A Qualitative Research on Factors Affecting Academician Reputation

Abstract

The aim of this study is to reveal the personal reputation perceptions of academic staff and the determinants of the concept of academic reputation, with the subgoals of determining what academics understand by the concept of academic reputation, determining the factors that affect their reputation, revealing the issues that cause damaging reputation among academics and determining positive and negative results. This study was conducted by applying the phenomenological design, which is one of the qualitative research designs. The participants were determined using the criterion sampling and snowball methods. The interview form was designed by the researcher in line with the purpose of the study, and the data were obtained through in-depth interviews with 20 faculty members working at Süleyman Demirel University. After the analysis of the audio recordings of the interviews, the data were coded using the interpretive phenomenology method based on the basic questions of the research. The Nvivo 12 Plus qualitative data analysis program was used to analyze the data. It was concluded that the academic staff earn a good reputation as long as they serve the mission of education-research and contribute to the society, but the administrators and management style of their institution also have a strong impact on their academic reputation. The personal, organizational and social determinants of academic reputation and the factors that damage or improve it were also identified. Finally, some suggestions were made on how to improve academic reputation.