Faculty Motivation in Management Education

Introduction

Management education has undergone radical changes over the past decade. The content, instructional methodologies and facilities are among the key indicators of change as is the background and motivation of people who choose to become management teachers (Baporikar, 2009). Individuals interested in banking and commerce are seeking management teaching positions, as contrasted with interests in financial services and accountancy that typified the past. The profession could benefit from information about how these changes have affected teachers’ enjoyment of teaching. This information could inform the process of recruiting new teachers by better understanding the rewards and stresses associated with major programmatic change. What is it about the current teaching climate in management education that outstanding teachers find most rewarding?

Management education is having difficulty recruiting talented teachers. Current estimates place the number of job openings at two or more for each management education graduate. Attractive salary and benefit packages accompany many of these openings. Why is it so difficult to attract and retain talented management teachers? What is it about teaching management education that makes outstanding teachers love their jobs? It is important to understand what specific aspects of teaching most management education teachers of the nationally-recognized institutions find to be particularly rewarding and most distressing so that it can go as an input for faculty motivation and also be useful in attracting other good professionals into management teaching (Baporikar, 2013). Concerns about job satisfaction spawned numerous studies during the past several decades in nearly every occupational field. There was strong interest in job satisfaction and teacher satisfaction from the late 1960s to the early 1980s. Over the past decade little attention has been paid to teacher satisfaction or its effect on students. Moreover, an important constituent group and a key resource of higher education institutions (HEIs) is the faculty or academic staff. The centrality of the faculty role makes it a primary sculptor of institutional culture and has implications for the quality of the institution and therefore has a major role in achieving the objectives of the institution. Demand for academic staff in higher education has been increasing and may be expected to continue to increase. Moreover the performance of academic staff as teachers and researchers determines much of the student satisfaction and has an impact on student learning. There are many factors that serve to undermine the commitment of academics to their institutions and careers. Job satisfaction is important in revitalizing staff motivation and in keeping their enthusiasm alive. Well motivated academic staff can, with appropriate support, build a national and international reputation for themselves and the institution in the professional areas, in research and in publishing. This chapter aims to identify the issues and their impacts on faculty job satisfaction and motivation in management education.