Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy xxx (2017) 1e4

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Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy

journal homepage: www.rsap.org

The impact of work-life balance on intention to stay in academia:

Results from a national survey of pharmacy faculty
Tristan Lindfelt, Pharm.D. Associate Professor a, *,
Eric J. Ip, Pharm.D. Chair and Associate Professor a, Alejandra Gomez, Pharm.D. student b,
Mitchell J. Barnett, Pharm.D., MS Associate Professor a
a
Department of Clinical Sciences, Touro University California, College of Pharmacy, Vallejo, CA, USA
b
Touro University California, College of Pharmacy, Vallejo, CA, USA

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Purpose: Border-Crossing theory suggests work-life balance and career satisfaction are inter-related and
Received 3 January 2017 disappointment in work-life balance may predict changes in one's career path. Application of this theory
Received in revised form to health profession faculty is plausible but has not been fully explored. The purpose of this study is to
31 March 2017
examine factors related to reported career change intention among United States pharmacy school
Accepted 12 April 2017
faculty and to determine if Border-Crossing theory fits these observations.
Methods: Results from a national web-based survey administered via Qualtrics® to American Association
of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) members were utilized. Bivariate analyses were conducted to compare
differences among faculty stating an intention to stay or leave academia. A logistic multivariate model
was used to determine if work-life balance remains significant when controlling for other variables and if
survey results support the Border-Crossing theory.
Results: Nearly all (seven hundred of 811 responders, or 86.3%) stated a desire to stay in academia.
Faculty with higher work-life balance were more likely to report an intent to remain in academia. Male,
older, full-professor and non-pharmacy practice faculty (social or administrative science, pharmacology,
medicinal chemistry and others) were more likely to state an intention to remain in academia relative to
their counterparts. Lower stress, as measured by the validated Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) scores, was
seen among faculty stating a desire to remain in academia. Work-life balance remained significantly
inversely related to career change intention after controlling for all other factors.
Conclusion: A significant factor related to pharmacy faculty's stated intention to remain in academia was
work-life balance. Other factors such as gender, age, rank, stress level and department may also play a
role. These results support the application of the Border-Crossing theory in health profession faculty and
may provide pharmacy school administrators and stakeholders with insight to foster faculty retention
and decrease faculty turnover.
© 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction directly affect turnover intention - suggesting turnover intention as

Border-Crossing theory postulates that work-life balance and
career satisfaction are different (bordered) but interconnected by
transitions (border-crossing).1 The theory argues that disappoint-
ment in one area or system propels individuals to pursue or change
activities in the other area.2,3 Career satisfaction among health-
system pharmacists, nurses and physicians has been shown to
* Corresponding author. 1310 Club Drive, Vallejo, CA 94592, USA.
E-mail address: Tristan.Lindfelt@tu.edu (T. Lindfelt).
a valid marker for career satisfaction.4e7 Although less is known
about health-system professional faculty, one study found
improving workplace satisfaction crucial for recruiting and
retaining high-quality medical faculty.8
Results of other studies have demonstrated moderate levels of
job satisfaction among pharmacy school faculty.9e11 Critical factors
identified in influencing pharmacy faculty job change intent
include a high workload, poor compensation, lack of perceived
support for research, lack of perceived support from administra-
tion, desire to try a new career path, high stress and geographic
location of the current faculty position.12 One study uncovered that

