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ABSTRACT
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Higher
education organizations in the United States are competing for
students, for dollars and for reputations. Some consider their adoption of
practices that have contributed to the success of business organizations as
one solution. It is not clear whether or how such alternative practices will
impact an organizational system or its components. This study compares the
perspectives of faculty from 2 differently organized universities. One is a nonprofit university organized in the more traditional
collegial model with tenure, faculty governance and autonomy and the other is
a for-profit university organized as a business in which faculty were “employees at will”
without such conditions. Through a nondirective, qualitative interview,
faculty perceptions about their teaching, themselves and their organizations
were developed and analyzed for both unique and common themes using a
dramaturgical frame. Regardless of the organizational context, faculty in
both universities held similar views about their teaching. Interactions with
students were the most satisfying and fulfilling aspects of their work.
Student learning provided the source and measure of their achievement. They
grew and developed as teachers in the same ways. They felt free to address
the needs of their students. An essential and common condition appeared to be
their belief in the teaching mission of their universities. The organizations
held both similar and different meanings for faculty in several regards.
However, faculty relationships with students were more important to them than
their relationship with their university.
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