Tenure and the university reward structure

Reward allocation in selected American universities was investigated using tenure receipt as the most valuable faculty reward. Because American universities are highly stratified organizations, several representative disciplines and an integrative model were used to examine interdisciplinary perceptions of reward criteria. Three hundred sixty six academicians with professional appointments in physics, psychology, sociology, nursing, and management were surveyed by a mailed questionnaire, the Tenure Decision Factor Inventory (TDFI) composed of Achievement (ACH) Ascriptive (ASCRIPT), Internal Political (IP), and External Political (EP) criteria related to tenure receipt. Significant main effects were shown by both discipline and reward criteria. Perceptions of nursing faculty distinguished nursing from the four other study disciplines. Although many factors influenced tenure decisions, the achievement criteria were identified by members of all disciplines as the most important determinants during tenure review.