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sapharm.2017.04.008
1551-7411/© 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Please cite this article in press as: Lindfelt T, et al., The impact of work-life balance on intention to stay in academia: Results from a national
survey of pharmacy faculty, Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sapharm.2017.04.008
2 T. Lindfelt et al. / Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy xxx (2017) 1e4
pharmacy practice faculty may be more satisfied with their posi-
tions (regarding working in an intellectually challenging environ-
ment) relative to non-pharmacy practice faculty.9 The previous
studies were all conducted prior to or in conjunction with expan-
sion in the number of pharmacy schools in the United States (U.S).
Between 2005 and 2014, the U.S. experienced a 48% increase in
the number of ACPE-accredited pharmacy schools (from 87 to 129
institutions). As of late 2016, there were 6346 full-time pharmacy
faculty members and 279 part-time members employed at 136
colleges and schools of pharmacy.13 With the expansion of phar-
macy schools in the U.S., existing faculty have likely been tasked
with additional or expanding roles and responsibilitiesdthereby
increasing their workload. Work-life balance may have potentially
suffered as faculty endeavored to balance teaching, research and
service. Clinical responsibilities may have also placed additional
strain on the pharmacy practice faculty members. The purpose of
this study is to examine factors related to reported career change
intention among United States pharmacy school faculty and to
determine if Border-Crossing theory fits these observations.
2. Methods
A 48-item web-based survey was distributed to members of the
American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) utilizing
Qualtrics®. This included all current AACP members working within
the U.S. or 4787 individuals. The survey launched in February 2012
and non-responders received an e-mail reminder in March and
again in May 2012. The survey closed on May 31, 2012. The survey
included questions regarding respondents' demographics, type of
academic institution, appointment type, lifestyle traits, and work-
life balance. The survey methods and a detailed description of the
analytical cohort have been described in detail elsewhere.14 This
survey was determined to be exempt by the Investigational Review
Board at Touro University California. No incentives were provided
for participation in the study. Statistical analyses were conducted
using SAS for Windows 9.3 (SAS Institute, Cary, NC). Work-life
balance was assessed via use of Likert-scale questions, each
scaled 1 through 5. Intent to remain in academia for the remainder
of their career was assessed with a yes or no response question. The
Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) was utilized to gauge respondents'
overall stress levels. The PSS, is a validated instrument consisting of
10 multiple choice questions individually scored 0 to 4 (with
requisite reverse scoring for 4 items).15 Means and standard de-
viations were used for the reporting of continuous variables, while
frequencies and percentages were used for reporting categorical
data. Bivariate analyses were conducted to examine differences
among faculty stating a desire to remain in academia compared to
those stating a desire to leave academia. Comparisons were made
utilizing Student's t and Chi-square tests for continuous and cate-
gorical variables, respectively. In addition, multivariate logistic
analyses were conducted to examine the impact of work-life bal-
ance on faculty intention to remain or leave academia while con-
trolling for other factors. More specifically, the multivariate models
were run while controlling for faculty level variables such as de-
mographics, PSS score and information related to the faculty
member's position (e.g., type of institution) (e.g., public vs. private),
department (e.g., pharmacy practice, social or administrative sci-
ence, pharmacology, pharmaceutics, medicinal chemistry and
other), and rank (e.g., assistant professor, associate professor, full
professor, and other) etc. Indicator (dummy variables) were created
for each of the categorical variables used in the model.
3. Results
Of the AACP members invited to participate, 828 completed the
Please cite this article in press as: Lindfelt T, et al., The impact of work-life balance on intention to stay in academia: Results from a national
survey of pharmacy faculty, Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sapharm.2017.04.008
entire survey and 17 were excluded for not reporting information
such as academic rank, full-time status and department. Complete
responses were obtained from 811 respondents yielding a final
response rate of 16.9%. The majority of respondents, 535 (66%),
identified themselves as members of the pharmacy practice
department. Other respondents were members of the social and
administrative sciences department (91, 11.2%), pharmacology or
biological science (84, 10.4%), pharmaceuticals or pharmacy (46,
5.7%) and medicinal chemistry or pharmaceutical chemistry (41,
5.1%). Less than 2% identified themselves as associated with library,
educational resources or other. Seven-hundred (86.3%) of the 811
respondents declared a desire to remain in academia for the
remainder of their career. Women, younger (mean age in years)
faculty, assistant professors and pharmacy practice faculty were all
overrepresented in the group stating a desire to leave academia
relative to the group stating a desire to remain in academia. Addi-
tional demographics can be found in Table 1. In addition, faculty not
wanting to remain in academia reported higher PSS stress scores
and lower work-life balance relative to faculty who wished to
remain in academia. No differences were seen according to
ethnicity, marital status, leadership responsibility (i.e., committee
chair) and institution setting (i.e., public or private). Other variables
recorded but not shown in Table 1, include hours worked per week,
commute times and number of children. In addition, number of
chronic health conditions and BMI were included as measures of
overall health. None of these variables were found to differ signif-
icantly between the “remain in” or “leave” academia groups.
Lastly, in multivariate logistic models controlling for the previ-
ously mentioned variables, work-life balance was found to be
significantly related to a predicted desire to remain in academia.
More specifically, a one-point increase (on a five-point Likert Scale)
in work-life balance led to a 51% increase in predicted desire to
remain in academia (Table 2). Discriminative ability (area under the
receiver operating characteristic or ROC curve) and calibration of
the logistic model was found to be very good overall, as measured
by the c and Hosmer-Lemeshow statistics, respectively.
4. Discussion
The notion of predicting one's work environment shows the
complexity of the work-life balance and intention to change career
path relationship. At the same time, Border-Crossing theory pre-
dicts the changes some make and gives a framework for explaining
the search for a new balance (career change) that may occur.1 This
study is one of the few to analyze factors affecting health profes-
sional faculty in the work field as well as in their personal life. This
study found that overall, pharmacy school faculty were satisfied
with their career with over 85% of subjects reporting they wished to
stay in academia. While previous studies in medicine faculty have
found no correlation between gender and intention to leave
academia, this study found a greater percentage of women desiring
to leave academia versus men in unadjusted analyses.16,17 In addi-
tion, surveyed faculty who reported a desire to remain in academia
were older and held a higher academic rank relative to those who
did not report an intent to stay in academia. It is unknown if time in
academia, achieving a higher appointment status, and better
management of work duties contributes to an overall better
adjustment of work-life balance or if these characteristics inde-
pendently lead to an ability to succeed in academia. In addition, this
study found that while the majority of clinical or pharmacy practice
faculty express an intent to remain in academia, they appear
overrepresented in the cohort desiring to leave. This mirrors pre-
vious work finding that while faculty working in pharmacy practice
or clinical departments have higher job satisfaction they have
greater job turnover rates compared to faculty working in basic
 T. Lindfelt et al. / Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy xxx (2017) 1e4 3

