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1 – 10 of over 1000Michelle A. Maher, Annie M. Wofford, Josipa Roksa and David F. Feldon
The purpose of this study is to explore the experience of selecting and engaging in biological sciences laboratory rotations from the perspective of doctoral students.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore the experience of selecting and engaging in biological sciences laboratory rotations from the perspective of doctoral students.
Design/methodology/approach
Within the socialization framework, this study uses a qualitative approach whereby 42 biological sciences students enrolled at highly selective US universities were interviewed in the first and second year of doctoral training about laboratory rotation experiences.
Findings
The study revealed how doctoral students used formal and informal information networks, explored research topics, struggled with funding concerns and learned about the social aspect of the laboratories in which they rotated.
Originality/value
While rotations are considered a signature pedagogy in the laboratory sciences, students’ experiences within them are understudied. This study offers new knowledge about what doctoral students experience while rotating that can be used to inform and improve rotation processes for both students and universities.
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The purpose of this paper is to study gender differentials in scientific productivity while looking at academic discipline and advisor practices. The natural sciences and the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to study gender differentials in scientific productivity while looking at academic discipline and advisor practices. The natural sciences and the liberal arts are shown to constitute two organisational cultures which affect the ability of women to attain excellence on a par with men.
Design/methodology/approach
The empirical study is based on a sample of 660 doctoral students in two universities in Israel. Regression procedures were employed to predict productivity.
Findings
There is a slight gender gap in scientific productivity, but only in single‐authored papers. This suggests that publishing together with an advisor – which is the common practice in the natural sciences – is more conducive to gender parity. Students' reports suggest that their advisors evince little differential treatment of men versus women, thereby ruling out the possibility of overt advisor bias against women. Overall, the natural sciences appear to be more supportive of students' success while the liberal arts seem to challenge students to struggle on their own, putting women in greater jeopardy of suffering family‐work tensions.
Practical implications
Universities need to appreciate the disciplinary differences within them and help students to get greater support in the “natural selection” mechanisms that are often unconsciously employed in higher education.
Originality/value
This paper adds an important angle in appreciating currently dominant approaches to work‐family balances while focusing on unintended exclusionary mechanisms embedded in the standards and culture of different scientific disciplines.
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Moriah West, Jesse McCain and Josipa Roksa
While ample literature describes students’ experiences during graduate school, fewer studies examine how doctoral students transition into full-time employment post degree…
Abstract
Purpose
While ample literature describes students’ experiences during graduate school, fewer studies examine how doctoral students transition into full-time employment post degree completion. The purpose of this study is to examine how faculty advisors, as well as other individuals, shape students’ experiences during a critical period in their graduate education – the job search.
Design/methodology/approach
This study is based on interviews with 47 PhD students in biological sciences in the US. This is a descriptive qualitative study, based on in-depth, semi-structured interviews.
Findings
Results reveal distinct roles that faculty advisors play in the job search process, including supportive, unsupportive and sponsorship. Supportive advisors offer opportunities for skill development and specific guidance during the job search process. Sponsorship advisors go beyond providing general support to leverage their personal networks to assist in the transition into full-time employment. Unsupportive advisors are on the other end of the spectrum and do not provide any assistance. In addition, the majority of doctoral students rely on individuals beyond their advisors during the job search, and they do so regardless of what type of support they receive from their advisors.
Originality/value
Presented findings highlight the complex constellation of social connections that graduate students draw on for entry into the career and make a compelling case for extending socialization research to dedicate more attention to students’ transition into full-time employment after degree completion.
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Vicki L. Baker, Meghan J. Pifer and Kimberly A. Griffin
The aim of this conceptual paper is to explore Mentor-protégé fit as important to the selection and development of successful doctoral student–faculty mentoring relationships. We…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this conceptual paper is to explore Mentor-protégé fit as important to the selection and development of successful doctoral student–faculty mentoring relationships. We suggest that the student–faculty relationship in doctoral education is an additional and previously untested type of Mentor-protégé fit.
Design/methodology/approach
Generated from an existing framework of identity in the academy, we explore how three types of identity (professional, relational, personal) may influence students’ fit assessments as they seek to initiate and develop relationships.
Findings
We offer propositions for research to further explore the potential application of the proposed framework to knowledge generation about the doctoral student experience.
