Campus Location
Dallas Campus (Online)
Date of Award
7-2025
ORCID
https://orcid.org/0009-0001-4363-3903
Document Type
Dissertation
Department
Organizational Leadership
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Committee Chair or Primary Advisor
Tara Hornor
Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor
Shawnté M. Elbert
Third Committee Member or Committee Reader
Scott Strawn
Abstract
This narrative qualitative study examined the influence of leadership support and workplace factors on the intentions of nonexempt student affairs employees to leave a public 2-year higher education institution (HEI) in Texas. The study addressed the issue of workplace factors contributing to these employees’ developing intentions to quit their jobs. The research focused on identifying the workplace factors that most significantly influenced nonexempt student affairs employees and explored how leadership support influenced employee experiences. The study used narrative inquiry as its methodology to gather employee narratives through semistructured interviews conducted via Zoom, a communication platform. Nine participants were selected for interviews based on their full-time employment status as nonexempt student affairs employees at public 2-year HEIs in Texas. Each participant had at least 1 year of experience in one or more of the following departments: admissions, advising, business office, financial aid, or recruiting. The analysis of the participants’ interview responses identified three overarching themes: employee empowerment, relationships, and workplace culture. In addition, the participants emphasized that career development and advancement, compensation, and leadership support were the primary factors influencing their decisions to stay or leave their jobs. The research findings recommended that HEI leaders adopt the transformational leadership approach to positively influence and motivate their nonexempt student affairs employees. Public 2-year HEIs leaders in Texas would be able to better support and guide nonexempt student affairs employees who are impacted by workplace factors that influence their intentions to quit.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Viser, Christopher M., "Efforts of Public 2-Year Higher Education Institution Leadership Reducing Nonexempt Student Affairs Employees’ Intention to Quit" (2025). Digital Commons @ ACU, Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 922.
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/etd/922
Included in
Community College Leadership Commons, Educational Leadership Commons, Higher Education Commons