Table 1
Factors stratified by intention to stay or leave academia for remainder of career.

Leave Academia Stay in Academia P-Value

N ¼ 111 N ¼ 700

Female gender, N (%) 80 (72.1) 383 (54.7) 0.001

Age, mean ± SD 39.8 ± 12.1 45.9 ± 14.2 0.034
Private Institution, N (%) 55 (50.5) 284 (41.5) 0.078
Caucasian, N (%) 89 (80.2) 594 (85.5) 0.150
Married, N (%) 83 (75.5) 549 (79.3) 0.354
Assistant Professor, N (%) 71 (63.9) 302 (43.1) <0.001
Full Professor, N (%) 5 (4.5) 165 (23.6) <0.001
Committee Chair, N (%) 33 (29.7) 261 (37.3) 0.124
Pharmacy Practice Department N (%) 83 (74.8) 452 (64.9) 0.040
Years in academia, N (%)
<5 55 (49.6) 188 (27.0) <0.001
5e9 26 (23.4) 153 (22.0) 0.734
10e14 15 (13.5) 112 (16.1) 0.488
15e19 7 (6.3) 81 (11.6) 0.094
20 8 (7.2) 162 (23.3) 0.001
Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) score, mean ± SD 16.3 ± 6.7 13.0 ± 6.0 <0.001
Job satisfaction (Likert Scale 1e5)a 2.90 ± 0.92 3.82 ± 0.95 <0.001
Work-life Balance (Likert Scale 1e5)a 2.51 ± 1.11 3.24 ± 0.99 <0.001
a
Likert Scale 1e5 where 1 ¼ not at all satisfied 2 ¼ slightly satisfied 3 ¼ somewhat satisfied 4 ¼ very satisfied 5 ¼ extremely satisfied.

