Extrinsic Rewards and Intrinsic Interest: The Influence of Tenure on Faculty Preference for Teaching or Research. ASHE Annual Meeting Paper.

This study exam:ned how the awarding of tenure affects senior professors' interests in teaching and research and whether effects are uniformly negative, positive or different depending on the task. A conceptual model was used that involved intrinsic interest and extrinsic rewards, work context, and individual background variables. Data were taken from the 1989 Survey Among College and University Faculty, a total sample of 5,450 faculty from 306 two-year and four-year American colleges and universities. The results of the study show that even after they have attained tenure themselves, faculty perceptions of which tasks are rewarded by tenure continue to influence their intrinsic interest in their professorial tasks. Moreover, the positive influence of tenure ha:: approximately the same magnitude on tenured professors' primary interest in teaching as it does on their primary interest in research. To the extent that faculty perceive research is rewarded by the key gate-keeping academic reward of tenure, their preference for research over teaching increases. Similarly, to the extent that faculty perceive that teaching is rewarded in their departments by tenure, their preference for teaching increases rather than decreases. Professors' primary interests are strongly aligned with the missions of the institutions where they work. (Contains 36 references.) (JB) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** Extrinsic Rewards and Intrinsic Interest: The Influence of Tenure on Faculty Preference for Teaching or Research Carol Colbeck Stanford Institute for Higher Education Research Stanford University Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association for the Study of Higher Education, November 1, 1992 in Minneapolis, MN. This work was supported in part for the Finance Center of the Consortium for Policy Research in Education, sponsored by the U. S. Department of Education's Office of NEducational Research and Improvement (OERI). 40 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION "PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS Orrice of Educational Research and Improvement . MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY rarn1 rn1 hpnk . 0111,This document has been reproduced as EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION originating it received from the person Or organisation CENTER (ERIC) 0 C Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction gualitY 4o BEST COPY AVAILABLE TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC). " Rof.its of view or opinions at ated 'Ms doeurrent do not neeeteerdy represent official OERI position or poticy ASH* Texas A&M University Department of Educational Administration College Station, TX 77843 (409) 845-0393 ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF HIGHER EDUCATION This paper was presented at the annual meeting of the Association for the Study of Higher Education held at the Marriott City Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota, October 29 November 1, 1992. This paper was reviewed by ASHE and was judged to be of high quality and of interest to others concerned with the research of higher education. It has therefore been selected to be included in the ERIC collection of ASHE conference papers.