faculty on Leadership and Academic Life (4-6 per year) • Designed for faculty who want to learn more about leadership and managerial skills and possible paths into academic administration • For past topics: http://fod.msu.edu/opportunities/detail/past-workshops-faculty-leadership-and-academic-life

28. New MSU Initiatives Cont. • Review of Alignment of Expectations and Processes for Promotion to Associate Professor and to Professor • MSU NSF ADAPP-ADVANCE Grant • Annual Performance Review Toolkit: • http://www.adapp-advance.msu.edu/annual-performance-review-tenure-system-toolkit • RP&T Toolkit: • http://www.adapp-advance.msu.edu/reappointment-promotion-and-tenure-toolkit • Faculty Search Toolkit: • http://www.adapp-advance.msu.edu/project/faculty-search-and-selection • Efforts to Promote Faculty Mentoring • Mentoring Toolkit: • http://www.adapp-advance.msu.edu/Faculty-Mentoring-Toolkit • Establishment of a Mentoring Policy: • http://www.adapp-advance.msu.edu/files_adapp-advance/content/Mentoring%20Policy-Final%203-2-11.pdf

29. NETWORKING: A High Priority and Valued Dimension of Mentoring MENTORING TOOLS FOR MENTEES • Using the Assessing Your Mentoring Networks sheet, identify each dimension of your appointment, responsibilities, and priorities. • For each dimension, identify your existing formal and informal mentors. • For each dimension, identify possible additions to your mentoring network. • With your Mentor, discuss strategies to build your network over time.

30. Recommendations and Promising Practices*: Institutional Efforts, Chairs/Heads, RP&T Committees, and Mid-Career Faculty • When time allows, review the Promising Practices and Recommendations Sheets: (Yellow) • Identify: • Approaches you think your institution currently employs • New approaches you think merit consideration • Recommendations for mid-career faculty • Compare your responses with colleagues from your home institution or unit and identify priorities for future consideration by your institution. *Materials reflect views of interview participants.

31. MSU Initiatives ContinuedStudy of the Pipeline into Leadership and Academic Administration MSU Research Team: Deborah DeZure, Ph.D., Assistant Provost for Faculty and Organizational Development Allyn Shaw, Ph.D., Formerly Director, Leadership Development; Now Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs and Services Julie Rojewski, Program Director, NSF ADVANCE Grant; Ph.D. candidate, Higher, Adult and Lifelong Education (HALE) Program

32. Demographic Trends Projected retirements More non tenure-track faculty Financial cuts in early 1980s Administrative roles more difficult Fewer mid-career faculty who wish to pursue academic administration Proliferation of leadership development programs Universities need to support the leadership pipeline. “I am totally worried about the pipeline.” (chair) Need to Understand and Cultivate the Next Generation of Academic Administrators

33. To identify: The experiences, motivations, and trajectories of: Administrators (chairs) who effectively identify, cultivate and nurture future leaders Faculty who are emergent leaders in formal or informal leadership roles Their beliefs about what makes an effective leader How administrators identify leadership potential Factors that promote or impede pursuit of roles in academic administration Whether and how gender, race, ethnicity, age, and sexual orientation affect the leadership pipeline The case for pursuing academic administration Goals of the Pipeline into Leadership Study

34. Administrators’ Leadership Trajectories • Administrators – all Chairs (16 Prof., 3 Assoc. Prof.) • All had numerous informal and formal leadership roles prior to their appointment • Leadership role(s) in professional associations, associate or interim chair, dept. or college advisory committee, ass’t/assoc. dean, graduate director, search committee chair, curriculum committee, academic governance, program/clerkship director, dean’s office role • These roles were critical stepping stones • Building capacity, credibility, networks, interest in pursuing leadership, self-efficacy. • Faculty roles provide leadership experiences

35. Why Administrators Pursued/Agreed to Take Their Formal Leadership Roles • Many reluctant to take chair role • Service to the department, part of their role, obligation • No one else could or would do it • They were the best or only choice, their turn • Concern about other candidates • They enjoy leadership, felt they could do it well • Wanted to leave their mark • Wanted to nurture talent • After a productive research career, research had dried up

36. Benefits of Formal Leadership Roles: Why do It? • Make a positive difference • Nurture, empower and help people • Help the unit move forward • Problem-solve and address challenges • Work with different types of people • Do things faculty cannot do • Build positive collaborations among faculty and administrators • “It is the ability to do good on a larger scale.”

37. Faculty: Leadership Trajectories • Faculty all served in several informal and formal leadership roles (6 Prof., 10 Assoc. Prof.) • Interim chair, program director, dept./college advisory committee, etc. • “There is no way I would have become chair if I had not been interim chair.” • All moved in and out of leadership roles. • Many were deeply ambivalent about pursuing formal leadership roles. • 25% DO NOT aspire to formal leadership roles (chair, dean), although they will continue to engage in informal and interim leadership roles.

38. Challenges/Barriers (Administrators & Faculty) • Takes you from the things you most love about academia: research, teaching, students • If leave research, you can’t return (STEM) • May keep you from promotion to full professor • Time demands, loss of control of time • Amount of work • “Grinding amount of work.” • “People look at me all the time and say, “Oh, my God, I’m glad I am not doing your job.” (Chair) • Work-life balance is lost; Difficult for families • Harder to lead due to budget cuts/regulations

39. Challenges/Barriers (Administrators & Faculty) Cont. • Difficult personal interactions; Tough decisions • Change in relationship with colleagues • Few thanks • “Faculty don’t thank you for anything. You could drag it out of them –maybe.” • Pathways into leadership not clear • Transitions to leadership not clear • The initial move from faculty into administration is the most difficult “The first step into management is the hardest.”

