Guanqun Zhang

Year of Award

2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Type

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Degree Name

International Educational Leadership

Department or School/College

Phyllis J. Washington College of Education

Committee Chair

William P. McCaw

Commitee Members

Erica Allen, Grace Gardner, John Matt, Liqin Tang

Abstract

Under the backdrop of high-quality development in China, college instructors are crucial for higher education institutions to achieve their high-quality goals. To motivate college instructors, these institutions have increased the requirements for professional titles. However, how instructors experience their workplace directly influences the outcomes. The proposal of this research was based on the reality that college instructors are considered difficult to motivate. Some are even referred to as lying flat, a term describing those who are unmotivated or disengaged.

Using a qualitative approach, this research explored how the increased perception of involution affects college instructors, with the central question: How do Chinese college instructors experience the negative aspects of involution? Personal interviews were conducted with fourteen college instructors in Inner Mongolia. The raw transcriptions of their experiences were analyzed using the descriptive phenomenological approach as outlined by Giorgi (2009). This approach allowed the data to be reduced into a single narrative description shared by all participants, indicating the essence of their lived experiences under intense competition and involution.

The shared structure of the phenomenon highlighted the complex and paradoxical experiences associated with how college instructors interact with their external workplace environment. Their experiences indicated that the prerequisite for self-improvement motivation is the perception of the significance of competition or work. In this process, leadership and management processes play a significant role in shaping instructors’ perceptions. This study also showed that involution differs from intense competition, being a complex phenomenon intertwined with other factors such as irrational competition, unfair competition, excessive competition, and formalism in the workplace. These elements can result in negative emotions like dissatisfaction, anger, helplessness, and depression. Therefore, the phenomenon of involution in higher education institutions is essentially an issue of leadership and management.

Findings from this study indicated that leaders in higher education institutions must pay more attention to leadership and management processes. Setting reasonable goals, providing necessary support, and creating a positive and healthy workplace climate are essential to addressing the problem of involution in higher education institutions.

Download

Share

COinS
 

© Copyright 2024 Guanqun Zhang