Organizational Correlates of Faculty Research Productivity Across PhD-Granting Psychology Departments

Relationships between faculty research productivity and various organizational correlates across PhD-granting psychology departments were investigated using published ratings of research productivity, information contained in the APA\u27s Graduate Study in Psychology for 1979-1980, and data gathered by telephone interviews with 28 department chairpersons and by questionnaires from 82 department chairpersons. Relationships between variables were analyzed by simple correlation, and by factor analysis of the questionnaire data. The latter method, using a two factor solution, proved most enlightening. Factor I was determined by variables with loadings indicating: greater research productivity; stronger orientation towards research in the department\u27s training program and among the faculty, as well as in the higher administration; a tendency for the department to be older and larger; and by variables indicating the presence of policies easily viewed as designed to promote research, such as reduced teaching loads. Factor II was determined by variables with loadings indicating: a departmental orientation towards the training of applied, practice-centered psychologists; less emphasis within the department and within the higher administration on faculty research activity; more formalized and more frequent faculty evaluation; perhaps fewer resources; and lower productivity ratings. Methodological problems involving limitations of the different measures used in the study are discussed; as are directions for future research, including the need for more concrete information about the differences in behavior and policy across more and less productive departments and their higher administrations