Floodlights, Spotlights, and Flashlights: Tenure Meets the Glare of Empirical Social Science

Is tenure a prerequisite for academic quality or inimical to it? Three new books, all with different approaches, report startlingly similar conclusions: tenure systems do not necessarily hurt, and contract systems do not necessarily support, academic quality, organizational flexibility, or individual career development. Although not differentiating satisfactorily between tenure and contract systems, the volumes highlight the imperative for institutions to monitor personnel policies and their mission-related consequences with greater self-awareness.