Addressing career obstacles within a changing higher education work environment: perspectives of academics

Many changes have occurred in Higher Education Institutions (HEI), which contribute to high levels of work stress among academic staff members and that impact on job satisfaction, job involvement and job engagement. Owing to these changes, academics attached to tertiary institutions are being confronted with specific career obstacles that impact negatively on their job satisfaction and productivity. Our purpose in this study was to determine, from the academic's point of view, the role that HEIs can play to address these obstacles. In terms of positive psychology, persons should not only become aware of their problems, but also come up with alternative solutions on how to address them. A sample of 93 academics from one university, representing the early, middle, and late career stages was selected. The data were obtained by means of the Delphi technique in order to enable respondents to reveal fully what they were experiencing. Respondents were requested to suggest specific actions that could be taken to address the career obstacles academics are confronted with. The most important solutions were related to better remuneration, more effective management of role overload, more effective performance management, more training and development opportunities, more support regarding individual career management, more effective general management, more support regarding research outputs, elimination of discrimination practices, transformation initiatives, encouraging of entrepreneurship, improvement of equipment and working conditions, creation of job security, and promotion of networking.