Abstract

1. Abstract • Institutions may be interested in using alumni career success as evidence of institutional effectiveness, but the current study suggests that using income as the sole outcome may not be entirely capturing the occupational experience of graduates. Utilizing data from the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP), exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis indicated that there are two distinct components of job satisfaction among arts alumni: intrinsic satisfaction and extrinsic satisfaction. The results of Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression analyses for these two factors provide some relationships concerning age, gender, reported income, and occupational field. In considering overall job satisfaction, intrinsicsatisfaction may play a larger role in how alumni perceive their careers outcomes and success. Assessing Alumni Success: Income is NOT the Only Outcome! • Methodology • Participants: • Data from the 2011 administration of the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP) • SNAAP is on-line annual survey designed to assess and improve various aspects of arts-school education • Participants were 33,801 alumni from 57 different arts high schools, arts colleges, or arts programs within larger universities • Sample consisted of 8% high school level, 70% undergraduate level, and 22% graduate level alumni • 38% male, 62% female, .2% transgender • Majority (87%) reported ethnicity as Caucasian • Average institutional response rate: 21% • Measures: • Measures of job satisfaction: A set of questions that asked alumni to indicated the level of satisfaction with each of the following 8 aspects of their current work in the occupation in which they spend the majority of their work time from “very dissatisfied” to “very satisfied”: • Job security; Opportunity to be creative; Income; Balance between work and non-work life; Opportunity to contribute to greater good; Opportunity for career advancement; Work that reflects my personality, interests, and values; Overall job satisfaction • Demographic information for: • Gender, age, race/ethnicity, income, and whether a parent was a professional artist • Occupational information: • List of 45 different occupations, both arts-related and non-arts-related • Chose from the list of 45 those ever worked, those currently working, and those in which a majority of work time is spent • Results • Job satisfaction can be classified into two general types: Intrinsic and extrinsic • Parallels psychological motivation literature (Lepper & Henderlong, 2002) • Income was the strongest predictor of extrinsic satisfaction • Those with higher incomes have higher extrinsic satisfaction • Working in an arts field was the strongest predictor of intrinsic job satisfaction • Those who spend a majority of their work time in an arts field have higher intrinsic satisfaction • Conclusions • Limitations of study: sample may not be representative of all arts alumni (response rates) and self-reported data may not be completely objective • Assessing alumni can provide important information on institutional effectiveness, but traditional measures of employment and income may not provide the most accurate or complete information on alumni success • Institutions should consider asking alumni additional information about multiple aspects of their current job satisfaction in order to gain a more comprehensive understanding of their alumni • Literature Review • There is an increasing trend for requiring colleges and • universities to show measures of their effectiveness • (Kuh & Ewell, 2010) • Combination of the struggling economy, funding cuts to higher education, and the evolution of the traditional higher education model (i.e. distance education, MOOCs, etc.) • One important measure of effectiveness is alumni success in the workplace (Cabrera, Weerts, & Zulick, • 2005) • In addition to content knowledge from a student's major, institutions can also provide other skills such as communication, analytical thinking, and creative thinking (Tait & Godfrey, 1999) • If institutions do not train students well, the employability • of their graduates will decrease (Evers, Rush, & Berdrow, 1998) • Many institutions employ some type of alumni survey, requesting that alumni report back their current job(s) and income • Certain fields in particular have recently been under scrutiny for the career outcomes of their graduates • Architecture, arts & humanities, law • Data indicates that some majors have disappointingly low income levels, especially among recent college graduates (Carnevale, Cheah, & Strohl, 2012) References Cabrera, A.F., Weerts, D.J., & Zulick, B.J. (2005). Making an impact with alumni surveys. New Directions for Institutional Research, 2005: 5-17. doi: 10.1002/ir.144 Carnevale, A.P., Cheah, B., & Strohl, J. (2012). College majors, unemployment, and earnings: Not all college degrees are created equal. Washington, DC: Center of Education and the Workforce, Georgetown University. Evers, F.T., Rush, J.C., & Berdrow, I. (1998). The bases of competence: Skills for lifelong learning and employability. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Kuh, G. D. & Ewell, P. T. (2010). The state of learning outcomes assessment in the United States. Higher Education Management and Policy, 22(1), 1-20. Lepper, M. R., & Henderlong, J. (2002). Turning “play” into “work” and “work” into “play”: 25 years of research on intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation. In C. Sansone & J.M. Harackiewicz (Eds.), Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation: The search for optimal motivation and performance (pp. 257-307). San Diego, CA: Academic Press. Tait, H., & Godfrey, H. (1999). Defining and assessing competence in generic skills. Quality in Higher Education, 5(3), 245-253. • The problem with income… • What is “enough” when it comes to income? • What if the alumni pursued further education? • Some fields of work (i.e. arts, education) are not generally associated with large monetary incentives • The current study uses an arts alumni survey to explore how aspects of job satisfaction, and their relationships to other demographic, occupational, and institutional variables, can provide alternative performance indicators For further information please contact adlamber@indiana.edu or anglmill@indiana.edu. More information on this and related projects can be obtained at snaap.indiana.edu Amber D. Lambert and Angie L. Miller