Departmental conditions and music faculty vitality.

The study investigated relationships between departmental conditions and music faculty vitality. A 122-item questionnaire, designed to measure music faculty perceptions of departmental conditions and their own vitality, collected from 753 music professors from a random sample, was the basis of this study. The population consisted of approximately 7474 full-time, ranked music professors at four-year colleges and universities offering music degree programs accredited by the National Association of Schools of Music. The general conceptual framework, developed from a comprehensive leterature in higher education and the arts, included eight departmental conditions and twelve dimensions of faculty vitality. A research model was designed to examine what departmental conditions explain faculty vitality after controlling for effects of institution, department, and faculty demographics. From factor analysis of the data, sixteen dimensions emerged as reliable constructs to assess music faculty vitality. Two of the most salient findings from multiple regression analyses are (1) that all dimensions of faculty vitality are explained by the departmental conditions except for self-renewal; (2) that shared governance, career socialization, working conditions, and executive leadership are the most important contributors to predicting music faculty vitality. Results of 3- and 2-way analyses of variance and 6-variable multiple classification analyses show that (1) faculty rank positively affects perceptions of departmental conditions; (2) composers are least content with departmental conditions; (3) years of service at the current institution affect inversely faculty perceptions of departmental conditions and certain areas of vitality; (4) tenure status neither affects perceptions of departmental conditions nor faculty vitality; (5) music professors teaching at private institutions are more satisfied with their departments and students than those at public institutions; and (6) being a female professor affects positively on the overall vitality index. Faculty vitality dimensions defined in this study can easily be modified to study faculty vitality in other disciplines. Findings of this study suggest that music schools and departments can foster a vital faculty by promoting (1) shared governance, especially in decision-making processes that have impacts on individual's working conditions; (2) career socialization; (3) improved working conditions; and (4) open and supportive executive leadership.PhDEducationEducational administrationHigher educationMusic educationUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/129540/2/9527679.pd