The Relationship between Person-Environment Fit and Employment Outcomes in Part-Time Adjunct Faculty

Institutions of higher education have increased their reliance on part-time adjunct faculty members for the purposes of decreasing costs and increasing flexibility. Concerns about adjuncts’ job performance and attitudinal outcomes have arisen as unintended consequences of this strategy. This study aimed to explore the potential for the development of adjuncts’ perceived person-environment (PE) fit to form the basis for recommendations for improving the outcomes of job performance, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment at a small college in the northeast. Correlation analyses of a convenience sample confirmed that PE fit had significant positive relationships with part-time adjuncts’ job performance and job satisfaction. Organizational commitment did not relate significantly with PE fit. The inclusion of control variables mostly demonstrated that PE fit had an independent relationship with employment outcomes. These findings informed a proposed solution for increasing PE fit in adjuncts through a series of socialization tactics to be applied in the attraction, selection, and retention stages of employment. Recommended steps included training administrative staff on PE fit, enhancing the adjunct job description, creating and administering organization culture and job profiles, redesigning training courses and communications for adjuncts, and collecting longitudinal fit and outcome data to assess the implementation.

Grantor dc:publisher

Creighton University

Year dc:date.issued

2019

Author dc:creator

• Anderson, Jeremy

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Stine-Cheyne, Kelleen

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright is retained by the Author. A non-exclusive distribution right is granted to Creighton University and to ProQuest following the publishing model selected above.

Language dc:language.iso

en_US

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10504/124415

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:cdr.creighton.edu:10504/124415