Qualitative Case Study of Disengagement Factors of Community College Faculty

The topic for this study is the lack of engagement of full-time faculty at a Midwest community college. The problem to be addressed by this study is determining the factors leading to the need for more employee commitment, also known as disengagement, in the operation of a community college. The impact of disengaged faculty on other faculty could lead to overall lower morale of any college employees. Lower employee morale would also lead to lower productivity. An exploratory qualitative case study was used to learn why faculty members disengage from a statewide community college system. The theory used to frame the study was organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). The OCB theory is defined as the employees' actions that create the organizational culture. Faculty disengagement is an overall behavior of employees. The methodology used is an exploratory case study allowing full-time faculty members to be open to sharing their experiences with disengagement as full-time faculty members. The participants selected must have been full-time faculty members for at least five years to participate in the study. The survey was an electronic survey administered via Qualtrics. The study's results demonstrated that leadership or supervision was the most common factor for full-time faculty disengagement. Several supervision subthemes were discovered in the study. The most significant factor for full-time faculty disengagement is the lack of work/life balance. The implications of this study would be the realization of the executive leadership of the plight of full-time faculty and the creation of strategies to address the full-time faculty disengagement. Future research should include expanding the population of full-time faculty and rewriting the survey questions to focus on the depth of the participants' responses. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]