The Importance of Collegiality to the Quality of the Workplace Environment
Division of Agriculture, Life and Veterinary Sciences, and Cooperative Extension
Collegiality is the cooperative interaction among colleagues where individuals work productively, and interact with civility with faculty, students, staff members, and stakeholders in all environments impacted by the university.
Collegiality encompasses the basics of the professional ethics of the academic world: each member in ALVSCE must treat all people with professional respect, foster integrity of intellectual inquiry, advocate for the needs and rights of students and stakeholders, and establish awareness of workplace safety.
Collegiality should not be confused with sociability or likability, or service but should instead be understood as a professional standard relating to each individual's performance, one that is essential to maintaining or improving the productivity and quality of all units within ALVSCE. Since collegiality is a faculty and staff shared governance expectation, employees who are not behaving in a collegial fashion (e.g. by demeaning coworkers) are to be held accountable by their direct supervisor.
Some behaviors that are antithetical to collegiality fall under UA HR policies (such as bullying, discrimination, harassment and intimidation, either verbally or in electronic communications) and these must be acted on via formal HR personnel actions.
ALSVCE appointed administrators are aware of, and respect, the AAUP Committee A on Academic Freedom and Tenure statement (adopted November 1999; revised, 2016) on collegiality. All employees are subject to Arizona Employment Law, ABOR and UA personnel policies.