This study examined the ways that workplace contexts influenced the extent to which faculty work behavior is congruent with the mission of the university. Structured observations of six faculty at a research university and six faculty at a comprehensive university were conducted during 1994 and 1995. Each faculty member was observed on five non-consecutive work days, and information on work done after regular working hours or off campus was also collected. Interviews were also conducted with other faculty and administrators. It was found that the work patterns observed in the physics department at the research university and the English department at the comprehensive university were reasonably congruent with the sense of mission communicated by administrators. In contrast, the work patterns of faculty in the research university's English department and the comprehensive university's physics department seemed incongruent with the missions of their universities. At the English department, the mode of conducting inquiry and the nature of graduate student training conflicted with the apprenticeship model of graduate student training articulated by administrators, while at the physics department the emphasis on faculty and student research conflicted with the service teaching responsibilities of faculty. (Contains 34 references.) (MDM)