MentoringStudy


Effects of mentoring vs. no mentoring on leadership/mgmt attainment

Effects of different types of mentoring / mentoring activities

Mentoring activities librarians desire access to

Replicating mentoring/leadership/etc studies of African-American women with a population of Hispanic women

 

Future research from dissertation:

-- "A specific focus for future qualitative research should be on female and minority academic library deans. Beyond preparation for deanship, questions should be asked regarding what motivated their interest in leadership, what barriers they faced, and what helped them successfully reach, retain, and thrive in such positions. It could also be valuable to study female and minority academic librarians nearing the end of their careers who do not have positions of leadership. Discovering if their flat career trajectory was of their own preference or if they experienced insurmountable barriers could further our understanding of how to encourage and prepare individuals for leadership positions."

-- better control over "edu beyond MLS" responses

-- link preparation to dean effectiveness (Fagan's suggestion to use R/H/J instrument on library deans)

-- more info about diff in attitudes toward education; is it only that those who have doctorates think they are valuable? "Additional research on this potential difference of perceived value between deans with doctorates and deans with subject master’s should be explored further, particularly considering the 173 deans that did not report advanced degrees other than the MLS as an experienced preparation method."

-- WHY did those who didn't have formal/informal mentoring NOT have this relationship? Would they have liked mentoring, but did not find an opportunity?

-- HOW can mentoring opportunities be encouraged, increased, better promoted, made more effective? 

-- longitudinal repetition of this study 

-- follow-up studies with selected participants to judge changes in views of preparatory experience value over time (and new deans vs experienced deans)

-- " More direct connections between the specific educational attainment of deans and their attitudes regarding preparation methods... Deans could be divided into groups based on either degree type or degree subject area, and further examined for significant differences with regards to perceived value of advanced degrees in academic leadership."

-- "look at the time particular degrees were earned, with respect to the career paths of academic library deans" (p. 121-122) 

-- "Institutional stratification of these results would also be informative."

-- "The finding of no statistically significant difference between the perception of on the job training and advanced degree other than the MLS for the leadership areas of library management and vision and goal setting should be further explored. Future studies concentrating on this area could examine educational attainment, number of years in library administration, institutions worked at, and previous management positions. This is also an area where qualitative study could be useful to explore deans’ perceptions about their experiences and education."

-- "The preparatory methods listed under “other” reveal a potential avenue for future research. Commonly-cited methods were management or administrative experience outside of academic libraries, coursework (either in the MLS, at the undergraduate level, or advanced degrees in progress), and personal research. These preparatory methods could be added to the existing instrument to compare their frequency and perceived value to the methods included in the present study."

-- "Qualitative studies with similar research questions would provide more insight on the most common and most positively-perceived preparatory methods experienced by academic library deans." About Hernon/Powell/Young studies... "could be repeated with deans at less-studied institutional types, such as associate’s colleges, special focus institutions, and tribal colleges. Such studies would help determine key similarities and differences in preparatory experiences between deans at these institutions versus those at large research institutions. Furthermore, Hernon, Powell, and Young (2003) limited their consideration of methods by which deans attain desired leadership attributes to mentoring and educational attainment, mentioning other preparation methods only briefly. Subsequent qualitative studies could expand that focus to ask deans more in-depth questions about how their experiences with on the job training, conferences and seminars, and leadership programs or institutes contributed to their effectiveness in academic leadership."

 

RELATED RESEARCH VENUES:

-- ALD search committees: do they feel their hire was successful/effective? What qualities appear to have been most important in 1) judging fit/quality of candidate and 2) candidate's achieving success after hire? 

 

Sharon Epps 2008 article

 

Mentoring Circles article: "...benefits such as promotion or increased research output are likely to be long-term. Future studies that explore the benefits of mentoring circles in higher education will require ongoing organization, evaluation and administrative support over a 2–3-year period."

 

Smith / Crawford, 2007: "...research comparing a population of African American female administrators who had been mentored to this population (non-mentored African-American female admins) is recommended for future study, to examine if mentoring facilitated their career development, and eased the strain experienced by being in these high level positions."

 

Brown, 2005: "Research is needed to determine if the mentoring needs of Women of Color are different from those of White women. Further research is also needed to explore what type of mentoring relationships, if any, Women of Color who are serving as faculty members and in managerial positions already have."

