Work Environment and Well-being of Academic Faculty in Czech Universities: A Pilot Study

This article addresses the relationship between the work environment and the well-being of academic faculties in public Czech universities. It presents findings from a pilot study conducted at a Faculty of Arts at a major Czech university. The aims of the study were to describe the Faculty's wo...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Studia paedagogica (Brno) 2014-10, Vol.19 (4), p.121-144
Main Authors: Zábrodská, Katerina, Mudrák, Jirí, Kveton, Petr, Blatný, Marek, Machovcová, Katerina, Solcová, Iva
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Collegiality
Governance
Higher Education
Industrial Psychology
Interpersonal Relationship
Job satisfaction
Neoliberalism
Organizational Climate
Pilot projects
Resistance (Psychology)
Slavic Languages
Stakeholders
Universities
University administration
University faculty
Work environment
Citations: Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This article addresses the relationship between the work environment and the well-being of academic faculties in public Czech universities. It presents findings from a pilot study conducted at a Faculty of Arts at a major Czech university. The aims of the study were to describe the Faculty's work environment and to examine the impact of specific work environment variables on the well-being of academic employees. In total, 236 academics participated in the study. The results showed relatively high job satis faction and high work engagement at all academic levels. The Faculty's or ganizational climate (measured using the Organizational Climate Measure; Patterson, Patterson, West, Shackleton, Dawson, Lawthom, Maitlis & Wallace, 2005) was defined by high autonomy and involvement in decision making, as well as relatively low pressure to produce. The Faculty's psychosocial work environment (measured using the Copenhagen Psychosoc ial Questionnaire II; Kristensen, Hannerz, Hogh & Borg, 2005) was defined by a strong social communit y and social support. Based on these findings, the authors suggest that the Faculty's work environment corresponds to the Humboldtian type of governance, defined by academic self-rule and a culture of collegiality, and they compare this type of governance with the market gover nance prevalent in Anglo-Amer ican contexts. The study contributes to the recent debates about national differences in academic governance by discussing how specific aspects of Humboldtian and market gover nance may contribute to well-being in academia.
ISSN:1803-7437
2336-4521
DOI:10.5817/SP2014-4-6