Over the past several decades, tenure has been on the decline in institutions of higher education. In lieu of tenure-eligible positions, alternative faculty appointments have emerged such as contract-based appointments to teach or to do research. Although the presence of faculty appointed primarily to do research has increased in recent years, little is known about how these faculty members experience their work. Through this dissertation study I sought to understand how faculty members, appointed on an established research track with existing policies and practices regarding promotion and participation in governance activities, within a medical school at an institution with a Carnegie classification of highest research activity, experience their work. Data collection for this qualitative study consisted of two face-to-face interviews, document analysis, and website review. The theoretical framework that guided this study included six dimensions of work defined by Kalleberg's (1977) theory of job satisfaction and three components of organizational justice, including distributive justice, procedural justice, and interactional justice defined by Cropanzano, Bowen, and Gilliland (2007). I developed a conceptual model incorporating the six dimensions of work and three components of organizational justice, which I revised based on the findings in this study. Through the six themes and eighteen subthemes that emerged, the participants unveiled their experiences and perceptions working as research-track faculty members. All participants in the study expressed deriving satisfaction from the work itself. The participants also described having access to resources to do their work. However, they overwhelmingly identified the lack of job security as a negative factor when assessing their job satisfaction. The research-track faculty members in this study still expressed having an opportunity to build a career at MedU, though there were some constraints to achieving promotion due to the requirement to obtain funding in a funding environment that can be disadvantageous to research-track faculty who frequently do not have dedicated space or discretionary funds with which to develop an independent research program. Even though there was consensus that the environment at MedU was collegial, interactions outside of MedU with colleagues through conferences and through feedback received from grant reviewers were less positive. For some research-track faculty who participated in this study, an additional detraction from job satisfaction was the limited opportunity to participate meaningfully in governance activities, which for these individuals, brought about a feeling of second-class status. Although not generalizable to all institutions of higher education, the results of this study provide insights that are both timely and relevant. I provide a list of ten suggested practices that institutions of higher education can implement to develop or maintain a track for research faculty at their institution with an end goal of working toward enhancing job satisfaction and organizational justice for these members of the faculty.
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