By the way, Israel’s universities are on strike for the last 50 days on issues related to a government reform in academic education, and also on a change in tenure procedures.
I find it hard to believe that tenure changes people to being more productive.
Yet, this is what the authors write:
(…) a non-tenure system may well be less conducive to commitment and productivity
A.says:
Of course they are, “tenure” is a selection of the best people. It would be surprising if it was the other way around.
A.says:
This study seems to show that the tenure selection process works. The best people are selected. I find it hard to believe that tenure changes people to being more productive.
Ah, which is cause and which is effect? Are the best people tenured, or is tenure conducive to productivity?
I suggest the latter. Most people who are non-tenure-track are hired that way, rather than being relegated to that after trying and failing to get tenure. The selection process that leads away from the tenure track often has little to do with productivity.
Once upon a time, not too long ago, there wasn’t tenure.
What would happen if we were to go back to this era? Would the best people still perform as well as they do now?
By the way, Israel’s universities are on strike for the last 50 days on issues related to a government reform in academic education, and also on a change in tenure procedures.
I find it hard to believe that tenure changes people to being more productive.
Yet, this is what the authors write:
(…) a non-tenure system may well be less conducive to commitment and productivity
Of course they are, “tenure” is a selection of the best people. It would be surprising if it was the other way around.
This study seems to show that the tenure selection process works. The best people are selected. I find it hard to believe that tenure changes people to being more productive.
Ah, which is cause and which is effect? Are the best people tenured, or is tenure conducive to productivity?
I suggest the latter. Most people who are non-tenure-track are hired that way, rather than being relegated to that after trying and failing to get tenure. The selection process that leads away from the tenure track often has little to do with productivity.
I agree. But it is somehow more convenient to assume that all these people who are not tenured professors were not meant.
This has been said quite well, back in 1932: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brave_New_World .