science departments.9,18 impact on work-life balance would be beneficial to explore. Future

Previous studies focusing on medical school faculty and phar-
macists have hinted that lower work-life balance may affect job
turnover intention.5,12 More specifically, Munger et al. found
occupational satisfaction was highly correlated with the intention
to search for a new position among community pharmacists.4 This
study indicates that similar issues may affect U.S. pharmacy faculty.
When dissecting and exploring more specific and individual fac-
tors, including hours worked per week, commute times and
number of chronic health conditions, no significant results were
found. Stress is another factor previously found to influence job
turnover. Previous studies have found stress as one of the most
cited reasons for job turnover intention among pharmacy faculty.12
In addition, higher stress has been found to lead to lower job
satisfaction among pharmacists.5,10 Though faculty in this study
reported low to moderate PSS stress scores overall, faculty report-
ing a desire to remain in academia had lower PSS scores. Lower
stress could be attributed to better work-life balance and the ability
to manage stress. However, the importance of stress as an inde-
pendent factor that influences job turnover intent cannot be
completely discounted. What should be noted with this study is
that work-life balance remained significant in relation to a stated
intention to remain in academia when controlling for stress. These
findings indicate that there is an opportunity to explore ways to
improve workelife balance without focusing solely on measures or
programs to reduce stress.
Institutions may consider targeted strategies to improve work-
life balance including mandatory time off, restriction of work
hours, accessibility of family-related attraction discounts and
assigning a mentor for new faculty to help manage work re-
sponsibilities more efficiently.14,19,20 Determining which strategies
or combination of strategies that would have the greatest positive
Table 2
Multivariate results for Work-life balance variable modeling stated desire to remain
in academiaa.
Odds Ratio 95% CI P-Value
studies should also focus on what aspects of a pharmacy faculty's
career bring satisfaction and which ones bring dissatisfaction in
hopes of finding ways to improve work-life balance.
There are limitations to this study that must be highlighted.
General limitations noted with survey research such as response
bias and a lower than ideal response rate apply to this study.
However, the response rate was similar to other investigations in
this area.10,12 Authors and their affiliated institution were identified
to potential respondents which may have influenced a person's
decision positively or negatively to participate. Follow-up studies
should ideally question respondents more in-depth with regards to
factors determining job satisfaction and intent to leave or remain in
academia. In addition, this study did not look at salary or fringe
benefits - both of which have been reported in studies as key rea-
sons for job turnover intention among nursing and pharmacy fac-
ulty.9,12,21 Whether or not respondents who indicated they would
not continue in academia actually left their positions was also not
examined. For pharmacy practice faculty members, whether or not
they had a clinical practice and how their time was shared between
the school and the practice site was not captured. This study did not
look into specific factors that may drive work-life balance. Delin-
eating these factors may help determine specific areas and pro-
grams that stakeholders should focus on to improve faculty
retention.
5. Conclusion
Overall, pharmacy faculty reported being very or extremely
satisfied with their current career position. Work-life balance
remained a significant factor predicting intention to remain in
academia. Other factors such as gender, age, academic rank (full
professor status), stress level and department may also play a role.
These results may provide pharmacy schools and stakeholders with
insight to foster and improve work-life balance among faculty, thus
decreasing career change intention and improving retention among
faculty.
C Statistic

Work-life balance 1.51 1.16e1.96 0.002 0.741

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Please cite this article in press as: Lindfelt T, et al., The impact of work-life balance on intention to stay in academia: Results from a national
survey of pharmacy faculty, Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy (2017), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.sapharm.2017.04.008