Factors Influencing Grant Writing: Perceptions of Tenured and Nontenured Faculty.

Abstract

INTRODUCTION Being scholarly traditionally means engaging in research, writing articles for publication, and sharing research findings with students (E. L. Boyer, 1990). Recently, the pursuit of grants has come under the umbrella of research in academia (Blackburn & Lawrence, 1995). universities judge themselves - and are judged by others - based on research productivity and the dollar amount of acquired grants. In addition, writing proposals increases the number of publications submitted and published by faculty. Researchers such as Daniel and Gallaher (1989), Monahan (1993), and Dooley (1994) have identified factors that motivate and hinder faculty in their pursuit of grants. These studies reveal that junior faculty and senior faculty differ in their perception of the grant-pursuit process. While both groups are concerned about expanding workloads and diminishing opportunities for external funding (Finkelstein, Seal, & Schuster, 1996), they identify different reasons for not pursuing grants. Nontenured, junior faculty found the grant-submission process to be intimidating, especially in the absence of a mentor (P. G. Boyer, 1997) or prior experience in proposal writing (Lischwe, O'Neal, & Willimann, 1987). Tenured faculty, on the other hand, did not pursue grants because they were not seeking promotion, tenure, or new jobs at other institutions. Moreover, some senior faculty will not seek grants under any condition, simply because they do not want to (Monahan, 1993). The purpose of the present study is to examine in greater detail the factors that motivate or hinder faculty - both tenured and nontenured - in their pursuit of grant funding. Specifically, the authors (a) identify factors that influence successful grant writing for tenured and nontenured faculty, and (b) clarify those factors that are obstacles for tenured and nontenured faculty who are seeking external funding. (See Tables 1 and 2 on pages 63 and 64 for a list of the motivators and barriers used in this study). The study focuses on college of education faculty at Research institutions that are constituents of the Association of American Universities (AAU). METHODS AND DEMOGRAPHICS OF THE SAMPLE Survey Instrument The survey was based on instruments used by Thomas Monahan and Larry Dooley as well as a review of the related literature. The pilot for the survey instrument was a sample of faculty in the College of Education at the University of Missouri-Columbia. The instrument was generated based on factors from the literature that influenced education faculty in their pursuit of grants. The questionnaire was mailed to 370 faculty randomly selected from institutions that are members of AAU I institutions. The questionnaire examined motivators and barriers based on the rank of faculty. Chi-square tests of independence were used to analyze the data. A sample size of 248 (67%) usable responses were completed and returned. The sample - identified through a systematic random selection of names of AAU faculty - was designed to have a confidence level of 90%, with a margin of error of [+ or -]5%. Of the AAU faculty responding to the questionnaire, 141 (57.3%) were males and 105 (42.7%) were females. Of professors responding to the questionnaire, 143 (58.1%) were full professors, 58 (23.6%) were associate professors, and 45 (18.3%) were assistant professors; 191 (77.6%) of the respondents were tenured professors, while 55 (22.4%) were untenured professors. RESULTS The factors that motivated faculty pursuit of grants are presented in Table 3 (see p. 65), while the barriers to grant pursuit are listed in Table 4 (see p. 66). Significant motivating factors include Consideration in tenure or promotion decisions ([[Chi].sup.2] = 30.371, df = 3; p[less than].001); Building my professional reputation as a capable researcher ([[Chi].sup.2] = 10. …

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