Abstract
German academics are not among the most highly satisfied academics in comparative perspective. However, a comparison between the Carnegie study undertaken in the early 1990s and the CAP study about the academic profession at the end of the first decade of the twenty-first century discussed here suggests that the satisfaction of the German academic profession has increased over time. Notably, junior academic staff who tended to have a relatively low level of satisfaction previously seemed to have become more satisfied over time. Results were not uniform across German higher education. Academics at German public research institutions are by far more highly satisfied than academics at universities, and the latter are somewhat more highly satisfied than academics at universities of applied sciences. This links in to the finding that more satisfaction is enjoyed by academics spending a higher proportion of their time on research.
German academics are not among the most highly satisfied academics in comparative perspective. However, a comparison between the Carnegie study undertaken in the early 1990s and the CAP study 15 years later suggested that junior academic staff who tended to have a relatively low level of satisfaction previously seemed to have become more satisfied over time. Results were not uniform across German higher education. Academics at German public research institutions are by far more highly satisfied than academics at universities, and the latter are somewhat more highly satisfied than academics at universities of applied sciences. This links in to the finding that more satisfaction is enjoyed by academics spending a higher proportion of their time on research. Teaching and research, various dimensions of the management styles, as well as resources have an impact on the overall satisfaction of staff. This chapter tries to explain how great the influence of each of these determinants is on the overall satisfaction of junior and senior staff.
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Höhle, E.A., Teichler, U. (2013). Determinants of Academic Job Satisfaction in Germany. In: Bentley, P., Coates, H., Dobson, I., Goedegebuure, L., Meek, V. (eds) Job Satisfaction around the Academic World. The Changing Academy – The Changing Academic Profession in International Comparative Perspective, vol 7. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5434-8_7
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