Involved or Committed? Similarities and Differences in Advising and Mentoring in the Academic and Business World

Ever since Odysseus, King of Ithaca, left to fight in the Trojan War and entrusted his friend, Mentor, to care for and educate his son, academic mentors have guided, educated, trained, and encouraged protégés in their academic development. As with Mentor and his protégé, mentoring relationships evolve over time in a predictable pattern and certain behaviors are necessary to initiate and sustain a mutually beneficial mentoring relationship. There are numerous parallels between successful mentoring behaviors in the academic and business world, and this paper seeks to leverage those similarities to provide advice for academic mentors and their protégés. This paper describes the stages of a mentoring relationship, discusses behaviors that underlie each stage and presents a series of best practices that future academic mentors and protégés should seek to emulate. While specific activities vary by stage of the mentoring evolution, mentors and protégés should create successful relationships, be respectful of time expectations and demands, ensure that necessary advisement occurs, and be open to an increasingly deep and personal relationship. By understanding and applying these behaviors, academic mentors and protégés can learn from and extend the mentoring legacy of Gary Dickson

Stuck in the Middle: Reflections from the AMCIS Mid-career Workshop

Studies often show that mid-career faculty are some of the unhappiest people in academia. Many mid-career faculty have tenure, have more freedom to pursue different types of projects, and have many options ahead. Yet, mid-career faculty members also deal with the personal politics that arise during the tenure process, with figuring out what to do with the newfound freedom, and with finding their own way among the many options in an academic career path. As a junior faculty member, one often has a singular goal: obtaining tenure. However, mid-career faculty members need to concern themselves with not only becoming a “full” professor but also figuring out what to do once they have reached that milestone and feeling full in their overall career path. In this paper, we discuss the challenges associated with being a mid-career faculty member based on research and insights discussed in the mid-career workshop offered at the Americas Conference on Information Systems. We offer examples of how to support mid-career faculty through workshops and mentoring relationships. We also provide insights on how individuals at different career stages can support and understand the challenges among mid-career faculty in information systems

E-mentoring entre Professores e Alunos na EaD: um Estudo de Caso na Graduação em Administração de uma Instituição Pública Federal

Busca-se neste trabalho sobre Educação a Distância compreender como se configuram as relações de e-mentoring entre professores e alunos no curso de graduação em Administração a distância oferecido por uma instituição pública federal brasileira. Como arcabouço teórico aborda-se o conceito de mentoria, suas características, funções e fases. Aborda-se ainda e-mentoring e Educação a Distância com suas características e relações. Realizou-se um estudo de caso; as técnicas de coleta foram entrevistas online com professores/alunos, observação não participante e análise documental, estudando-se os dados por meio de análise de conteúdo. Os resultados indicam que as relações de mentoria estabelecidas entre tutores e alunos configuram-se como e-mentoring, já que os tutores são mais acessíveis aos alunos e mantêm uma comunicação mais frequente, tanto por meio de diversas ferramentas de comunicação quanto por meio de encontros presenciais, além de fornecer apoio profissional e pessoal aos alunos. Já a relação estabelecida entre professores e alunos se configura como um outro tipo de relação, que não é de mentoria, pois as características não se enquadram nos conceitos desse construto.Palavras-chave: Educação, Educação a Distância (EAD), Ensino superior, Mentoria, E-mentoring. E-mentoring among Professors and Students on E-learning: This Case Study is about a Degree Course of Business Administration at Public InstitutionAbstractIn this research about e-learning, we try to understand how the e-mentoring relationship among Tutors and Students works in a Business Administration course offered at distance by a public Brazilian institution. As theoretical approaches, it is observed the concept of mentoring, its features, functions and phases. It also covers e-mentoring and distance education with its characteristics and relationships. A case study was made, the data collection techniques were an online interview with tutors/students, non-participative observation and documental analysis on content analysis theory. The results demonstrate that the mentoring relationship between Tutors and Students can be defined as e-mentoring: they are accessible to the students and keep intense communication on face-to-face meetings and also by the online tools provided on the course platform. On the other hand, the relationship established by Tutors and Students cannot be defined by e-mentoring due to lack of connections on the e-learning concepts.Keywords: Education, E-learning, Graduation degree, Mentoring, E-mentoring