About a Third of Faculty Report Being Treated With Respect at Work

In every workplace, there are three critical experiences that employees must have to perceive a truly inclusive culture: feeling respected, believing their individual strengths are appreciated and trusting their leaders to do the right thing when faced with an ethics issue.

On this first and most important element, feeling respected, just 38% of U.S. college faculty strongly agree that they are treated with respect at work. Full-time and tenured faculty members are slightly less likely than their peers to feel as if they are treated with respect at work.

	All faculty	Full time	Part time	Tenured	Tenure track	Nontenure track
	%	%	%	%	%	%
Strongly agree	38	35	46	33	40	40
4	33	34	30	34	42	31
3	17	17	16	19	14	16
2	8	9	5	8	4	8
Strongly disagree	5	6	3	7	<1	5
Gallup/Inside Higher Ed

These results are based on a recent study of more than 1,900 faculty members conducted by Gallup and Inside Higher Ed.

Respect is directly related to instances of discrimination and harassment in the workplace. Gallup finds that nationally, 90% of those who say they are not treated with respect report at least one of 35 different discrimination or harassment experiences at work. Among college faculty and staff, 13% disagree or strongly disagree that they are treated with respect.

Few Faculty Say Employees' Unique Strengths Are Appreciated

Sixteen percent of faculty members strongly agree that their institution is committed to building the strengths of each employee, which is critical to ensuring individuals feel their unique talents are celebrated at their workplace. Full-time faculty are less likely than their part-time peers to feel their institution is committed to building the strengths of each employee. Similarly, those who have achieved tenure are less likely than those who are not yet tenured or not on the tenure track to say their institution celebrates employees' strengths.

	All faculty	Full time	Part time	Tenured	Tenure track	Nontenure track
	%	%	%	%	%	%
Strongly agree	16	13	22	12	18	17
4	31	31	32	28	39	32
3	27	27	27	29	24	27
2	16	17	12	17	14	14
Strongly disagree	10	11	7	13	4	9
Gallup/Inside Higher Ed

Strengths-based development is an important tool for creating an inclusive culture. With a strengths-based approach to development, employees more effectively understand their talents and are able to use their strengths to exceed basic expectations.

Only a Quarter Say Their Employer Would Do What Is Right

A truly inclusive culture requires that individual employees trust their managers and leaders to do the right thing when faced with an ethics issue. Unfortunately, just 25% of faculty members strongly agree that their employer "would do what is right" if they raised a concern about ethics and integrity. Even fewer tenured faculty members, 20%, feel this way. And nearly a quarter of all faculty members (22%) disagree or strongly disagree their organization would do the right thing.

	All faculty	Full time	Part time	Tenured	Tenure track	Nontenure track
	%	%	%	%	%	%
Strongly agree	25	22	34	20	21	30
4	31	31	30	30	40	30
3	22	22	22	24	20	21
2	13	14	9	15	13	11
Strongly disagree	9	10	5	12	5	7
Gallup/Inside Higher Ed

Implications

Higher education has a unique opportunity to serve as an example to other industries on the issue of inclusion. Higher ed institutions represent settings in which students can connect with others from different backgrounds and debate complex issues. However, if individual faculty members do not feel respected by their colleagues or their institution, they are unable to serve as an example to students who perhaps are learning how to discuss these complicated topics for the first time.

Higher education institutions nationally are pledging to increase diversity, but many are not focused intensely enough on what comes next -- creating an inclusive culture so that these diverse individuals feel embraced for what they each uniquely contribute. The ability to create that culture has less to do with institutional structure or control and more to do with an institution's values. In fact, on each of the most important elements of inclusion -- feeling respected, believing that one's organization is committed to building employees' unique strengths and having confidence in leadership to do what is right -- there are no differences in responses from faculty working at public or private institutions. Although public/private status does not make a difference, there is tremendous variation by institution. Through its work with individual university partners, Gallup finds significant differences in responses to these items, confirming that inclusion is not a reflection of structure, but rather institutional values and priorities.

Importantly, employee engagement and inclusiveness are closely related; nearly all employees who feel included are engaged in their jobs. But Gallup data suggest that these core elements of inclusion -- being treated with respect, being valued for unique strengths and working for an organization where leaders do what is right -- help create a culture where faculty feel valued and believe their opinions count.