Academia — a love in detour

Onboarding first semester students, October 18 2022

Andy Weeger

Neu-Ulm University of Applied Sciences

Introduction

My career (so far)

Research question

Why did I end up back as a professor in academia (after all)?

Theory

Job characteristics theory (Hackman & Oldham, 1976)

Motivation Potential Score =
(SkillVariety * TaskIdentity * TaskSignificance)/3
* Autonomy * Feedback

Findings

Industry MPS

	Industry
`SkillVariety`	strong**
`TaskIdentity`	rather strong*
`TaskSignificance`	it depends**
`Autonomy`	partially*
`Feedback`	often monetary**

Table 1: Industry (* significant at 0.01%, ** significant at 1%)

Industry and academia MPS

	Industry	Academia
`SkillVariety`	strong**	strong*
`TaskIdentity`	rather strong*	strong*
`TaskSignificance`	it depends**	hopefully
`Autonomy`	partially*	strong*
`Feedback`	often monetary**	depends on you
`MPS`	strong	stronger

Table 2: Conmparison of findings (* significant at 0.01%, ** significant at 1%)

Discussion

Learnings

The gras is sometimes greener on the other side

However, for me

significance and autonomy beats money,
a job in academia gives the freedom to think things through,
freedom comes with responsibilities (learn, share, change), but
acting responsibly motivates.

Thus, academia was the place to return to.

Conclusions

Being at a university is a great priviledge

Thus, …

take the learning opportunities you get,
don’t learn just for making money once out,
try to understand how the world really works, and
embrace challenges and persist through obstacles.

The HNU is a lovely place to be (value that), I returned with pleasure.

Literature

Hackman, J. R., & Oldham, G. R. (1976). Motivation through the design of work: Test of a theory. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 16(2), 250–279.