Originality/value
While the research about doctoral education has considered all three aspects of students’ identities individually, it has not explicated the ways in which these intersecting identities relate to students’ needs and expectations related to mentoring, their choices related to mentor selection, or the effectiveness and outcomes of mentoring relationships in fostering success and satisfaction.
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Jonathan Orsini and Natalie Coers
Students pursuing doctoral degrees are expected to become leaders in their disciplines. Given that, leadership development should be an important part of any curriculum that…
Abstract
Students pursuing doctoral degrees are expected to become leaders in their disciplines. Given that, leadership development should be an important part of any curriculum that prepares doctoral students for professional careers after graduation. However, there are questions regarding the effectiveness and prevalence of formal leadership development structures in graduate school. With this gap in formal professional preparation, faculty mentors are expected to provide the necessary socialization, support, and guidance for doctoral students to develop as leaders in their disciplines. This mixed-methods study of graduate students was conducted using online questionnaires and personal interviews to determine the impact of faculty mentoring behaviors on the development of doctoral student leadership self-efficacy. Findings suggest that students in doctoral programs experience significant negative emotional arousal in the form of uncertainty, anxiety, and self-doubt. Faculty mentors that are accessible, trustworthy, and provide constructive feedback can mitigate these negative feelings and encourage the development of leadership self-efficacy through verbal support and mastery experiences. In addition, the data suggests that active student cohorts and effective departmental leadership are also important to the development of doctoral student leadership self-efficacy.
Jeffery S. Smith, Gavin L. Fox, Sung‐Hee “Sunny” Park and Lorraine Lee
The purpose of this paper is to examine the institutional factors that affect the productivity of individuals in the field of operations.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the institutional factors that affect the productivity of individuals in the field of operations.
Design/methodology/approach
This study identifies a sample of graduates from PhD programs in operations and utilizes a partial least squares analysis to examine the effect of academic origin, academic affiliation, and advisor productivity on each individual's research productivity.
Findings
The results of the analysis indicate that the productivity of an individual is directly influenced by the aggregate prestige of the institutions where the individual was employed during article publication and indirectly influenced by the prestige of the institution where the individual received the terminal degree. Additionally, differences were found between groups when the sample was divided by focus (operations management (OM) versus operations research (OR). The OM model held the same relationships as the combined model, while the OR model included significant direct effects of academic origin and indirect effects of the advisor's productivity on the individual's productivity.
Originality/value
This research is the first to fully evaluate the institutional antecedents to research productivity of individuals in operations. In doing so, valuable insights are gained as to how to facilitate the success of researchers in operations. Additionally, factors are highlighted that should be considered by institutions looking at hiring freshly minted PhDs. Finally, these results can benefit practitioners when considering working with academics as a source of emerging information or consulting.
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Rachel Louise Geesa, Kat R. McConnell, Nicholas Patrick Elam and Ellie Clark
Education doctoral (EdD) students (mentees) typically hold full-time leadership positions in education-related fields while completing their degree. The types of support these…
Abstract
Purpose
Education doctoral (EdD) students (mentees) typically hold full-time leadership positions in education-related fields while completing their degree. The types of support these scholar-practitioners need is unique because of their focus on balancing full-time work, academic, and personal needs. This study aims to explore mentor support systems for mentees in their first and second year of the EdD program through a group mentoring program, which is designed to provide resources and access to mentors to promote successful degree completion in five years or less.
Design/methodology/approach
Mentors participated in monthly presentations and discussions with mentees throughout the 2018–2019 academic year, which were video recorded. At the end of the academic year, mentors partook in an interview or focus group meeting.
Findings
Themes emerged related to mentors’ focus on the dissertation process; emphasis on outreach for support; discussions and work/life balance; selection of presentation topics; perceptions of networking opportunities with mentees; desire to build stronger connections with mentees; and concerns/opinions about the mentoring format.
Research limitations/implications
The design of a mentoring program for EdD mentees varies throughout the doctorate degree pathway. Mentors support mentees in their doctoral journey through presentations and discussions about relevant topics during their first two years in the doctoral program. Additional studies are needed regarding EdD mentoring programs for students in the third year to the completion of the degree.
Originality/value
Few studies exist related to mentoring programs for scholar-practitioners in EdD programs. Results from this research provide EdD faculty and advisors insights to group mentoring and discussion topics for first and second year EdD students, based on the mentors’ perspectives.
