Undoing disparities in faculty workloads: A randomized trial experiment

• Published in: PloS one Vol. 13; no. 12; p. e0207316
• Main Authors: O'Meara, KerryAnn, Jaeger, Audrey, Misra, Joya, Lennartz, Courtney, Kuvaeva, Alexandra
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Public Library of Science 19-12-2018; Public Library of Science (PLoS)
• Subjects: Academic departments; Academies and Institutes - organization & administration; Accountability; Action; Analysis; Architectural engineering; Biology and Life Sciences; Careers; College faculty; Counseling; Departments; Division of labor; Female; Gender; Higher education; Humans; Intervention; Job stress; Male; Management; Multiculturalism & pluralism; Organizational change; Physical Sciences; Research and Analysis Methods; Research design; Sexism; Social psychology; Social Sciences; Sociology; Special education; STEM education; Surveys and Questionnaires; Teaching; Transparency; Working conditions; Workload - psychology; Workloads; North Carolina; United States > US; Maryland; Massachusetts
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0207316

We conducted a randomized control study to improve equity in how work is taken up, assigned and rewarded in academic departments. We used a four-part intervention targeting routine work practices, department conditions, and the readiness of faculty to intervene to shape more equitable outcomes over an 18-month period. Our goal was to (a) increase the number of routine work practices that department faculty could enact to ensure equity, (b) enhance conditions within the department known to positively enhance equity, and (c) improve the action readiness of department faculty to ensure equity in division of labor. Post intervention faculty in participating departments were more likely than before the intervention to report work practices and conditions that support equity and action readiness in their department, and that teaching and service work in their department is fair. Participating departments were significantly more likely than control departments to report practices and conditions that support equity and greater action readiness to address issues of workload equity in their department. Finally, participating department faculty were more likely than control department faculty to report increased self-advocacy and were more likely than control department faculty to report that the distribution of teaching and service work in their department is fair.