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ABSTRACT
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.
Notes
1. The current study uses the term “pretenure faculty members” to refer to professors on the tenure track but who have not yet been granted tenure, who typically have been employed in an academic position for 1 year to 6 years. In most cases, the term pretenure faculty is synonymous with early-career faculty or assistant professors. Other studies have used the term “new faculty,” although Boice (Citation1992) reported that after 3 years faculty typically dislike being referred to as new. The term “junior faculty” is used, but is unpopular among faculty as it does not reflect the varied ages of faculty members (Austin, Citation2010).