This state-wide study involved full-time faculty members with four of fewer years of employment at the 16 colleges of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System. Full-time faculty members with four or fewer years of employment were surveyed. There were 226 (56.4%) respondents.
Mooney (1989) expressed concern that possible faculty shortages would begin in the 1990s for community colleges. Monahan and Greene (1987) stated dissatisfaction with teaching assignments was found to be a significant predictor of early retirement among community college faculty. Smart (1989) contended job satisfaction correlated to faculty intentions to leave their current institutions. Miloshiff (1990) concluded most research throughout the last decade focused on faculty samples made up of undifferentiated two-year and four-year colleges and universities with limited research conducted specifically with community college faculties.
Therefore, the problem of this study was to identify the impact of formal orientation, professional development activities, and annual evaluation processes on the overall job satisfaction level for Kentucky Community and Technical College System faculty with four or fewer years of employment.
Demographics, such as gender, age, educational attainment, reasons for pursuing an academic career at community and technical colleges, size of institutions, and length of employment were analyzed. Gender ratio was about one-third male and two-thirds female. Respondents were evenly divided on years of employment, from one to four years. The highest number 60 (29.9%) were 50 to 59 years of age. Sixty-seven (30.2%) of respondents held Master's degrees and 53 (23.9%) held a Master's degree plus additional hours or certifications. Respondents were evenly distributed between teaching in a technical discipline and teaching in a transfer discipline. About one-third of the respondents indicated their campus size as 2,501--5,000 students. The largest percentage (49.1%) of respondents reported they chose employment at a community and technical college as a career goal. A large majority (89.5%) stated they were satisfied with their job. Participants rated all activities as important to very important to overall job satisfaction. However, no statistically significant relationships were found in the level of job satisfaction by the perceived value of selected professional services.
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