350 HIGHER EDUCATION LEADERSHIP PRACTICES
scholarly development of new faculty and help them succeed through a structured
teaching/learning process and formalized collegial relationships. This approach promotes the
professional development of new faculty members, provides seasoned faculty with
opportunities to share their expertise, and assists faculties and departments in actively
mentoring new faculty. The scholarly development of newcomers is enabled through diverse
arrangements, which support the retention and advancement of all new faculty, especially
when sustained by collegewide mentoring and ongoing best practice (Dubin & Recht, 2008;
Mullen, et al., 2008; Mullen, 2008).
Tip 2: Foster Two-Way Decision Making
New faculty mentoring programs have a better chance of surviving if they involve the
initiative of faculty members with expertise in mentoring and college leaders who support a
professional development program for all new professors. Successful faculty programs have
sometimes been developed through two-way decision-making and consultation of the
literature on faculty mentoring (Mullen, et al., 2008). Applying Fullan’s (1999) notion of
organizational change as a two-way process of leadership, bottom-up or grassroots leadership
from faculty with requisite expertise in such practical areas as organizational and human
development, combined with top-down or administrative leadership from individuals who
value faculty leadership and development, helps to ensure that mentoring programs that are
initiated are also collaborative and sustained. Faculty can develop proposals for mentoring
programs to share with administrative leaders for support, or deans can gather examples from
institutions and elicit the necessary support of faculty and chairs (Mullen, et al., 2008).
However, formal mentoring programs that work well are not overly institutionalized and
coordinators’ roles are both determined and shaped by the needs of faculties and faculty
participants (Dubin & Recht, 2008; University of Manitoba, 2006) and, it is essential to add,
administrative leaders who are engaged visionaries (Mullen, 2008).
Tip 3: Promote Flexibility in Organization
Program structures and activities should be carefully deliberated but also flexible and
subject to change based on feedback provided by faculty participants and promising practices
in the mentoring literature. Such activities can include fall orientations, meet-and-greet
luncheons for new faculty and their mentors and department chairs, workshops, library
database tutoring sessions, and research and scholarship panels. Program participants (e.g.,
new faculty, department mentors, college mentors) can appraise the effectiveness of their own
mentoring experiences, in addition to that of the program itself (Chan, 2008; Dubin & Recht,
2008).
Tip 4: Pursue Balance in Goals
New faculty members’ scholarly needs are both career focused and psychosocial (Kram,
1985/1988), so assistance in research and teaching is required, as well as adjustment and
socialization. These two major functions of academic mentoring relationships—career (e.g.,
sponsorship, coaching, protection) and psychosocial (e.g., role modeling, counseling,
friendship)—have proved relevant to the reported success and growth of many programs for
both new faculty and mentors (Johnson, 2006).