FACULTY MENTORING Perceptions Practices Barriers Benefits Rebecca Craft

FACULTY MENTORING: Perceptions, Practices, Barriers & Benefits Rebecca Craft, Ph. D. craft@wsu. edu

Background • Mentoring relationships in the workplace: – Increase job satisfaction – Increase institutional commitment – Increase rates of promotion and retention – Decrease work conflict. de Janasz & Sullivan, 2004; Moody, 2004; Neilson et al. , 2001; Tenenbaum et al. , 2001

Background • Women faculty disproportionately benefit from mentoring (Bilimoria et al. , 2006; Chesler & Chesler, 2002). • Recruitment and retention of all faculty, especially women faculty, can be improved by understanding: – the type(s) of mentoring that faculty use, – what faculty value in mentoring, – what concerns they have about mentoring.

Goal of WSU Faculty Mentoring Survey (Spring 2011) • Gather information from current faculty about: – existing forms of mentoring, – faculty perceptions of barriers and benefits to mentoring, – important mentoring topics, etc.

Faculty Mentoring Survey • SESRC administered online survey – Sent to 2, 810 WSU faculty • system-wide • all ranks (tenured/tenure-track & non-tenure track) – 2, 700 eligible respondents – 1, 045 participants • >> 39% response rate • 232 were “partials” (did not report some information, e. g. , gender, or skipped questions).

Demographic Respondent category Female Male Total Tenure-track assistant prof 66 77 143 Tenure-track associate prof 75 82 157 Tenure-track full prof 58 121 179 Non-tenure track (clinical and research faculty) 96 100 196 Chair/unit dir/administrator 26 51 77

TYPES OF FACULTY MENTORING

Respondent sub-group: tt faculty + chair/unit dir/admin

Respondent sub-group: tt faculty + chair/unit dir/admin

Respondent sub-group: non-tenure track faculty

SATISFACTION WITH MENTORNIG

Respondent sub-group: tenured/tenure-track faculty

Respondent sub-group: tenured/tenure-track faculty (includes assist profs)

Respondent sub-group: tenured/tenure-track faculty

The Post-tenure VOID “The biggest gap in our mentoring is that associates have NO conversations about promotion to full unless they raise it themselves and do so in one-on-one conversations with each Full Professor. We are given feedback every year until tenure and then there is a total vacuum of information and feedback…”

Respondent sub-group: non-tenure track faculty

OTHER SOURCES OF MENTORING

BENEFITS FROM FACULTY MENTORING

Benefits of Mentoring INCREASES SUCCESS: “…formal mentoring by a committee is crucial to success at WSU for tenure and promotion. I think it needs to be taken more seriously. ” “…if mentors are willing to be up front and honest about the mentee’s progress in a constructive way the process can be quite helpful” “Mentoring is critical for helping faculty…”

Benefits of Mentoring JUST & FAIR: “…this is not a guessing game or private club and there should be extremely clear guidelines for advancement for everyone…” “Actively mentored faculty will at the very least have the diversity of opinions from their mentors to add to their own opinions on what they need to do to succeed. How they manifest that into their progress remains to be seen, but at least having the information is better than not having it. ”

Benefits of Mentoring OUR RESPONSIBILITY: “Mentoring is part of helping acculturate a new person into the academy. As professionals… we have an investment in people we hire and an obligation to ensure that they understand what is important and what is not for their success. ”

BARRIERS TO FACULTY MENTORING

Barriers to Mentoring CONFLICTING ADVICE: “…I’ve received conflicting advice” (from two different full professors in unit) OUT-OF-DATE INFORMATION: “It’s been a long time since any of the current senior faculty in my department went through tenure… I often wonder how useful [their] advice is as WSU culture has changed, the culture of our field of study has changed, the department is not the same one they were tenured in and they may or may not be involved in my tenure process when the time comes. ”

Barriers to Mentoring AVOIDANCE OF BAD NEWS: “…We like to be nice and sometimes it’s hard to be frank with people. Mentoring is hard to do effectively!” FACULTY SQUABBLES: “WSU needs to create a culture that mentoring junior faculty… must be a part of professional duties of senior faculty… The president and deans should make clear to department/unit chairs that unified collaborations from all parties on mentoring junior faculty must be on the top of internal politics/infighting and any unprofessional behavior on mentoring junior faculty will not be tolerated. ”

