Professional motivation and labor interests of higher education participants in a changing world

Abstract

The study analyzes professional motivation and labor interests of people employed by the faculty of the humanities in one of the leading Russian universities in the 2022–2023 academic year. This period was characterized by significant changes in the external and internal educational environment of the university, an increase in the number of educational programs, a change in digital platforms, and tion of work and overload became an integral attribute of academic life, coupled with the underfunded expansion of the university and the expectation that academic workers should implement a new ‘culture of assessment’ and be ‘permanently involved’ in the lives of students through information resources of the disciplines. In this regard, the question arises about the priority of motivation of the participants in the modern educational environment as well as about the expression of their labor interests. Solving these issues would allow us to correctly build a system for planning and adapting higher education workers to changing environment. Data from 134 people were analyzed, of whom 65% were women and 35% were men. The average age of respondents was 37 years (minimum — 22, maximum — 60). Of the total number of the study participants, 18% were classified as administrative employees, 47% were teachers, 15% combined administrative responsibilities and teaching, 20% were practicing teachers who teach part-time. In terms of having an academic degree, 12% of the participants were Doctors of Sciences, 32% were Candidates of Sciences, and 56% did not have an academic degree. We used K. Zamfir’s Motivation for Professional Activity method modified by A.A. Rean and an original Labor Interests of Employees methodology. Data were processed using the SPSS program. The results revealed gender differences in the internal motivation (p=0.046<0.05) of the participants in the educational activities. In men, internal motivation turned out to be higher than in women. We also found differences in the career interests variable (p=0.005<0.05). At the same time, administrative employees and employees combining administrative and teaching responsibilities showed the strongest career interest. Career interest is lower among the teachers and staff members for whom teaching is not their main profession. The statistical processing identified no differences among the Doctors of Sciences, Candidates of Sciences and No Degree groups. Correlation analysis showed that the external positive motivation (p<0.05) and career interests (p<0.05) have significant negative correlations with the age (-0.44 and -0.36). That is, the older university employees are, the less external positive motivation and career interests they have. Based on the study results, we can say that the employees predominantly possess internal motivation (4.34) compared to external motivation (3.39 and 3.18). Among the interests, professional (4.16), group (4.18) and corporate (4.09) interests occupied the main positions.