University teachers’ self-efficacy for research and teaching and its relationship with their job satisfaction.

Today, universities compete directly with one another to improve their overall “quality” and attempt to improve their position as measured against sector standards. The benchmarking of confidence among university teachers in relation to the skills associated with research and teaching is, however, an underdeveloped and somewhat sensitive field. Not only is there a dearth of research on the topic of university teachers’ self-efficacy, but it also seems that no genuine attempt has been made to investigate the relationship between university teachers’ self-efficacy and their job satisfaction. The primary aim of this study was to investigate the research and teaching self-efficacy beliefs of university teachers and its relation to demographic and environmental factors. A further focus of the study was to examine the association between self-efficacy and job satisfaction. A theoretical framework of social cognitive theory underpinned the study in which 528 university teachers completed teaching and research self-efficacy scales in Turkey and Azerbaijan followed by 14 qualitative interviews. The findings showed that university teachers’ research self-efficacy varied according to their career stage and qualification level with no gender differences. Student achievement and feedback, work environment (university climate), workload, PhD supervision, and interpersonal relations were environmental factors affecting self-efficacy. There was a significant relationship between university teachers’ self-efficacy and job satisfaction.