Gender Differences in Faculty Experience with Start-up Packages: A Case Study from a Public University in the Southeastern U.S.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7160/eriesj.2024.170203Keywords:
Faculty hiring process, faculty negotiation, gender differences, job resources, start-up packages, university working conditionsAbstract
Start-up packages are a tool for successful transition to an academic career. This institutional case study examined the faculty experience with start-up packages at one public university in the Southeastern United States including gender differences, content, negotiation, and perceived outcomes. A mixed method research design was utilized to answer the study research questions. Data were gathered through an online survey with quantitative and qualitative questions. Data from 121 participants were analyzed using descriptive statistics, chi‐squared test, and thematic analysis. Most start-up package agreements included moving expenses, personal computer and software, and start-up funds. On the other hand, child daycare, guaranteed junior sabbatical, and salary advancement were the most missing benefits in the agreements. Male faculty were able to obtain, significantly more often than female faculty, a specific number of years for secure funding, laboratory space, and student or postdoc funding in their agreements. Faculty were not well prepared for the negotiation process, and they were not aware what exactly they needed to establish a successful research program. Universities should focus more on the influence of start-up packages on faculty careers because perceived unfair treatment during the negotiation process or during administration can influence faculty performance and their turnover intentions.
References
Amanatullah, E. T. and Morris, M. W. (2010) ‘Negotiating gender roles: Gender differences in assertive negotiating are mediated by women’s fear of backlash and attenuated when negotiating on behalf of others’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 98, No. 2, pp. 256–267. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0017094
Andrade, F.H. (2008) ‘Starting a new lab: Developing new techniques and hiring personnel’, The Physiologist, Vol. 51, No. 5, pp. 188–190.
Bakker, A. B. and Demerouti, E. (2017) ‘Job demands-resources theory: Taking stock and looking forward’, Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, Vol. 22, No. 3, pp. 273–285. https://doi.org/10.1037/ocp0000056
Berman, R. A. and Gottlieb, A. S. (2019) ‘Job negotiations in academic medicine: Building a competency-based roadmap for residents and fellows’, Journal of general internal medicine, Vol. 34, No. 1, pp. 146–149. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11606-018-4632-2
Bowles, H. R., Babcock, L. and Lai, L. (2007) ‘Social incentives for gender differences in the propensity to initiate negotiations: Sometimes it does hurt to ask’, Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Vol. 103, No. 1, pp. 84–103. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2006.09.001
Braun, V. and Clarke, V. (2006) ‘Using thematic analysis in psychology’, Qualitative Research in Psychology, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 77–101. http://dx.doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa
Cohen, J. (1988) Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences, 2nd edition, Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Creswell, J.W. and Poth, C.N. (2013) Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Curhan, J. R., Elfenbein, H. A. and Kilduff, G. J. (2009) ‘Getting off on the right foot: Subjective value versus economic value in predicting longitudinal job outcomes from job offer negotiations’, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 94, No. 2, pp. 524–534. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0013746
Daly, C. and Dee, J. (2006) ‘Greener pastures: Faculty turnover intent in urban public universities’, Journal of Higher Education, Vol. 77, No. 5, pp. 776–803. http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/jhe.2006.0040
de la Torre-Ruiz, J.M., Vidal-Salazar, M.D. and Cordón-Pozo, E. (2019). ‘Employees are satisfied with their benefits, but so what? The consequences of benefit satisfaction on employees’ organizational commitment and turnover intentions’, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, Vol. 30, No. 13, pp. 2097–2120. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2017.1314315
Duch, J., Zeng, X. H. T., Sales-Pardo, M., Radicchi, F., Otis, S., Woodruff, T. K. and Amaral, L. A. N. (2012) ‘The possible role of resource requirements and academic career-choice risk on gender differences in publication rate and impact’, PloS one, Vol. 7, No. 12, e51332. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0051332
Farris, E. M., Key, E. M. and Sumner, J. L. (2023) ‘“Wow, I Didn’t Know These Options Existed”: Understanding Tenure-Track Start-Up Packages’, PS, political science & politics, Vol. 56, No. 1, pp. 75–81. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049096522000993
Ford, W. J. (2012) ‘Package Deal’, Diverse Issues in Higher Education, Vol. 29, No. 6, p. 18.
Ehrenberg, R. G., Rizzo, M. J. and Condie, S. S. (2003) Start-up costs in American research universities, [Online], Available at: http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/workingpapers/38 [23 Feb 2023].
Eisenberg, M.J. (2011) The physician scientist’s career guide, New York, NY: Springer.
