Committed and engaged: A mixed method phenomenological study of the perceived roles, responsibilities, and contributions of professional support personnel in higher education

• In Event: The Consortium of State and Regional Educational Research Associations: Distinguished Paper Session and Business Meeting

Abstract

This paper presents a mixed methods study exploring the experiences and perceptions of professional support personnel in higher education regarding their roles, responsibilities, and contributions to their institutions. Surveys and interviews of current professional support personnel examined their job demands, job resources available, level of work engagement, and participation in organizational citizenship behaviors. Major findings show professional support personnel are highly engaged in their jobs and perceived their contributions to their institutions as positive. While professional support personnel indicated participation in organizational citizenship behaviors, further analysis showed the roles and responsibilities of professional support personnel in higher education are inherently comprised of organizational citizenship behaviors and thus are in-role behaviors.

Authors

• Jami Rush, University of Louisiana at Lafayette

• Dianne F. Olivier, University of Louisiana at Lafayette