Effect Of Faculty Deans’ Leadership On Faculty Members’ Job Satisfaction

Globalization,4.0 Industry technology advancement over the past two decades,and unprecedented times/events(i.e.,waves of COVID-19 pandemic)offer extensive opportunities and concurrently pose some daunting challenges for the global higher education(HE)industry.In such circumstances,strong leadership,particularly at the building level,and dedicated academic faculty members become increasingly of paramount importance to enable global and local educational institutions to overcome their barriers and challenges and sustain their competitive advantage in the complex world.Significantly,given sweeping HE reform agenda across Vietnam in parallel with quality assurance of training and scientific research,university ranking,and accountability movement as outlined/enumerated by the Vietnamese Ministry of Education and Training(MOET,2017b),educators and policy-makers alike are seeking initiatives to improve institutional performance and student achievement.HE institutions(HEIS)across Vietnam are introducing intervensions to ensure the long-term goals of institutional development and short-term goals of annual performance results that meet the requirements of keystakeholders and society.The strategic transformation and advancement of Vietnamese HEIs necessitates a prominent role and influence on the part of institutional leaders and academic faculty members.The primary purpose of the present study inquiry might be stated as empirically investigating and predicting the relative effect of faculty deans’ various leadership(namely transformational leadership,instructional leadership,and ethical leadership)over faculty members’ job satisfaction as perceived by full-time faculty members(namely,lecturers/instructors,assistant professors,associate professors,and full professors)at a selected private higher education institution in Southern Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City(hereafter referred to as UX).Simultaneously,the study also(1)uncovered the degree of UX faculty members job satisfaction(including intrinsic,extrinsic,and overall),(2)investigated what predominant leadership behavior was frequently practiced by UX faculty deans as reported by both the faculty members and faculty deans,(3)ascertained if statistically significant differences emerged in faculty members’ perceptions of job satisfaction when grouped by their demographic variables,and(4)identified what leadership behavior male and female faculty deans were more inclined to frequently practice with respect to Vietnamese culture and philosophy of male dominance in leadership.Eventually,as reported by both faculty deans and faculty members,an exploration of the impactful leadership and institutional factors/variables that most likely translate into an enhancement in faculty members job satisfaction was disclosed.The study is grounded in the following theories: leadership under the umbrella of contingency theory of leadership with subsets of transformational leadership as conceptualized by Leithwood et al.(1999,2006,2012,2014),instructional leadership as elaborated by Hallinger et al.(2013,2015,2017),and ethical leadership based on the notions of Langlois et al.(2014)and Kalshoven et al.(2011),and job satisfaction in light of Maslow’s(1943)hierarchy of needs and Herzberg and colleagues’(1959)two-factor theory(motivation-hygiene theory).The study adopted a mixed-methods,non-experimental,correlational,cross-sectional,and case-study research design.The researcher was endeavoring to uncover and explore both faculty deans’ and faculty members’ viewpoints and interpretations of the comparable concepts: faculty deans transformational,instructional,and ethical leadership and faculty members job satisfaction.Accordingly,the methodology specifically employed was a concurrent mixed-methods design:simultaneous collection of qualitative and quantitative data and the quantitative approach is dominant or more central to this study’s objectives(QUAN + qual).The study sample is comprised of all 18 faculty deans(FDs)and 974 faculty members(FMs)permanently employed in 18 faculties and member institutes of UX.A non-probability purposive sampling technique was performed to sample a total of valid 18 FDs and 578 FMs responses for quantitative data analysis.The study questionnaire instrument was developed by combining numerous items derived from various existing scales from prior rigorous studies with modification to suit the present study context and Vietnamese HE industry.Accordingly,FMs questionnaire instrument includes these main sub-parts:(1)FDs Multifactor Leadership to assess FDs transformational,instructional,and ethical leadership,(2)FMs Job Satisfaction to assess FMs intrinsic,extrinsic,and overall job satisfaction degree,and(3)demographic items.Prior to commencing the main investigation,the piloting of the data collection instrument was quantitatively evaluated with a sample of 100 FMs to verify its validity and reliability.Quantitative data was obtained through self-administration via in-person and/or online questionnaires to FDs and FMs for stepwise inferential statistical analysis.For the intent of verifying the hypothesized path relationships and effects,a path model was specified to show hypothesized relations amongst variables.Given the complexity of the model proposed,the partial least squares structural equation modeling(PLS-SEM)disjoint two-stage approach as recommended by Hair et al.