Background
The importance of Sessional Academic Staff in teaching and learning at universities throughout Australia continues to increase [
1]. The term Sessional Staff includes casual, associate, adjunct or part-time, ancillary or auxiliary academic staff aiming to capture the transient or temporary state of employment. There are now more sessional staff employed in Australian Universities than full time academics [
2]. Attracting and retaining dedicated teaching staff is now crucial to the functioning of some Schools of Nursing in Australia and the provision of a quality curriculum [
3]. Nurses of the future are dependent on sessional as well as full time academic staff.
The quality of teaching at tertiary level has never been more important to student outcomes and workforce contributions [
4]. High quality teaching, according to Queensland University of Technology [
5], should capture students into a learning partnership whereby personal and professional development is inspired, fostered, and ultimately practised as new graduates. Such teaching provides rigorous feedback and evaluation within the learning environment with the support of sessional academic teaching staff being critical to the success of the graduate, particularly in health care professions [
6]. However, despite higher numbers of Sessional Staff (SS), less support is available now and it is provided by fewer staff members [
6].
Recent liberal directions of universities throughout Australia have involved policies such as ‘uncapped enrolment’ whereby University programs such as the Bachelor of Nursing are able to recruit as many students as they wish [
7]. Previously, student numbers were capped and according to the ‘Group of Eight’ [
8], universities are calling for a recapping of placements within courses including nursing due to spiralling costs and student quality issues. The ‘Group of Eight’ consists of Australia’s eight leading research Universities [
8]. Ever increasing numbers of students have not been matched by staffing and resources [
7] leading to greater stress than ever before on academic staff [
9]. As stated by Harvey, ‘the main failure of university expansion is the unwillingness to fund it’ [
10].
The need for further SS continues to grow as the numbers of full time nursing academics dwindle. Shortages of full time academic staff persists in countries such as the USA and Canada [
11], and causes identified for the growing shortages include distressingly high workloads, aging academics, perceived lack of teaching support and inflexible work life [
12,
13]. In 2003, the Australian Universities Teaching Committee found that the tertiary education sector had managed the ‘casualisation’ of the teaching workforce ‘quite poorly’ in terms of training and support ([14]p. i). More than a decade on, it remains unclear whether the SS member receives the support, training, resources, and satisfaction they need to continue working in a part time capacity [
2]. Over the past 20 years, the numbers of SS have increased to more than the number of tenured staff [
2,
14]. SS are employed as lecturers, tutors, and lab demonstrators on a casual or sessional basis. While SS bring ‘flexibility, diversity and financial savings’ ([
14] p. i), job satisfaction, support and training remain problematic and retention becomes a critical employment issue. Sessional staff (SS) are people employed on a part time basis for a short period to deliver and assess curricula to university students [
13]. McCormack [
15], describe this group as teachers employed on a casual, contractual or sessional basis.
Within nursing education, a tension exists between clinical currency and teaching expertise [
16]. Do nursing academics, who divide their time between the clinical field and the university environment, provide superior and more relevant nursing education, or do they have more teaching difficulties because of this dual focus? Currently, there are signs of a rise in teaching expertise and a decrease in dual roles of teaching and clinical work as the need for SS increases. This is in contrast to previously held notions of the SS member being unqualified in adult education [
17], and being commonly engaged in clinical practice [
18]. Evidence from recent workforce assessment reveals some Australian universities are extensively ‘casualised’ and many tasks attributable to the academic role such as journal reviewing, editing, student feedback, and committee attendance are not possible in the timeframe available [
19].
Enjoyment of work is an important construct in any workplace but it is probably most important for those people who work casually. If SS are not satisfied with their work, the option of employment elsewhere is potentially much easier than for the full time permanent academic [
2]. Indeed, much of the attraction of sessional work centres on a sense of flexibility with work choices [
20]. For the organisation to attract the best academics job satisfaction is vital and that assessing and making adjustments to increase job satisfaction is critical [
21].
Research into job satisfaction continues to be popular in all organisational studies primarily because of the strong empirical evidence supporting causal relationships between satisfaction with work and retention [
22,
23]. Coates et al. [
24] found that Australian academics have among the lowest levels of satisfaction in the world. In addition, the connection between satisfaction and performance quality and effectiveness is also important and has significant financial and productivity implications [
23]. The workplace of SS varies substantially from that of the fulltime academic in management and work setting. For example, access to office space may be limited or even non-existent. Access to the teaching team may also be varied. Accessing other SS may be easier than accessing fulltime academics. The role of the SS is fraught with issues relating to work flexibility, multiple campus sites, financial reimbursement, and team communication [
15].
Aims
The purpose of this study was to create and test a path analysis model containing the variables of job satisfaction, organisational support, organisational fit, and sessional staff role. In a previous quality improvement project from 2014, the SS raised the subjects of job satisfaction, job fit, job support, and job role as important themes. These four topics were reviewed in the research literature, specifically those with valid and reliable tools. Where possible the shortest tools were sought due to potential sample size limitations and survey length issues. Theoretical support for this model is gained from the well supported notion that increased job satisfaction promotes retention and intrinsic rewards [
25,
26], (see extensive literature based on these ‘work and motivation’ theorists). It is hypothesised that: Organisational support, organisational fit, and sessional staff role will positively and significantly contribute to job satisfaction. In this model, job satisfaction is treated as the dependent variable.
Conclusion
An investigation into the relationships of support, job fit and job role on the global job satisfaction of SS staff has yielded important information that can be especially useful in recruiting and retaining valuable academic staff. Investments at all levels in universities must now be made to create a seamless team of full time, part time, and sessional academics or the system will fail our newest professionals. As the full-time academic disappears from our universities and sessional academics become the new normal, there are new imperatives in terms of maintaining high quality learning and learning outcomes. Knowing what the job role entails feeds into job fit and job supports, which are important in providing job satisfaction – an outcome that supports staffing stability, retention, and motivation.