Faculty Rank System, Research Motivation, and Faculty Research Productivity: Measure Refinement and Theory Testing
A system of faculty ranks serves as a hierarchical structure for faculty members to pass through during their careers. Each step represents a promotion that typically results in an upgrade of status and salary. In general, faculty performances on institutional criteria determine a faculty member's rank. Educational attainment, seniority, teaching, and service are some of the criteria. However, studies show that faculty research productivity is the major criterion for promotion in universities granting Ph.D. degrees [24, 27, 33, 36].1 Some believe that the possibility of promotion has a motivating effect on faculty research behavior. For instance, because of his worry about the aging effect on reducing the overall research productivity of American faculty, Tuckman [36] has suggested changing the academic reward structure by increasing the numbers of ranks that faculty can attain. In Ruscio's [32] interview study a faculty respondent commented about research publications: "Half to three quarters of what I read, if I asked myself why was this written, the answer normally is 'promotion'." Recently, in order to help faculty apply for more research grants and gain recognition from countries in Asia, the Pacific, and Europe, the University of Hawaii community colleges changed their only rank title of instructor to a system of faculty ranks like those of four-year institutions [31]. Even outside the United States, the Executive Yuan in Taiwan submitted a plan to the legislature to change their present rank