Service work is an essential part of jobs in academia. However, research shows that service work may be potentially harmful for one’s career.
What do you think? Share your thoughts and experiences with us during a focus group.
Without academics taking up service tasks (e.g. grading the extra paper, volunteering to go to a certain meeting, writing a needed document), nearly all aspects of academic life would be severely compromised. However, research has indicated that volunteering and helping others at work, i.e. service or citizenship behaviours, may potentially be harmful for one’s career as less time may be spent on one’s core tasks.
Through the project Helpers and Doers, funded by the UM Diversity & Inclusivity Office, we want to examine this phenomenon at UM. The good will of academic staff members to take over extra tasks is essential, but typically not formally recognised through tangible incentives. In our project, we will focus on the question of who, why, and under which circumstances employees at UM engage in citizenship behaviours and how this is related to their academic success.
How can you contribute? For the first phase of our research, we are holding focus groups to discuss with the UM community about the topic of service work in the workplace, and how it may or may not impact their success in academia.
To ensure high participation, we will hold two focus groups on different dates. Please sign up for the one most convenient for you schedule. Please note that the project focuses on UM academic staff.
Register through the link for:
In case you would like to change your registration, please contact us via email.
Find out more about the project here. If you have questions about the content of the focus groups or want to know more about the research, please reach out to Dr. Luana Russo and Dr. Annika Nübold.
