Perceptions of Faculty Performance Evaluation among Faculty across Academic Disciplines at a Selected University.

This study examined whether the perceptions of faculty members at a southeastern university concerning the present evaluation system varies across academic colleges. The Survey of Faculty Evaluation was distributed to all full time faculty (N=530) and the 129 usable responses were analyzed using discriminant function classification. Respondents were from the colleges of: (1) arts, (2) business administration, (3) education and psychology, (4) health and human sciences, (5) liberal arts, and (6) science and technology. The colleges of arts and business administration tended to be distinguished from the colleges of liberal arts and science and technology on a function defined largely by teaching. Within the function defined primarily by research and criteria of faculty evaluation the college of health and human sciences was distinguished from the colleges of arts, education and psychology, and liberal arts. Results generally support adequacy of three of the survey's subscales (i.e., teaching, research, and criteria of faculty evaluation) as discriminating among faculty in the six college subgroups. Results also suggest a general heterogeneity of faculty perceptions across colleges regarding the relevance of evaluation items to their settings. Attached tables present details of the analysis. (Contains 45 references.) (DB)