 

Gibson, 2004: "As noted by Blake-Beard (1999), the literature on mentoring carries with it the “implicit assumption that the experiences of White women represent the experiences of all women” (p. 22). A similar study, looking at the essential themes of the experience of being mentored for minority women faculty, would be warranted."

"...found that these women had a variety of mentors over the course of their academic careers. Further research is recommended that would explore the incidence of mentoring in higher education from the perspective of those who perceive that they have been engaged in these relationships."

Also:

 

Ragin Et Al, 1999: "Which types of relationships are critical in which career stages for the protege and the mentor? What individual, interpersonal and organizational factors affect the historical composition of mentoring relationships? Which types of compositions are most effective for which types of situations?"

 

Assessing ACRLs LCDP, 2009: "Future research on these populations should contain a balanced mix of queries to solicit quantitative and qualitative data. A survey with follow up interviews is strongly recommended. Carefully and skillfully written questions and interview techniques should produce some solid evidence of the relationship between library leadership institutes, career progression and participants’ on the job behavior."

"the richness of the qualitative evidence... is much more revealing and appropriate for assessing and evaluating some aspects of library leadership programs.

 

Damasco & Hodges, 2012: "...to better understand how systemic racial inequities might be embedded within academic libraries, a larger survey sample must be obtained that disaggregates the responses of librarians of color into specific racial and ethnic categories and also includes the experiences of White academic librarians. For example, while African American librarians may have some shared experiences that are built upon others' perceptions of their racial identities, those experiences may differ from those of Asian American librarians, who must contend with different constructions of race. Future research should also explore other dimensions of difference, such as gender or abilityas these factors often intersect in complex ways with race and ethnicity that could have a significant impact

upon tenure and promotion experiences for academic librarians."

 

Rosser, 2004: "Individual characteristics such as being an ethnic minority, sex of the faculty member, and being an assistant or tenured professor still have profound effects on how individuals construct meaning and interpret their work, satisfaction, and behavioral intentions. Institutions need to be mindful of these differences in perceptions that continue to exist within the faculty and within our academic organizations. Institutions need to examine specifically the individual-level information in greater detail by gender and race/ethnicity, as well as at the organizational or group level such as institutional type and control, and discipline. The goal of institutional leadership should be to examine more thoroughly those individual worklife issues (i.e., administrative and technical support, professional development, committee and service work) that are important to their campus faculty and generate positive or negative responses to work." 

 

"In this national study, demographic characteristics of the respondents included sex, ethnic minority status, faculty rank, age, tenure status, tenure status by sex, and those faculty members who were department chairs. This study was conducted as a single or an individual-level analysis, therefore, organizational level variables (e.g., institutional type) will not be used in this research. A multilevel analysis consisting of both individual- and organizational-level variables would clearly be a next step or area of future research."

 

Rosser, 2003

"The goal of this study was to examine faculty and staff members' perceptions of the effectiveness with which female and male deans lead their academic units. Much of the literature in higher education focuses on the climate that female faculty and administrative members experience within the academy (for example, Deats & Lenker, 1994; Glazer-Raymo, 1999; Johnsrud & Sadao, 1998). The finding in this study that female deans are more positively perceived as effective leaders adds substantively to the empirical literature on women in higher education."

"A next step is to assess leaders impact on the organization's effectiveness through a set of definable and measurable institutional outcomes (for example, attaining external dollars, fostering legislative relationships, students' time to degree, career placement of graduates). To associate institutional outcomes with leadership effectiveness would make a substantive contribution to the evaluation and assessment of leadership in higher education organizations. More than ever, the public wants to know how their monies are being continually spent on higher education. Such assessments would reassure the public's support of higher education, and that their concerns for standards and accountability are being met."

 

What "definable and measurable institutional outcomes" are academic library deans able to impact?

-- library funding

---- donations, fundraising

---- arguing for increased internal budget

---- grant and other research funding

---- increased faculty/staff lines (positions in library)

-- student academic success outcomes

---- info literacy: how MEASURABLE is this, especially regarding its impact on their academic success overall?

---- increase in depth/quality/number of student citations in assignments