Role Strain in University Research Centers

We examine interview data from 21 science and engineering faculty affiliated with both academic departments and university research centers. Our results indicate that such scientists experience "role strain" but that resources provided by the centers provide sufficient inducement for affiliation. An important faculty development issue is whether the increments in resources are sufficient to offset the fragmentation of activities likely associated with role strain.

[1]  Jason Owen-Smith,et al.  From separate systems to a hybrid order: accumulative advantage across public and private science at Research One universities , 2003 .

[2]  P. Craig Boardman,et al.  Reward Systems and NSF University Research Centers: The Impact of Tenure on University Scientists' Valuation of Applied and Commercially Relevant Research , 2007 .

[3]  Barry Bozeman,et al.  Managing the New Multipurpose, Multidiscipline University Research Center: Institutional Innovation in the Academic Community , 2003 .

[4]  Sheila Slaughter,et al.  The “Traffic” in Graduate Students: Graduate Students as Tokens of Exchange between Academe and Industry , 2002 .

[5]  Stuart S. Blume.  Toward a political sociology of science , 1974 .

[6]  R. Gitelson,et al.  A Meta-Analysis of the Correlates of Role Conflict and Ambiguity , 1983 .

[7]  Simon Marcson,et al.  The Scientist in American Industry. , 1961 .

[8]  J. Fairweather.  Beyond the Rhetoric: Trends in the Relative Value of Teaching and Research in Faculty Salaries , 2005 .

[9]  H. Etzkowitz,et al.  The Future of the University and the University of the Future: Evolution of Ivory Tower to Entrepreneurial Paradigm , 2000 .

[10]  Barry Bozeman,et al.  Researchers’ Industry Experience and Productivity in University–Industry Research Centers: A “Scientific and Technical Human Capital” Explanation , 2006 .

[11]  John M. Braxton,et al.  Evaluating Scholarship Performance: Traditional and Emergent Assessment Templates , 2002 .

[12]  Carol L. Colbeck,et al.  Merging in a Seamless Blend: How Faculty Integrate Teaching and Research. , 1998 .

[13]  H. Etzkowitz.  The norms of entrepreneurial science: cognitive effects of the new university-industry linkages , 1998 .

[14]  E. Boyer.  Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate , 1990 .

[15]  R. Merton,et al.  On social structure and science , 1996 .

[16]  Alan L. Porter,et al.  Peer Review of Interdisciplinary Research Proposals , 1985 .

[17]  Mark Abrahamson,et al.  The Scientific Community. , 1966 .

[18]  Instituting Change in the Faculty Reward System. , 1993 .

[19]  S. Box,et al.  Scientific identity, occupational selection, and role strain. , 1966, The British journal of sociology.

[20]  Roland Robertson,et al.  Role Theory, Concepts and Research , 1966 .

[21]  Barry Bozeman,et al.  The NSF Engineering Research Centers and the University–Industry Research Revolution: A Brief History Featuring an Interview with Erich Bloch , 2004 .

[22]  R. Hampel.  Research news and Comment: Overextended , 1995 .

[23]  Rodrigo Arocena,et al.  Changing knowledge production and Latin American universities , 2001 .

[24]  Marlan Blissett,et al.  Politics in Science. , 1974 .

[25]  Robert K. Merton,et al.  The Role-Set: Problems in Sociological Theory , 1957 .

[26]  James S. Fairweather,et al.  Faculty Work and Public Trust: Restoring the Value of Teaching and Public Service in American Academic Life , 1995 .

[27]  A. Link,et al.  Commercial knowledge transfers from universities to firms: improving the effectiveness of university–industry collaboration , 2003 .

[28]  William Kornhauser,et al.  Scientists in Industry: Conflict and Accommodation. , 1963 .

[29]  Barry Bozeman,et al.  The environments of U.S. R&D laboratories: political and market influences , 1990 .

[30]  N. MacKinnon.  Role strain: An assessment of a measure and its invariance of factor structure across studies. , 1978 .

[31]  R. Geiger.  Organized Research Units—Their Role in the Development of University Research , 1990 .

[32]  Donald C. Pelz,et al.  Scientists in Organizations: Productive Climates for Research and Development. , 1978 .

[33]  Albert N. Link,et al.  Cooperative research and development : the industry, university, government relationship , 1989 .

[34]  Robert K. Merton,et al.  Science and the Social Order , 1938, Nature.

[35]  William J. Goode,et al.  A theory of role strain. , 1960 .

[36]  Eliezer Geisler,et al.  University—Industry Relations: A Review of Major Issues , 1989 .

[37]  D. Dillman.  Mail and internet surveys: The tailored design method, 2nd ed. , 2007 .

[38]  T. Gieryn.  Boundary-work and the demarcation of science from non-science: Strains and interests in professional , 1983 .

[39]  W. R. Tash,et al.  Centers and Institutes in the Research University: Issues, Problems, and Prospects. , 1994 .

[40]  Steven P. Vallas,et al.  Science, capitalism, and the rise of the “knowledge worker”: The changing structure of knowledge production in the United States , 2001 .

[41]  B. Smith,et al.  The State of Academic Science: The Universities in the Nation's Research Effort. , 1977 .

[42]  Harold D. Lasswell,et al.  The Policy Sciences , 1953 .

[43]  Monica Gaughan,et al.  Scientific and technical human capital: an alternative model for research evaluation , 2001, Int. J. Technol. Manag..

[44]  Donald C. Pelz,et al.  Scientists in Organizations: Productive Climates for Research and Development , 1967 .

[45]  Frank M. Andrews,et al.  Scientific Productivity: The Effectiveness of Research Groups in Six Countries , 2009 .

[46]  Randall S. Schuler,et al.  Role Conflict and Role Ambiguity: Integration of the Literature and Directions for Future Research , 1981 .

[47]  Michael A. Faia.  Teaching, Research, and Role Theory , 1980 .

[48]  R. Diamond.  Aligning Faculty Rewards with Institutional Mission: Statements, Policies, and Guidelines , 1999 .

[49]  Julia Melkers,et al.  Evaluating R&D impacts : methods and practice , 1993 .

[50]  S. Coelen.  Prospects for faculty in the arts and sciences , 1991 .

[51]  Martin Trow,et al.  Research Activity in American Higher Education. , 1974 .

[52]  W. Evan.  Role Strain and the Norm of Reciprocity in Research Organizations , 1962, American Journal of Sociology.