Supported or stressed while being assessed? How motivational climates in UK university workplaces promote or inhibit researcher well-being

Weinstein, N. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2200-6617, Haddock, G., Chubb, J., Wilsdon, J. and Manville, C. (2023) Supported or stressed while being assessed? How motivational climates in UK university workplaces promote or inhibit researcher well-being. Higher Education Quarterly, 77 (3). pp. 537-557. ISSN 0951-5224 doi: 10.1111/hequ.12420

Abstract/Summary

Academic culture now places high expectations on researchers to demonstrate research productivity alongside teaching, leadership, and knowledge exchange. In two studies of researchers across career stages in UK higher education institutions (HEIs), we examined workplace climate within academic departments as 1) supportive of researchers’ needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness, 2) publish-or-perish focused, and 3) hyper-competitive. In Study 1 (multiwave from 2018-2020), need support predicted researchers’ lower turnover intention two years later, even when controlling for concurrent need support, and career and economic conditions. In Study 2, need support correlated with academic well-being (lower job strain and turnover intention, greater job satisfaction) in a nationwide sample of 2,951 researchers. Study 2 found that need support related to improved, and a hyper-competitive competitive motivational climate related to undermined, well-being. Results were mixed for publish-or-perish climate. Performative demands can have deleterious effects on researcher well-being.