40. Challenges/ Barriers (Identified by Faculty Only) • Expectations for formal dress, appearance and behavior: Conformity, Hierarchy • “You have to behave yourself” • “Less independent” “You lose autonomy” • “If I don’t walk in with a suit, I’m not perceived as knowing as much.” • “More and more formalized and buttoned up. It’s pretty off-putting” • Disillusionment with leadership (having tried it) • “I now know how the sausage is made. I have a lot less respect for it”

41. Leadership Traits Most Valued (by Administrators & Faculty) • People skills (Most frequently mentioned) • Communication skills (Listening, Speaking, Writing) • Respected scholar in the field, Credibility • Honesty, Integrity • Able to take multiple perspectives, Value others’ viewpoints • Empathy • Able to relate to and value faculty • Able to make decisions, able to make tough decisions • Energetic • Efficient and Effective • Knowledge of budget and financial management (important but not essential in selection of leaders)

42. How Administrators Identify Future Leaders • Often hard to know who will be successful leader • Observe them with colleagues, in meetings • Future leaders care about the welfare of the unit • They offer suggestions, try to problem-solve, ask questions • They spend time thinking about problems • They are motivated to make a difference • They speak up and express their views • Give them a task and see how they do • “When you look at people, you don’t always know the potential until you give them something to do.” • They follow-through, complete tasks, reliable, timely • They value multiple perspectives beyond their own views • They are pleased when others succeed

43. How Administrators Encourage and Incentivize Faculty to Pursue Leadership • Administrators see this as part of their roles • Encouragement but not succession planning • Provide positive role models of effective leadership • Direct encouragement to validate their potential/skills • Encouragement raises self-awareness of their potential, affirms, validates, boosts morale • “I respected their opinions… If they were recommending me, they must believe that I have the skills that are needed. So it was a confidence boost…It’s not just me saying I can do this. It’s other people actually supporting and saying we think you can do this.” • “Pointing out a potential I had that I really didn’t think I had.”

44. How Administrators Encourage and Incentivize Faculty to Pursue Leadership • Open doors, help network, suggest opportunities • “Maybe you should put your name in for this? Maybe take on a leadership role in this? …It would be very simple, not a long discussion.” • Offer and/or pay for leadership training or cover lost clinical billing hours to compensate medical faculty who participate in leadership development. • Offer small leadership roles, e.g. 10%, 20%, 30% • “Putting my toe in the water enabled me to see what I am good at and what I am not good at.” • Create titles and opportunities, select faculty as “point people” • Rotate associate chairs so not only one heir apparent

45. How Administrators Encourage and Incentivize Faculty to Pursue Leadership, Cont. • Ask about faculty member’s interest in leadership or leadership development at Annual Review and RP&T meetings • “I ask them ‘What do you plan to do in five years?’” • “I would evaluate what I know about them and talk about how that might fit into their personal goals, and if it fit their goals, it would be easy to encourage them.” • Talk about leadership in department meetings • Clarify what leadership role entails • Discuss pathways into leadership • Provide administrative mentors • Enable administrators to continue research, e.g., Post-docs, RAs, staff • Step in to reward administrative work: • “Colleagues sometimes don’t value the work of administration. Make sure it is acknowledged. I have overridden recommendations of peer review committees because I appreciate more what they (faculty who take on administrative roles) are doing that take time and effort.”

46. Sources of Discouragement to Pursue Leadership Roles (BothAdministrators & Faculty) • Family members • Concerned about work load and work-life balance • Colleagues • Questions: “Why are you doing this?” “Why would you want to do this?” “What will it mean for you?” • Skepticism about the value of leadership roles: • “There is a fair amount of skepticism on the part of faculty, particularly successful faculty, about the value of academic leadership.”

47. Sources of Discouragement to Pursue Leadership Roles (BothAdministrators & Faculty), Cont. • Advice not to pursue leadership: • “It will keep you from promotion.” • “You need to NOT do this!” • “Are you crazy? Don’t you know that this will suck the life blood out of you?” • “The things that make you able to do research are not administrative things. The NIH doesn’t care about how many memos you are writing.”

48. Impact of Gender, Race, Ethnicity, Age, Sexual Orientation on Pursuit of Academic Leadership • Widespread agreement: • We need more women & people of color in higher ed. leadership. • For most (not all) participants, these are factors in how they think about leaders. • Women and faculty of color are already over-taxed in service. • Cultural taxation

49. Impact of Gender, Race, Ethnicity, Age, Sexual Orientation on Pursuit of Academic Leadership, Cont. • Gender is a major factor for women in leadership roles. • “Tremendous gender hurdles” that many men don’t recognize • “I think there are tremendous gender hurdles. I think we still live in an age when people see strong women as dangerous and unappealing. So that’s a hurdle and it is one that I think male faculty are completely blind to – that they really don’t see.” • Women don’t feel administrators have their backs • “Step in when women are bullied by more senior male faculty” • Only qualified women should be selected • Women feel undercut by other women • Women should ASK for leadership opportunities, not wait • If first woman leader in a unit, “you have to create your own model”

50. Gender, Race, Ethnicity, Age and Sexual Orientation, Cont. • Race continues to be a factor in leadership in higher ed. • Leaders of color face extra challenges and may need support, encouragement & guidance in navigating among many options. • Faculty of color value administrative mentors of color. • Women, faculty of color and other minorities in leadership roles may need support and encouragement to take care of themselves (“self-care”).