(2017,2021)was adopted regarding this study’s predictiveexplanatory-exploratory nature to empirically validate the proposed leadership-job satisfaction framework;and Smart PLS(version 3.2.7)software(Ringle et al.,2015)was adopted as the analytical instrument with the assistance of SPSS(version 21).Besides,the qualitative data via in-depth interviews with 10 FDs and 17 FMs offered greater insights into the current situation of HE faculty leadership in relation to FMs job satisfaction.After all interviews were conducted and audio recordings were professionally transcribed,data was analyzed using Braun and Clarke’s thematic analysis(2012)with a sixstage coding approach to categorize data and generate codes and themes.Deductive and inductive approaches were adopted for theoretical thematic analysis that combines theory-driven and datadriven approaches to identify themes.The overall quantitative findings reveal that the majority of FMs are found to be moderately satisfied in their current employment at UX regarding their overall job satisfaction(FJS).Specifically,FMs consistently reported a considerably higher degree of intrinsic job satisfaction(FIJS)when compared to their extrinsic job satisfaction(FEJS).ANOVA results obtained revealed the presence of statistically significant differences in FMs perceptions of job satisfaction with regard to FMs gender,age,degrees,academic titles,and experience.However,years of employment with current deans and institutional faculties FMs are working at did not differentiate FMs’ self-perceived job satisfaction at UX.As for the frequency investigation of leadership behaviors as perceived by FDs and FMs,FDs have an ‘frequent’ inclination to execute transformational,instructional,and ethical leadership in their managerial work.FMs perceived their FDs as being more transformational than instructional,then followed by ethical in their leadership.FDs rated themselves highest on transformational,followed by ethical and then instructional leadership.With respect to transformational and instructional leadership,there was a similarity in FDs and FMs rating that male FDs were more likely to practice transformational leadership and less engaged in instructional leadership than female FDs.Conversely,FMs rated female FDs being more engaged in ethical leadership than male FDs.Male FDs rated themselves being more committed to ethical leadership as compared to female FDs’ self-evaluation.Given the results of the Pearson Correlation coefficients,overall,FDs transformational leadership(DTL)exhibited the most robust and considerable degree of association with FMs overall job satisfaction(FJS)(r=.551),intrinsic job satisfaction(FIJS)(r=.541),and extrinsic job satisfaction(FEJS)(r=.509)(p <.001),followed by instructional leadership(DIL)(r=.452;r=.443;r=.418)and ethical leadership(DEL)(r=.419;r=.396;r=.407),respectively.Accordingly,all dimensions of FDs transformational,instructional,and ethical leadership had statistically significant,positive,weak to moderate correlations with FMs overall-intrinsic-extrinsic job satisfaction(r values ranging from.136 to.552)at significant level of p<.001.Confirmatory tetrad analysis confirmed all the reflectively-and-formatively-measured constructs specified in the proposed path framework.Critical criteria as required for reflective(i.e.,outer loadings>.7,construct reliability: Cronbach’s alpha>.7 and CR>.7,validity: AVE>.5,and discriminant validity: HTMT <.85)and formative(indicator weights: t values>1.96-loadings>.5,convergent validity)measurement models were all met ensuring the reliability and validity of all measures.All the hypotheses were statistically supported.Accordingly,regarding FDs leadership-FMs overall job satisfaction relation,all FDs three leadership predicted FMs overall job satisfaction in order of significance as transformational leadership(β =.369,t = 10.877,p<.001),instructional leadership(β =.311,t = 9.017,p<.001),and ethical leadership(β =.295,t = 8.751,p<.001).With an adjusted R2 value of.57(p <.001),these three leadership practices explained57% of variance in FMs overall job satisfaction.MGA results also showed that there were no differences in the path coefficients regarding FMs gender.The out-of-sample predictive power was also moderate.Overall,as compared to FDs instructional and ethical leadership,FDs transformational leadership was ascertained as a greater indicator of job satisfaction among FMs.Qualitative codes and themes were grouped into topics:(1)what makes FMs most satisfied with their teaching profession(i.e.,love-compassion for the teaching profession,social status,bond with and commitment to generations of students,personal growth/work development and accomplishments,positive contribution to society,etc.),(2)factors most contributing to FMs job satisfaction at UX(i.e.,collegial relationships,vibe of work environment-infrastructural facilities,promoting community service for professional purpose,HR policy is gradually improving,inspired/encouraged by FDs innovative/creative spirit,and increase in UX prestige and ranking),(3)factors lowering their degree of job satisfaction at UX(i.e.,insufficient pay/compensation,work overload-pressure,professional development,faculty performance evaluation and unfair opportunities for recognition-rewards,FDs micro-management and faculty empowerment,etc.),(4)FMs expectation from faculty deans leadership: ‘t(?)m’,‘t(?)m’ and ‘tài’,and(5)leadership and institutional initiatives to enhance FMs job satisfaction,including salaries and monetary benefits,fair policies and practice,professional development,research capacity and opportunity for diversity of academic research activities,improved working conditions,empowerment and autonomy,enhanced relationship with current FDs,and priority policy/care for young and female faculty members,etc.The qualitative results from this study basically supported and added more insights into the results from the quantitative analyses.These results were discussed and contrasted with prior studies.Artifact analysis revealed that FDs do introduce initiatives that encourage the practice and integration of these leadership to keep pace with significant changes in current HE context.Consequently,both quantitative and qualitative approaches offer a comparable conclusion,if FDs integrate all three leadership behaviors,there would have a better impact on FMs performance and job satisfaction than a faculty leader who is inclined to only one or two approach(es)to leadership.Hopefully,the current study will constitute a significant addition to the expanding corpus of research conducted on HE leadership and job satisfaction in terms of theory,methodology,and management practice since no prior study has been conducted to address these issues in a single study in Vietnam and elsewhere.Similarly,it is likely to make several meaningful recommendations for administration and leadership first particularly at UX and then for Vietnam’s private HE sector.