Advising to Promote Self-Authorship: Exploring Advising Strategies and Advisor Characteristics among New Student Affairs Professionals

Self-authorship, a theory developed by Robert Kegan (1982) and applied to college students by Marcia Baxter Magolda, is the ability to internally define one\u27s own beliefs, identity, and relationships (Baxter Magolda, 2001). People who self-author have the ability to make career, academic, relationship, and life decisions that take into consideration their own internal voice rather than relying on others\u27 advice. The development of self-authorship has been correlated with gains in key learning outcomes, such as cognitive complexity and independence (Baxter Magolda, 2001; Pizzolato, 2008; Pizzolato & Ozaki, 2007). Achievement of self-authorship does not typically occur until after college, when young adults face increased life challenges and have fewer supports (Baxter Magolda, 2001). However, research indicates that it may be possible for mentoring relationships between students and campus administrators to serve as a primary vehicle for promoting self-authorship during college (Baxter Magolda, 2001; Daloz Parks, 2000; Hodge, Baxter Magolda, & Haynes, 2009; Pizzolato 2005; Pizzolato & Ozaki, 2007). New student affairs professionals, who tend to work most directly with students, have the potential to advise in ways that promote self-authorship. The purpose of this study was to explore characteristics of new student affairs professionals (age, gender, education, and new professionals\u27 stage of self-authorship), and their advising approaches with undergraduate students. Twelve new student affairs professionals participated in semi-structured interviews and submitted journal entries about their advising experiences with students. Grounded theory coding, a coding scheme based on existing literature, and within-case and cross-case analysis were used to analyze the data, and several themes emerged. New professionals who were themselves in late stages of self-authorship development used a greater number and broader range of strategies promoting self-authorship, and those in earlier stages of self-authorship development gave more concrete direction and instruction to students. Women tended to use more supportive advising strategies, while men tended to use more challenging approaches. Those who attended student affairs masters programs used more challenging advising approaches than those who did not. These findings may inform the ways supervisors, graduate preparation programs, and mentors support the development of new professionals and the college students with whom they work

Impacts of supervisory promotion and social location on subordinate promotion in an R&D setting : an investigation of dual ladders

Includes bibliographical references (p. 34-40).Ralph Katz, Michael L. Tushman, Thomas J. Allen

Exploring the dynamics of dual ladders : a longitudinal study

"August 1990."Research supported by a grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation through the Lehigh University Center for Innovation Management Studies.Ralph Katz, Michael L. Tushman, Thomas J. Allen

Effective management of an information technology professional's career

The human resource is constantly cited as an organisation's greatest asset. In a rapidly changing technological environment this is most applicable to the Information Technology (IT) function. Organisations are experiencing IT human resource problems such as low satisfaction, early plateauing, high turnover, burnout, limited advancement potential, nominal corporate commitment, supervisory aversion, poor organisational culture, and exceptional compensation. These problems are directly related to the IT professional's career. There is a lack of information and awareness surrounding IT careers to deal effectively with these problems. The research aims to create increased awareness of IT careers and the inherent problems through the development of a career management model. The research aims to identify the factors that influence IT careers, provide career management with a means to measure compatibility of the factors, and suggest solutions to incompatibility. The solving of this problem will be of mutual benefit to both organisations and individuals as they seek to better manage IT careers. After reviewing research literature relating to career anchors, IT job types, IT skills portfolios, and career dynamics a model for Effective IT Career Management (EITCM) has been constructed. The model represents the dynamic interactions between individual, organisational, and dependent factors. The model examines the compatibility of these interacting factors by measuring the levels of relevant career variables. The model suggests appropriate career management techniques to increase the compatibility of the interacting factors. An empirical study was designed and launched online to provide data that would confirm the seven Critical Success Factors (CSF) relating to the proposed model. The responses from the members of the Computer Society of South Africa (CSSA) allowed the seven hypotheses derived from the CSFs to be tested. The results of the empirical study were positive but required modification to five of the CSFs before they could be confirmed. The EITCM model was modified to reflect the improved CSFs. An awareness of career influencing factors combined with active career management is advantageous to both IT professionals and their organisations

How to develop professionally important soft-skills for IT-professionals by means of physical education?

Information on features necessary for productive professional work is interesting for both scientists and employers. Single systematized contradictory data don’t allow to improve training programs, make effective training programs for IT-specialists for productive professional work. Goal – identify critical important, important and desirable professional qualities for IT-specialists, according to the data of literature determine the most important means of their effective development. Methods, participants, and organization. The study participants were 142 students who study at the university in the 3rd year and have experience in the specialty "information technology" for at least 2 years. Students evaluated soft-skills (on a 4-point system) by the degree of importance for the successful work of IT-professionals. The results were calculated in%, and the reliability of the discrepancies between neighbouring groups of indicators was determined using the χ2 criterion. Results. It has been determined that emotional intelligence is a crucial quality for IT professionals, as well as leading and desired skills. Whereas the leading skills are studying ability and strive for self-education and self-improvement; independent decision making and problem solving; establishing communication and team-working; creativity, attention to details, and adaptiveness. An adequate level of physical conditions and leadership are regarded as desirable. The level of importance of psychophysical parameters for IT professional’s work efficiency has been determined. It has been determined, that means of physical activities as mental fitness (hatha yoga, Bodyflex and Pilates), sports games (and other measures for promote agility) have worked well in the development of cognitive qualities of students. To form professionally important skills, IT-specialists have been recommended to use aids to promote agility and mental fitness, to reinforce the workload on physical education sessions, increase the number of academic classes on physical education up to 3 per week, or supplement academic activities with sports. In professional literature, there has been found no datum on the type of motor activity that encourages forming a number of leading professionally important qualities