Farrell, S. L. and Geraci, A. (2017) ‘Librarians and compensation negotiation in the library workplace’, Library Management, Vol. 38, No.1, pp. 45–64. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/LM-08-2016-0060
Graso, M., Jiang, L., Probst, T. M. and Benson, W. L. (2014) ‘Cross-level effects of procedural justice perceptions on faculty trust’, Journal of Trust Research, Vol. 4, No. 2, pp. 147–166. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21515581.2014.966830
Gray, K. et al. (2019) ‘Career goals, salary expectations, and salary negotiation among male and female general surgery residents’, JAMA surgery, Vol. 154, No. 11, pp. 1023–1029. http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jamasurg.2019.2879
Hamann, D.L. (2013) On staff: a practical guide to starting your career in a university music department, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hardré, P. and Cox, M. (2009) ‘Evaluating faculty work: Expectations and standards of faculty performance in research universities’, Research Papers in Education, Vol. 24, No. 4, pp. 383–419. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02671520802348590
Hill, P. L., Shaw, R. A., Taylor, J. R. and Hallar, B. L. (2011) ‘Advancing diversity in STEM’, Innovative Higher Education, Vol. 36, No. 1, pp. 19–27. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10755-010-9154-8
Höfrová, A. and Moore de Peralta, A. (2019) ‘Faculty Satisfaction with Start-up Packages: Gender Differences in a Public University in the Southeastern U.S. ‘, Proceedings of the 16th International Conference Efficiency and Responsibility in Education (ERIE 2019), Prague, pp. 68–75.
Höfrová, A., Moore de Peralta, A., Rosopa, P. J., Small, M. A. and Steele Payne, K., (2021) ‘Faculty Perception of the Contribution of Start-up Packages to Professional Development’, Innovative Higher Education, Vol. 46, No. 4, pp. 481–497. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755-021-09550-0
Holley, L.C. and Young, D.S. (2005) ‘Career decisions and experiences of social work faculty: A gender comparison’, Journal of Social Work Education, Vol. 41, No. 2, pp. 297–313. http://dx.doi.org/10.5175/JSWE.2005.200303115
Holliday, E., Griffith, K.A., De Castro, R., Stewart, A., Ubel, P. and Jagsi, R. (2015) ‘Gender differences in resources and negotiation among highly motivated physician-scientists’, Journal of General Internal Medicine, Vol. 30, No. 4, pp. 401–407. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11606-014-2988-5
Howard, L. W. and Cordes, C. L. (2010) ‘Flight from unfairness: Effects of perceived injustice on emotional exhaustion and employee withdrawal’, Journal of Business and Psychology, Vol. 25, No. 3, pp. 409–428. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10869-010-9158-5
Ismail, A. I., Abdul-Halim, A. M. and Joarder, M. H. R. (2015) ‘Mediating role of distributive justice in the relationship between career incentives and employee performance’, Journal of Economics, Business and Management, Vol. 3, No. 10, pp. 929–935. http://dx.doi.org/10.7763/JOEBM.2015.V3.311
Johnson, R.B. and Christensen, L. (2017) Educational research: Quantitative, qualitative, and mixed approaches, Thousand Oaks: Sage.
King, B. M., Rosopa, P. J. and Minium, E. W. (2018) Statistical Reasoning in the Behavioral Sciences, 7th edition, Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
Lalani, N., Griffith, K.A., Jones, R.D., Cuneo, K. and Jagsi, R. (2019) ‘Salary and resources provided to junior faculty in radiation oncology’, International Journal of Radiation Oncology* Biology* Physics, Vol. 103, No. 2, pp. 310–313. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrobp.2018.09.012
Murray, S. L., Cudney, E. A., Long, S. and Grantham Lough, K. (2009) ‘What new faculty need to know, but don’t know to ask’, Proceedings of the ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition (ASEE 2009), Austin, TX, pp. 14.1367.1–14.1367.8.
Office of Career & Professional Development (2012) Negotiating your start up package, [Online], Available at: https://career.ucsf.edu/sites/g/files/tkssra2771/f/PDF/ResearcherNegotiatingStartupPackage.pdf [23 Feb 2023].
O’Meara, K. (2015) ‘Half-way out: How requiring outside offers to raise salaries influences faculty retention and organizational commitment’, Research in Higher Education, Vol. 56, No. 3, pp. 279–298. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11162-014-9341-z
Park, S.M. (1996) ‘Research, teaching and service: Why shouldn’t women’s work count?’, Journal of Higher Education, Vol. 67, pp. 47–84. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2943903
Rancourt, D. (2010) ‘Feature article: Leading your research enterprise - part 2 ‘, The Post: Your Newsletter, Vol. 1 No. 2, pp. 9–10.
