Scholarly Performance and Related Variables: A Comparison of Pharmacy Practice Faculty and Departmental Chairpersons

This study evaluated differences between pharmacy practice faculty and departmental chairpersons with regard to scholarly performance and variables hypothesized as being related to scholarly performance. Also reported are factors that faculty members and chairpersons perceive to inhibit their scholarly performance. The chairpersons were older, had more experience, and were more likely to be tenured or hold a tenure track position. The workload of the chairpersons differed from that of the faculty in that they spent a larger amount of time in administrative activities and less in clinical practice and clerkship teaching. They spent less time in research than did the faculty (16 versus 20 percent), but the difference was not significant. The chairpersons viewed their departmental environment as much more supportive than did their faculty and were more satisfied with the resources available to them than were their faculty. The chairs perceived themselves as providing higher levels of faculty support compared to the perceptions of their faculty. The chairpersons and faculty produced essentially the same amount of scholarly work. The faculty and departmental chairpersons cited a number of factors which they felt inhibited their scholarly performance. These included lack of time, heavy commitments to other activities which prevented time for research, lack of resources, and lack of research skills, abilities, or training. The implications of the study findings are discussed