This article studies the relationships between perceptions of threats to valued job features, total job (job insecurity), and career commitment among university professors, using the context of post-tenure review policy. It surveys professors from a randomly selected sample of 74 universities that have implemented post-tenure review policies and processes and analyzes their responses using structural equation methods. It tests hypotheses about relationships between perceptions of threats to job features, the total job as a result of post-tenure review policy, and career commitment. It finds that when post-tenure review is perceived as a threat to valued job features such as job autonomy and the total job, it negatively affects measures of affective, continuance, and normative career commitments. The implications of these findings for university administrators, regents, and boards of governors contemplating the development and implementation of post-tenure review policies are discussed.
AryeeS.ChayY. W.ChewJ. (1994) An investigation of the predictors and outcomes of career commitment in three career stages. Journal of Vocational Behavior44: 1–16.
2.
AryeeS.TanK. (1992) Antecedents and outcomes of career commitment. Journal of Vocational Behavior40: 288–305.
3.
AshfordS. J.LeeC.BobkoP. (1989) Content, causes, and consequences of job insecurity: A theory-based measure and substantive test. Academy of Management Journal32: 803–829.
4.
AustinH. S. (1984) The meaning of work in women’s lives: A sociopsychological model of career choice and work behavior. The Counseling Psychologist12: 117–126.
5.
BaruchY. (1998) The rise and fall of organizational commitment. Human Systems Management7: 135–143.
6.
BedeianA.KemeryE.PizzolattoA. (1991) A career commitment and expected utility of present job as predictor of turnover intentions and turnover behaviors. Journal of Vocational Behavior39: 115–127.
7.
BlauG. J. (1985) The measurement and prediction of career commitment. Journal of Occupational Psychology58: 277–288.
8.
BlauG. J. (1988) Further exploring the meaning and measurement of career commitment. Journal of Vocational Behavior32: 284–297.
9.
BlauG. J. (1989) Testing the generalizability of career commitment of career commitment measures and its impact on employee turnover. Journal of Vocational Behavior35: 88–103.
10.
BraxtonJ. M.BayerA. E. (1999) Faculty misconduct in collegiate teaching, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
11.
BrocknerJ.GroverS.ReedT.DewittR. L. (1992) Layoffs, job insecurity and survivors’ work effort: Evidence of inverted-U relationship. Academy of Management Journal35: 413–425.
12.
ChangE. (1999) Career commitment as a complex moderator of organizational commitment and turnover intention. Human Relations52: 1257–1278.
13.
ClugstonM. (2000) The mediating effects of multidimensional commitment on job satisfaction and intent to leave. Journal of Organizational Behavior21: 477–486.
14.
DeciE. L.RyanR. M. (1985) Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behavior, New York, NY: Plenum.
15.
De CuyperN.De WittH.Tinne Vander ElstT.HandajaY. (2010) Objective threat of unemployment and situational uncertainty during restructuring: Associations with perceived job insecurity and strain. Journal of Business Psychology25: 75–85.
16.
De WitteH. (2005) Job insecurity: review of international literature on definitions, prevalence, antecedents, and consequences. SA Journal of Industrial Psychology31: 1–6.
17.
DeyE. L.RamirezC. E.KornW. S.AstinA. W. (1993) The American college teacher: A national norms for 1992–3, Los Angeles, CA: UCLA Higher Education Research Institute.
18.
EisenbergerR.FasolaP.David-LaMastroV. (1990) Perceived organizational support and employee diligence, commitment and innovation. Journal of Applied Psychology74: 51–59.
19.
EisenbergerR.HuntingtonR.HutchisonS.SowaD. (1986) Perceived organizational support. Journal of Applied Psychology71: 500–507.
20.
FirestoneW. A.PennellJ. R. (1993) Teacher commitment, working conditions, and differential incentive policies. Review of Educational Research63: 489–525.
21.
Fry, J. E. (2000). Post-tenure review: A study of policies and practices at colleges and universities in the United States (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). The University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
22.
GarstH.FreseM.MolenaarP. C. M. (2000) The temporal factor of change in stressor-strain relationships: A growth curve model on a longitudinal study in East Germany. Journal of Applied Psychology85: 417–438.
23.
GreenhalghL. (1982) Maintaining organizational effectiveness during organizational retrenchment. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science18: 155–170.
24.
GreenhalghL.RosenblattZ. (1984) Job insecurity: Toward conceptual clarity. Academy of Management Review9: 438–448.
25.
HackmanJ. R.OldhamG. R. (1980) Work redesign, Reading, MA: Addison Wesley.
26.
IsmailA.MohamedH. A.SulaimanA. Z.MohamadM. H.YesufM. H. (2011) An empirical study of the relationship between transformational leadership, empowerment and organizational commitment. Business and Economics Research Journal2: 89–107.
27.
