Participation in Decision-making and Job Satisfaction: Ideal and Reality for Male and

Communication literature has established that participative decision-making (PDM) influences job satisfaction. Discrimination against women in the workplace has also been well documented. This study investigated differences in how male and female faculty members in the U. S. view opportunities to participate in decision-making, and how such participation differently affects their job satisfaction. Results obtained from PDM and job satisfaction scales administered to male and female faculty indicate that female faculty members do not differ from males in desire for PDM but report lower actual PDM and lower job satisfaction than males. Contrary to expectation, it was found that increasing levels of actual PDM results in greater job satisfaction for female, but not for male faculty. This suggests that women faculty may view the role of PDM differently than men. Although women had taught for fewer years, held lower faculty rank and fewer had tenure, they had a slightly higher rate of refereed publications, and none of these status indices confounded the PDM-job satisfaction findings. Implications for diversity in the academic workplace are discussed