Date of Award

Summer 8-2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development

Program/Concentration

Community College Leadership

Committee Director

Kim E. Bullington

Committee Member

Charles Mathies

Committee Member

Christine Harrington

Committee Member

Mitchell R. Williams

Abstract

In this study I examined the relationships among organizational support, workplace conditions, and sense of belonging among adjunct faculty teaching STEM courses in community colleges. Grounded in the need-to-belong theory (Baumeister & Leary, 1995) and Herzberg’s two-factor theory (1968), I distinguished between relational and structural dimensions of faculty experiences. Perceived organizational support was conceptualized as a relational construct reflecting faculty members’ perceptions of being valued and included within their institutions, whereas workplace conditions were examined as structural factors influencing job satisfaction.

Using a quantitative, cross-sectional correlational survey design, data were collected from adjunct STEM faculty (N = 64) teaching at community colleges in the United States. The study employed descriptive statistics, Pearson product-moment correlation analyses, hierarchical multiple regression, and moderated multiple regression analyses to examine relationships among variables and assess the predictive influence of perceived organizational support and workplace conditions on sense of belonging while controlling for selected demographic variables. Moderation analyses were conducted to determine whether teaching experience and aspiration for full-time employment influenced the strength or direction of these relationships.

Findings indicated that perceived organizational support was the strongest predictor of sense of belonging, accounting for approximately 73% of the variance. Workplace conditions were positively correlated with sense of belonging.

An unexpected finding was that workplace conditions, despite their strong positive association with sense of belonging, did not retain predictive significance in the presence of organizational support. Additionally, the absence of moderation effects suggests that the influence of organizational support on sense of belonging operates consistently across adjunct faculty, regardless of experience level or career aspirations.

These findings underscore the central role of relational factors in shaping adjunct faculty’s sense of belonging and suggest that institutional efforts to enhance perceived organizational support may be more impactful than improvements to structural workplace conditions alone. Implications for policy and practice include the development of intentional strategies that promote inclusion, recognition, and meaningful engagement of adjunct STEM faculty within institutional communities.

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In Copyright. URI: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s).

DOI

10.25777/x127-hp52

ISBN

9798193217213

ORCID

0000-0003-4532-0801

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