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Jennifer M. Blaney, Jina Kang, Annie M. Wofford and David F. Feldon
This study aims to examine how science, technology, engineering, and mathematics doctoral students interact with postdocs within the research laboratory, identifying the nature…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine how science, technology, engineering, and mathematics doctoral students interact with postdocs within the research laboratory, identifying the nature and potential impacts of student–postdoc mentoring relationships.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a sample of 53 doctoral students in the biological sciences, this study uses a sequential mixed-methods design. More specifically, a phenomenological approach enabled the authors to identify how doctoral students make meaning of their interactions with postdocs and other research staff. Descriptive statistics are used to examine how emergent themes might differ as a product of gender and race/ethnicity and the extent to which emergent themes may relate to key doctoral student socialization outcomes.
Findings
This study reveals six emergent themes, which primarily focus on how doctoral students receive instrumental and psychosocial support from postdocs in their labs. The most frequent emergent theme captures the unique ways in which postdocs provide ongoing, hands-on support and troubleshooting at the lab bench. When examining how this theme plays a role in socialization outcomes, the results suggest that doctoral students who described this type of support from postdocs had more positive mental health outcomes than those who did not describe this type of hands-on support.
Originality/value
Literature on graduate student mentorship has focused primarily on the impact of advisors, despite recent empirical evidence of a “cascading mentorship” model, in which senior students and staff also play a key mentoring role. This study provides new insights into the unique mentoring role of postdocs, focusing on the nature and potential impacts of student–postdoc interactions.
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Erika A. Mosyjowski and Shanna R. Daly
The purpose of this paper is to explore the ways engineering doctoral students draw on prior experiences to inform their doctoral research. This study includes the experiences of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the ways engineering doctoral students draw on prior experiences to inform their doctoral research. This study includes the experiences of “returners” – those who have worked as practitioners for five or more years before entering a PhD program – who have distinct experiences from “direct-pathway students,” which may inform how they engage in doctoral research. This study also explores the traits that distinguish varying levels of sophistication in the ways PhD students think about the research process and how prior experience may contribute.
Design/methodology/approach
This study draws on interview data from 52 returning and direct-pathway engineering doctoral students. A thematic analysis of this interview data highlights the primary ways participants’ prior professional, academic and life experiences inform their doctoral research. In addition, the authors conducted an iterative analysis process to sort participants’ responses about their management of a hypothetical research scenario into emergent categories of research thinking sophistication to understand what characterizes varying levels of sophistication in research thinking and explore how experience may contribute.
Findings
Participants identified past experiences as shaping their research, related to how they identify a research problem, considering what needs to and can be done to address the problem, identifying an appropriate research approach, managing unexpected challenges, responding to critical feedback, determining their comfort taking risks and using intuition to lead a project.
Originality/value
Outcomes of this research can inform how graduate education supports students throughout their degree by identifying key experiences that may contribute to students’ research approaches.
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Kent Eriksson and Cecilia Hermansson
The purpose of this paper is to determine how three relational attributes – duration, context and trust – are subjectively perceived by bank customers, and how these affect their…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to determine how three relational attributes – duration, context and trust – are subjectively perceived by bank customers, and how these affect their saving behavior, as defined by monthly flows to mutual funds and the financial products bought and held in stock.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use a combination of unique bank register and subjective survey data, and a structural equation model for theory development. Four constructs are developed to estimate the structural model, i.e. saving behavior, duration, context and trust.
Findings
The authors find that all three relational attributes have positive effects on saving behavior. The authors also find that duration and context have the largest total effects, and that trust is a mediating variable channeling indirect effects from context and duration to saving behavior.
Practical implications
One implication for bank managers is that it takes time and understanding of customer context to gain customer trust, but that this increases customer savings. Another implication is that the authors confirm that relational attributes can be studied using subjective measures in surveys, and that these have an effect on objective savings behavior. The findings provide an understanding that could develop both the customer’s value and the banks’ business opportunities.
Originality/value
The impact of relationships between bank advisors and their customers in terms of costs and benefits has been studied, but a little research has focused on the attributes of the relationship and how these affect customers’ saving behavior. The study also uses unique objective bank register data, combined with customers’ subjective perceptions of the relationship.
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