Testing a Model of Pretenure Faculty Members’ Teaching and Research Success: Motivation as a Mediator of Balance, Expectations, and Collegiality

With the aim of advancing the growing research literature on faculty development, a model of pretenure faculty success in teaching and research was proposed. Building from the early-career faculty literature and self-determination theory, we hypothesized that balance, clear expectations, and collegiality predict success by supporting autonomy, competence, and relatedness that, in turn, promote intrinsic motivation and success for teaching and research. The model was evaluated using path analyses on 105 pretenure faculty members' survey responses from two research universities. With respect to teaching success, the benefits of collegiality were mediated by relatedness. For research success, the advantages of good balance were mediated by autonomy and competence. Satisfying these needs within their respective domains positively predicted intrinsic motivation that, in turn, led to greater perceived and expected success. These results have implications for both pretenure faculty development and achievement motivation research literatures, as well as institutional efforts to promote faculty development.