JohnsonS. M. (1990) Teacher at work: Achieving success in our schools, New York: Basic.
28.
Kelley, M. A. (2000). Political Science and post-tenure review, pp. 233–236. Retrieved from www.apsanet.org.
KhandelwalK. A. (2009) Organizational commitment in multinationals: A dynamic interplay among personal, organizational and societal factors. ASBM Journal of Management2: 99–122.
31.
KiddJ. M.GreenF. (2006) The careers of research scientists: Predictors of three dimensions of career commitment and intent to leave science. Personnel Review35: 229–251.
32.
KottkampR. B.ProvenzoE. F.CohnM. M. (1986) Stability and change in a profession: Two decades of teacher attitudes, 1964–84. Phi Delta Kappan67: 559–567.
33.
KraimerM. L.WayneS. J.LidemR. C.SparroweR. T. (2005) The role of job security in understanding the relationship between employees’ perceptions of temporary workers and employees’ performance. Journal of Applied Psychology90: 389–398.
34.
LeeK.CarswellJ. J.AllenN. J. (2000) A meta-analytic review of occupational commitment: Relations with person and work-related variables. Journal of Applied Psychology85: 799–811.
35.
LicataC. M. (1999) Precepts for post-tenure review. Trusteeship7: 8–13.
36.
LicataC. M.MorrealeJ. C. (1997) Post-tenure review: Policies, practices, and precautions. AAHE New Pathways Working Paper Services, # 12, Washington, DC: American Association for Higher Education.
37.
LindholmJ. A. (2004) Pathway to the professoriate: The role of self, others, and environment in shaping academic career aspirations. Journal of Higher Education75: 603–635.
38.
Lindholm, J. A., Astin, A. W., Sax, L. J., & Korn, W. S. (2002). The American college teacher: National norms for 2001–2002 HERI Faculty Survey: Los Angeles, CA, UCLA Higher Education Research Institute.
39.
Mcfarlene-ShoreL.WayneS. (1993) Commitment and employee behavior: Comparison of affective and continuance commitment with perceived organizational support. Journal of Applied Psychology78: 774–780.
40.
MeyerJ. P. (1989) Organizational commitment and job performance: It’s the nature of the commitment that counts. Journal of Applied Psychology74: 152–156.
41.
MeyerJ. P.AllenN. J. (1991) A three-component conceptualization of organizational commitment. Human Resource Management Review1: 61–98.
42.
MeyerJ. P.AllenN. J.SmithC. A. (1993) Commitment to organization and occupations: Extension and test of a three-component conceptualization. Journal of Applied Psychology78: 538–551.
43.
MorrisonE.RobinsonS. (1997) When employees feel betrayed: A model of how psychological contract violation develops. Academy of Management Review22: 226–256.
44.
MowdayR. T.PorterL. W.SteersR. M. (1982) Employee-organization linkages: The psychological commitment, absenteeism, and turnover, New York: Academic.
45.
MowdayR. T.SteersR. M.PorterL. W. (1979) The measurement of organizational commitment. Journal of Vocational Behavior14: 224–247.
46.
O’ReillyC.ChatmanJ. (1986) Organizational commitment and psychological attachment: The effects of compliance, identification and internalization on pro-social behavior. Journal of Applied Psychology71: 492–499.
47.
RobinsonS. I.KraatzM. S.RousseauD. M. (1994) Changing obligations and the psychological contract: A longitudinal study. Academy of Management Journal37: 137–152.
48.
RousseauD. M. (1989) Psychological and implied contracts in organization. Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal2: 121–139.
49.
RousseauD. M. (2001) Schema, promise and mutuality: The building blocks of the psychological contract. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology74: 511–541.
50.
SaxL. J.AstinA. W.KornW. S.GilmartinS. K. (1999) The American college teacher: National norms for 1998–99, Los Angeles, CA: UCLA Higher Education Research Institute.
51.
TaberT. D.WalshJ. T.CookeR. A. (1979) Developing a community-based program of reducing the social impact of a plant closing. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science15: 133–155.
52.
UgboroI. O. (2006) Organizational commitment, job redesign, employee empowerment and intent to quit among survivors of restructuring and downsizing. Journal of Behavioral and Applied Management17: 232–257.
53.
WhitenerE. M.BrodtS. E.KorsgaardM. A.WernerJ. M. (1998) Managers as initiators of trust: An exchange relationship framework for understanding managerial trustworthy. Academy of Management Review23: 513–530.
54.
WhitenerE. M.WalzeP. M. (1993) The exchange theory determinants of affective and continuance commitment and turnover. Journal of Vocational Behavior42: 265–281.
55.
WienerY. (1982) Commitment in organizations: A normative view. Academy of Management Review7: 418–428.
56.
WilsonR. (2001, May 11) Northeastern post-tenure review goes too far, critics say. Chronicle of Higher Education47: A14.