Rosser, V. J. (2004) ‘Faculty members’ intentions to leave: A national study on their worklife and satisfaction’, Research in Higher Education, Vol. 45, No. 3, pp. 285–309. http://dx.doi.org/10.1023/B:RIHE.0000019591.74425.f1
Sambuco, M.D., Dabrowska, M.A., DeCastro, M.R., Stewart, A., Ubel, P.A. and Jagsi, R. (2013) ‘Negotiation in academic medicine: narratives of faculty researchers and their mentors’, Academic Medicine: Journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges, Vol. 88, No. 4, pp. 505–511. http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/ACM.0b013e318286072b
Sarfaty, S., Kolb, D., Barnett, R., Szalacha, L., Caswell, C., Inui, T. and Carr, P.L. (2007) ‘Negotiation in academic medicine: a necessary career skill’, Journal of Women’s Health, Vol. 16, No. 2, pp. 235–244. http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/jwh.2006.0037
Sege, R., Nykiel-Bub, L. and Selk, S. (2015) ‘Sex differences in institutional support for junior biomedical researchers’, Jama, Vol. 314, No. 11, pp. 1175–1177. http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.2015.8517
Settles, I. H., Cortina, L. M., Buchanan, N. T. and Miner, K. N. (2013) ‘Derogation, discrimination, and (dis) satisfaction with jobs in science: A gendered analysis’, Psychology of Women Quarterly, Vol. 37, No. 2, pp. 179–191. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0361684312468727
Toews, M. L. and Yazedjian, A. (2007) ‘The three-ring circus of academia: How to become the ringmaster’, Innovative Higher Education, Vol. 32, No. 2, pp. 113–122. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10755-007-9046-8
Toosi, N. R., Mor, S., Semnani-Azad, Z., Phillips, K. W. and Amanatullah, E. T. (2019) ‘Who can lean in? The intersecting role of race and gender in negotiations’, Psychology of Women Quarterly, Vol. 43, No. 1, pp. 7–21. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0361684318800492
Tower, L.E. and Latimer, M. (2016) ‘Cumulative disadvantage: Effects of early career childcare issues on faculty research travel’, Affilia, Vol. 31, No. 3, pp. 317–330. http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0886109915622527
Trower, C. A. (2012) Success on the tenure track: Five keys to faculty job satisfaction, Baltimore: JHU Press.
Vick, J.M., Furlong, J.S. and Lurie, R. (2016) The academic job search handbook, Pensylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Williams, M. L., McDaniel, M. A. and Nguyen, N. T. (2006) ‘A meta-analysis of the antecedents and consequences of pay level satisfaction’, Journal of Applied Psychology, Vol. 91, No. 2, pp. 392–413. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.91.2.392
Yin, R. K. (2017) Case study research and applications: Design and methods, 6th edition, Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Additional Files
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Alena Höfrová, Arelis Moore, MD, PhD, MPH, MEd., Mark A. Small, J.D., Ph.D., Patrick J. Rosopa, Ph.D., Kayla Steele Payne, Pavla Rymešová, PhDr., Ph.D.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors declare with this manuscript intended for publication to ERIES Journal that:
- all co-authors agree with the publication of the manuscript even after amendments arising from peer review;
- all co-authors agree with the posting of the full text of this work on the web page of ERIES Journal and to the inclusion of references in databases accessible on the internet;
- no results of other researchers were used in the submitted manuscript without their consent, proper citation, or acknowledgement of their cooperation or material provided;
- the results (or any part of them) used in the manuscript have not been sent for publication to any other journal nor have they already been published (or if so, that the relevant works are cited in this manuscript);
- submission of the manuscript for publication was completed in accordance with the publishing regulations pertaining to place of work;
- experiments performed comply with current laws and written consent of the Scientific Ethics Committee / National Animal Care Authority (as is mentioned in the manuscript submitted);
- grant holders confirm that they have been informed of the submitted manuscript and they agree to its publication.
Authors retain copyright and grant ERIES Journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the published work with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in ERIES Journal. Moreover, authors are able to post the published work in an institutional repository with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in ERIES Journal. In addition, authors are permitted and encouraged to post the published work online (e.g. institutional repositories or on their website) as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work.
