A study was conducted to determine the extent to which faculty members' attempts to improve instruction at Illinois State University were rewarded. The data were obtained by three methods: (1) a questionnaire designed to obtain faculty perceptions of rewards; (2) a historical analysis of the salary, promotion, or tenure ratings received annually by the faculty; and (3) interviews with department chairpersons about the procedures for salary, promotion, or tenure decisions at the departmental level. The data indicated that the effect of faculty efforts to improve instruction on the formal reward structure was generally nonexistent, minimally positive at best, and punitive in some instances. Whether these efforts were supported by funds from an instructional development program that is one of the largest single-institution programs in the nation or undertaken without such assistance, the results were the same. By contract, the informal rewards of teacher satisfaction were valued highly by 84 percent of the questionnaire respondents. Implications of this form of institutional schizophrenia, where instructional improvement is encouraged but not rewarded, are discussed. Possible institutional changes in the reward system and negative effects of not changing it are also considered. Some statistical tables are included. (Author/MSE)