Barriers to Mentoring MENTORING SKILLS AND WILLINGNESS: “Some attention needs to be paid to social skills and willingness of formally assigned mentors – not all are willing to look ahead to the future of the department, beyond their own research interests and advancement. ”

Barriers to Mentoring INADEQUATE INCENTIVES: “…there’s no category in the [promotion] file for ‘mentoring. ’ It’s an undervalued and unappreciated service obligation… So what if you’re a great mentor? ” “Mentoring or any activity other than grants and publications has no value to university administration – there is no reward and no recognition for these activities. ”

Barriers to Mentoring LACK OF COMMITMENT: “I hope this study is not aimed at proposing that we spend more time forcing people into mentoring relationships, and further away from personal responsibility. This is a strange era in which we live and at some point faculty members have to grow up and be responsible for their own actions instead of blaming their shortcomings on a lack of mentoring. ”

Barriers to Mentoring GENDER & CAMPUS ISSUES: “Mentoring is tricky for women in male-dominated fields. Seeking it can be interpreted as a sign of weakness, the last thing we need. ” “multi-campus system makes mentoring extremely difficult to accomplish” “My experiences with Pullman faculty mentors was mixed” (from a regional campus faculty member)

TOPICS FOR MENTORING

CHARACTERISTICS OF CURRENT MENTORS

SUMMARY

Pre-tenure Faculty The most common type of mentoring for pretenure faculty is a “formal tenure guidance committee”. – ~65% of assistant and associate professors are somewhat to very satisfied with available mentoring for pre-tenure faculty – 22% are somewhat to very dissatisfied, with no significant gender differences

Post-tenure Faculty • No mentoring is provided for most posttenure faculty members. – Only 22% of associate professors are somewhat to very satisfied – 48% are somewhat to very dissatisfied

Non-tenure-track Faculty • No mentoring is provided for most non-tenure -track faculty members. – Only 27 -31% of non-tenure track faculty are somewhat to very satisfied. – 49% of clinical-track faculty and 32% of researchtrack faculty are somewhat to very dissatisfied.

Mentoring Helps • A large majority of faculty (~70 -90%) agreed that there are many benefits to mentoring, while many fewer faculty agreed that there are barriers to mentoring.

Mentoring Topics • 60 -95% of faculty (depending on topic) rated the 12 mentoring topics listed as somewhat to very important. – A significantly greater % of women than men faculty rated 11 of 12 topics as somewhat to very important.

Mentor Characteristics • Most faculty who have a current mentor (66% of men, 74% of women) somewhat or strongly agreed with 15 of 17 mentor characteristics. – Women more strongly endorsed these characteristics than men.

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Extend Mentoring • Assistant professors, who receive more formal mentoring than all other faculty, are the most satisfied with mentoring. ØImplement (optional) mentoring for associate professors & non-tenure-track faculty

Provide Checklists • All faculty (especially women) value mentoring, and we know what topics and what mentor characteristics they most value. ØGive a checklist of mentoring topics/characteristics to assist mentors.

External Mentors • Mentors outside of the home institution are beneficial, particularly in providing disciplinespecific, rather than dept/institution-specific, career guidance. ØExtend the ADVANCE External Mentor Grant Program to faculty in all units. The current program provides small grants for establishing an external mentoring relationship only to women in STEM disciplines.

Choose Mentors Carefully • Some faculty are better mentors than others. ØDo not rely on a single mentor. (Misdirection less likely with greater diversity of input. ) ØAsk mentee to identify possible mentors (increases likelihood of functional matches) ØConsider others at WSU who are outside the unit/campus.

Reward Mentoring • Some faculty may be unwilling to serve. ØDo not require service as mentor (to avoid reluctant and therefore poor guidance). ØRecognize/reward service as mentor to faculty colleagues.

Procedural Suggestions – Department • Chair/director should meet periodically with all senior faculty to maintain consensus on unit tenure & promotion evaluation & guidelines. • Mentoring committees should resolve internal disagreements by discussing those disagreements with all senior faculty, the chair/director, and the dean if necessary. – Provide the correct information to the mentee.

Procedural Suggestions – Committee • Before each meeting of a mentor and mentee: – Mentee circulates c. v. – Mentee identifies topics that s/he wants to discuss (checklist). – Mentors examine mentee’s c. v. – Mentors identify topics that they want to discuss (checklist).

WE CAN IMPROVE FACULTY SUCCESS AND RETENTION – ESPECIALLY OF WOMEN – BY IMPROVING FACULTY MENTORING craft@wsu. edu