Value orientations in the selection of candidates for faculty appointment.

While a number of authors and studies have acknowledged the use of objective and affective normative criteria in the candidate selection process, there is little empirical data which attempts to address the normative process of candidate evaluation in its total. The central questions this study attempts to address are: How important are the performance variables of teaching, scholarship, intellect, prestige, interpersonal interaction, and sociological/psychological compatability and their representative value oriented performance indicators when making candidate selection decisions for faculty appointment; compare the faculty perceived importance of these performance variables and their representative value oriented performance indicators across universities and university types. The study sample consisted of 286 full-time faculty, representing the "pure" fields of Mathematics and Science (N = 177), and the "applied" fields of Liberal Arts (N = 109), employed in either Comprehensive or Regional Universities within one Southwestern States. Major findings were as follows: (1) Teaching was ranked the most important performance variable by total, gender, division, comprehensive and regional respondents. (2) Normative patterns of response differed by gender and discipline. Females and Liberal Arts faculty ranked affective variables (i.e. interpersonal interaction) higher than male and Mathematics and Science respondents who preferred the more achievement oriented variables and evaluative criteria (i.e. scholarship). (3) Variation of responses were most notable among respondents by university. It was concluded that faculty: (1) as a collectivity endorse teaching as the preferred criterion when evaluating candidates for faculty selection; (2) affective, subjective and meritocratic criteria are used in the candidate selection process; and (3) individual institutions (on-the-job socialization) seems to account for more variation in selection preferences than gender, discipline, or institutional type.PhDEducationUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/105858/1/9226857.pdfDescription of 9226857.pdf : Restricted to UM users only