Perceptions of Second-Level Managers\u27 Performance in Student affairs

This study explored first- (subordinates) and second-level (managers) student affairs professionals\u27 perceptions of managers\u27 skills and abilities (N = 193). Participants in this study were members of the National Association for Student Personnel Administrators, National Association for Campus Activities, Association of College an University Housing Officer-International, and the Association on Higher Education and Disability in Virginia. Two instruments were used for the study: (1) Demographics, collecting demographic information and qualitative data, (2) Survey of Management Practices, which assesses managers\u27 skills and abilities. The respondents were predominantly Caucasian (82%), female (62%), between 26–40 years old (72%), and held a master\u27s degree (78%). Sixty-one percent of respondents were managers, of which 85% supervised three or fewer full-time employees and 55% had attended 1–5 training sessions on management. Managers\u27 perceived their performance as higher than average in the following areas: making goals clear and important, planning and problem solving, facilitating the work of others, feedback, reinforcing good performance, interpersonal relations attribute, and group motivation and morale attribute, time emphasis and delegation. Additionally, perceptions of their skills did not differ significantly based on gender, ethnicity or the number of training sessions attended on supervision. Performance management, differences in staff, and time were the three most challenging aspects of supervision identified; while providing feedback/evaluations and communication were the two areas needing improvement. First-level professionals perceived managers\u27 performance in all skill areas as average, and was found to be significantly lower than managers\u27 self-perceptions in all skill areas. This difference in perception of managers\u27 skills and abilities suggests training programs on skills associated with effective management are needed to improve second-level professionals\u27 performance. First-level professionals perceived workload and a lack of resources as the most challenging aspects of supervision; the skill areas identified as needing improvement were communication and professionalism. The results of this study indicate a need for further research on the perceptions of second-level professionals\u27 skills and abilities. Furthermore, the results can be used as a foundation for enhancing training and development programs for student affairs supervisors

Social Values in Social Work: A Developmental Model

The article suggests a five stage model which describes the development of social values in the socialization to social work and other human service professions. The five stages of development include the following: antecedent factors, anticipatory socialization, professional training period, performance in a professional organization and the crystalization of a professional worldview. The main thrust of the paper is the idea that the professional person develops himelf for a very long time before reaching professional maturity. This development represents a constant dialogue between the persons background factors needs and motives and the institutional and organizational contexts he encounters in his career. Along this developmental sequence, conflicts and incongruencies many times arise between the developing professional and his system of values and the organization and its demands. These conflicts will force the developing professional to come out with coping solutions that may involve leaving the field or the profession. Some practical as well as theoretical implications for further research and application are discussed at the end of the article

Exploring the Value of Non-Technical Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities (KSAs) to Cybersecurity Hiring Managers

Industry's demand for cybersecurity workers with non-technical knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) that complement technical prowess is not new. The purpose of this study was to connect with cybersecurity practitioners to determine which non-technical KSAs should be emphasized by educators to help meet workforce demands. This research applies a novel application of the Ground Truth Expertise Development Model (GTEDM) for exploring suitable non-technical and particularly soft KSAs necessary for cybersecurity professional development programs. This study focused on the definition and competency determination step and provided foundational KSA prioritization for further research. The field overwhelmingly agreed that non-technical skills were essential to a cybersecurity worker's success. The qualitative process produced three themes as non-technical KSA areas of the most significant import to the cybersecurity field. These KSA themes required included critically using information, communications skills, and collaboration to pursue customer/client success. The findings produce a more comprehensive list of hard, soft, and mixed non-technical skills that will benefit the public, private, and academic sector organizations as they develop cybersecurity curricula

A Phenomenological Study of the Impact of Client Suicide on Mental Health Professionals: Personal and Professional

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to understand the impact that client\u27s suicide has on mental health professionals\u27 lives, both personally and professionally. The study\u27s central question was: What is the influence that spirituality/religions have on the impact experienced by mental health professionals after the death of their client by suicide? The theories that guided this study are Joiner’s interpersonal-psychological theory of suicide and Bowlby\u27s attachment theory as it relates to grief and loss and the challenge to obtain support with an insecure attachment style; Sanders, Jacobson, and Ting\u27s theory of the five phases of guilt experienced after a loss; Kouriatis and Brown\u27s five stages of grief; and Higgings\u27 self-discrepancy theory of shame and guilt. The study recruited six participants from mental health facilities and collected data through interviewed questions and an online questionnaire. Each participant was interviewed once. With the interviewees\u27 permission, the interviews were videotaped and transcribed verbatim for analysis. The meanings from the experiences were group into themes based on shared commonalities. The analysis process, for example, reading through the participant\u27s answers, continued until the interview questions were saturated with no new added viewpoint from the topic. The themes were later grouped into categories for further analysis. After the final report by the researcher, the data was provided to a qualitative researcher expert for review for bias, emerging themes and to offer investigator triangulation to provide a diverse perspective on the data analysis