FISCAL REALITY AND ACADEMIC QUALITY: PART-TIME FACULTY AND THE CHALLENGE TO ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AT COMMUNITY COLLEGES

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper reports on a qualitative case study concerned with how the use of part-time faculty influences and embodies organizational culture at one southwestern community college. It examines how four differing cultural perspectives interact from a functional perspective to allow the college to fulfill its mission, and how those four perspectives combine to define an overarching culture that can be described as globalized in its orientation. The purpose of this study was to investigate the policies, opinions, and practices of academic administrators regarding the use of part-time faculty to understand how they contribute to the cultural climate of an institution. We examined how the interests of administrators are oriented to each of the four theoretical models of organizational culture, and how upper-level leadership is served or threatened by part-time faculty.