Abstract
Purpose. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between teacher motivation expressed in the perceived achievement of individual professional needs, organizational commitment and assessed performance among parochial school teachers.Procedures. Sample selection consisted of 181 secondary parochial school teachers, both lay and religious, in the Archdiocese of Miami. Three instruments were used: The Beer Employee Needs Questionnaire was used to measure teacher motivation expressed in the perceived achievement of individual professional needs, the Organizational Commitment Questionnaire was used to measure organizational commitment, and a Teacher Evaluation Report was utilized to measure assessed performance. Statistical analyses included frequency data, Pearson product-moment correlation coefficients, multiple regression, and independent "t-tests".Major Findings. (1) The relationship between motivation expressed in the perceived achievement of individual professional needs and organizational commitment was positive and statistically significant. (2) The relationship between organizational commitment and performance was positive and statistically significant. (3) A significant portion of teacher performance can be predicted from motivation expressed in the perceived achievement of individual professional needs and organizational commitment. Organizational commitment was shown to be more valuable in predicting performance than motivation expressed in the perceived achievement of individual professional needs. (4) No significant differences were found between lay and religious faculty concerning motivation expressed in the perceived achievement of individual professional needs, organizational commitment or assessed performance.Major Conclusions. (1) A significant portion of teacher performance can be predicted from organizational commitment. (2) There is no indication that lay teachers have different professional needs or degrees of commitment to the school. This supports the assumption that additional lay faculty will perform as well as religious faculty.