Analysis of Factors Influencing the Crisis Perception of Professors at Local Universities Due to Environmental Changes

Abstract

(Purpose) Professors at local private universities face declining self-esteem due to the burden of student recruitment and employment guidance, external evaluations placing them at lower ranks, and anxiety over potential university mergers and closures. Departmental restructuring often proceeds without proper consultation, leading to conflicts among faculty members over teaching hours. This study analyzed the crisis perception of professors at local private universities amidst the ongoing crisis of regional extinction, surveying factors such as self-esteem, workload, restructuring, and salary, as well as mediating factors like work-related stress and anxiety, and offering policy recommendations to overcome these challenges. (Design/methodology/approach) The measurement model in the structural equation model comprised independent variables, mediating variables, and dependent variables. Independent variables included self-esteem crisis, workload (student recruitment, student management, administrative work), restructuring (department mergers and closures, fear of university survival, internal conflicts), and dissatisfaction with compensation. Mediating variables were work-related stress and anxiety, while the dependent variable was crisis perception. Survey items were structured on a 5-point scale. (Findings) Stress was found to be significantly positively influenced by workload, restructuring, and dissatisfaction with compensation. Anxiety was significantly influenced positively by self-esteem crisis, restructuring, and dissatisfaction with compensation. Mediating variables, stress and anxiety, were positive influencing factors for crisis perception. Self-esteem crisis was not a direct factor affecting stress, but workload was the strongest influencing factor. Overall, higher levels of workload, restructuring, and dissatisfaction with compensation increase stress, and higher self-esteem crisis, restructuring, and dissatisfaction with compensation increase anxiety, ultimately leading to higher crisis perception levels. (Research implications or Originality) As a policy implication, the following alternatives were suggested. (1) unpaid wages issue for university staff, (2) attracting and managing international students, (3) enhancing the quality of graduate education for international students, (4) promoting online and hybrid courses, (5)responding to the decline of unpopular departments, (6)6. interdisciplinary education and shared university curriculum(①cultivating interdisciplinary talents in response to demographic changes, ②problem-based learning suitable for the digital transformation era, ③shared university curriculum and ai-based student and course guidance).