Collegiate schemas: The influence of institutional met expectations on tenure-track faculty job satisfaction

Met expectations research into job satisfaction (Locke, 1976; Porter & Steers, 1973) has shown that the expectations employees bring to their jobs influence their overall job satisfaction. At colleges and universities, faculty job satisfaction is important because it can provide a measure of overall institutional effectiveness (Cameron, 1978), and can directly influence decisions to leave the institution (Mobley, 1977; Smart, 1990; Zhou & Volkwein, 2004). This study used multiple regression analyses to determine if tenure-track faculty job satisfaction is influenced by the differences between the colleges and universities, as measured by institutional characteristics, where faculty earned their bachelor\u27s and doctorate degrees and their current institution of employment. This study posited that faculty form mental models or schemas of college and university work environments based on their undergraduate and graduate school experiences. These collegiate schemas create expectations for future work experiences among college and university faculty. Faculty job satisfaction was determined using responses to questions from the National Science Foundation\u27s 2001 Survey of Doctorate Recipients. Faculty degree history was obtained from the Survey of Earned Doctorates. Institutional characteristics examined included institutional type, size, expenditures, reputation, geographic location, and racial/ethnic diversity, and were acquired from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS)