Abstract:

The current state of the sphere of the labor of scientific and pedagogical workers (SPW) of regional universities has many signs of precarization. There is a widespread practice of short-term contracts (1-3 years), low level of the constant part of wages relative to the available amount of human capital, lack of career prospects and a decline in social status in society.

In this regard, the influence of precarization on the personnel potential of regional universities is of interest for research.

The study assesses the activity of scientific and pedagogical workers in the situation of precarization, identifies the types of scientific and pedagogical workers according to the features of activities. There were interviewed 219 teachers of regional universities.

The study tested the following hypotheses:
- Precarization of employment leads to contradictions in the motivational sphere among all scientific and pedagogical workers (simultaneous existence of conflicting motives in the motivational core).
- Modern strategies of the behavior of scientific and pedagogical workers of regional universities are aimed at compensating the negative effects of precarization.
- Growth in personnel potential depends on incentive systems. The dominant incentive for scientific and pedagogical workers will be monetary stimulation.

There were used the following research methods: descriptive statistics, factor analysis.

According to the results of the study, the following conclusions were obtained:
1. There were identified conflicting motives in the motivational core of the scientific and pedagogical workers - the motive of stability and job security, on the one hand, and the motive of self-planning of their working time, on the other hand. There was fixed a priority of motives of safety and social environment over motives of self-realization and self-development.
2. Scientific and pedagogical workers compensate a low share of a constant part of a salary through the growth of an academic load, performance of strategic indicators of higher education institutions and career movements. There were identified 3 groups of SPW, which adapt to the realities in different ways. Thus, the group with high rates of labor activity maximizes the possibility of income within the walls of universities. A group with low activity rates focuses on less "profitable" activities.
3. The most "strong" incentive for workers is wages, and the higher the level of activity of the employee, the higher his requests regarding the size of earnings.

Thus, precarization of employment of scientific and pedagogical workers stimulates adaptive employees who are ready to change their behavior in a situation of deteriorating employment conditions.

Keywords:

Work activity, motivation, higher education problems, Russian Federation.