Fear of Sexual Harassment Accusations: A Hidden Barrier to Opposite-Gender Mentoring in Taiwan?

While legal protections against sexual harassment are crucial, their implementation could have unintended consequences. This study explores the potential downside of these protections-fear of false accusations-and its impact on cross-gender mentoring in Taiwanese workplaces. Drawing on social exchange theory, we investigate how fear of accusations might discourage valuable mentoring relationships between men and women. Through an intercept survey, we examined whether these concerns may lead to reduced mentoring opportunities for women, potentially hindering their career advancement. We proposed new constructs and analyzed the model using SmartPLS 4.1. Our findings reveal a complex dynamic: fear of accusations does appear to decrease cross-gender mentoring, raising concerns about its impact on women's career trajectories. However, the findings also suggest that men support sexual harassment laws, still believing these laws are needed. We discuss our model and its implications; additionally, we emphasize the need for strategies that balance legal protections while also fostering positive mentoring relationships.

Dropping out of an online mentoring program for girls in STEM: A longitudinal study on the dynamically changing risk for premature match closure

Premature closure of mentoring relationships decreases positive effects of mentoring or can even lead to negative effects for mentees. Past studies retrospectively investigated mechanisms of premature match closure. However, a deeper understanding of the dynamics that lead to premature match closure is still missing. In our study, we longitudinally examined the preprogram characteristics, program adherence, as well as program communication and networking behavior of girls (N = 901, M = 13.80 years) who took part in a 1-year online mentoring program in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), comparing girls who dropped out of the program prematurely (N = 598) with girls who were considered as non-dropouts (N = 303). We used survival analysis methods to simultaneously analyze time-independent characteristics and time-dependent dynamics of mentees' communication and networking behavior. Besides mentees' interest in STEM and compliance with program specifications, a frequent and steady communication with their mentors decreased the risk for premature match closure, especially, if it focused on STEM. Mentors' mentoring experience, mentees' program-wide networking and their networking with other mentees reduced the risk for premature match closure. Regarding the STEM focus of networking, we found competing influences, which need to be further explored in future research.

Formal Mentoring and Protégés’ Leadership Development: The Roles of Protégés’ Informal Mentoring Networks, Political Skill, and Gender

We seek to better understand how formal mentoring may impact protégés’ leadership development by arguing that protégés’ informal mentoring networks help explain the relationship between formal mentoring and two protégé leadership development outcomes: motivation to lead and promotability. We also argue that protégés’ political skill and gender serve as boundary conditions of these mediated relationships. Using 100 South Korean mentor-protégé dyads in four organizations across three points in time, we find that a higher level of formal mentoring is positively associated with the quality of protégés’ informal mentoring networks, which, in turn, is positively associated with protégés’ motivation to lead, but not protégés’ promotability. We also find that the relationship between a higher level of formal mentoring and the quality of protégés’ informal mentoring networks is strengthened when protégés have a higher level of political skill. In addition, we find that female protégés obtain more informal mentoring networking benefits from their formal mentors than male protégés. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Similarity and Contact Frequency Promote Mentorship Quality among Hispanic Undergraduates in STEM

Mentoring relationships can be important for promoting the success and persistence of undergraduates, particularly for students from historically underrepresented groups in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. While mentoring is often cited as important for attracting and retaining students from underrepresented groups in STEM, little is known about the differential mentoring processes that can result from similar and dissimilar mentor-protégé pairs. The present study tests the process-oriented mentorship model (POMM) regarding how mentor-protégé similarities and the moderating role of contact frequency influence mentorship quality and STEM research career persistence intentions among faculty-mentored Hispanic STEM majors in their senior year of college. The results indicate that mentor-protégé similarity matters. Specifically, higher levels of mentor-protégé psychological similarity were related to higher levels of psychosocial support and relationship satisfaction. Hispanic students with a Hispanic faculty mentor reported engaging in more coauthoring opportunities than peers with non-Hispanic mentors. Among those with higher contact frequency, students with same-gender mentors had higher levels of relationship satisfaction than peers with different-gender mentors; however, there were no differences among those with low contact frequency. Additionally, protégés who reported coauthoring support were more likely to also report commitment to pursuing a STEM research career.

Key issues in professionalizing mentoring practices

Mentoring has experienced a tremendous upswing over the past decades, which has only recently slowed down somewhat. One possible factor explaining mentoring's popularity are numerous case studies suggesting that it is one of the most effective ways of helping individuals to develop. Meta-analyses indicating effect sizes for mentoring that are below what would theoretically be possible appear to contradict the success stories, however. This circumstance raises questions about the professionalization of mentoring practices. We focus on seven key issues for future efforts at professionalizing mentoring. Key issues 1 and 2 address observation of the state of the art within formal mentoring when programs are planned and implemented: the consideration of recent research and of best practices. While both areas can overlap, they provide complementary sources of pertinent information for the professionalization of mentoring. Key issues 3-6 address the need to align mentoring activities to the specific context and goals of individual mentoring programs by observing idiographic program characteristics, mentoring dynamics, the orchestration of mentoring goals, and the provision of mentoring resources. Finally, key issue 7 highlights ongoing evaluation as the basis of the effective, continuous improvement of mentoring programs.

The Supervisory Role of Life Science Research Faculty: The Missing Link to Diversifying the Academic Workforce?

In addition to developing innovative research programs, life science research faculty at research-intensive institutions are tasked with providing career mentoring and scientific training to new generations of scientists, including postgraduate, graduate, and undergraduate students. In this essay, we argue for a redefinition of mentoring in laboratory research, to thoroughly distinguish three essential roles played by research faculty relative to their trainees: advisor, educator, and supervisor. In particular, we pay attention to the often unacknowledged and misunderstood role of a faculty member as a supervisor and discuss the impact of neglecting supervisory best practices on trainees, on the diversity of the academic pipeline, and on the research enterprise. We also provide actionable frameworks for research mentors who wish to use inclusive supervisory and pedagogical practices in their laboratory. Finally, we call for more research around the supervisory role of research faculty and its impact on trainees, particularly community college students, in order to help broaden the participation of underrepresented students in STEM fields.

#Trending topics in careers: a review and future research agenda

Purpose

Virtually all contemporary scientific papers studying careers emphasize its changing nature. Indeed, careers have been changing during recent decades, for example becoming more complex and unpredictable. Furthermore, hallmarks of the new career – such as individual agency – are clearly increasing in importance in today’s labor market. This led the authors to ask the question of whether these changes are actually visible in the topics that career scholars research. In other words, the purpose of this paper is to discover the trending topics in careers.

Design/methodology/approach

To achieve this goal, the authors analyzed all published papers from four core career journals (i.e. Career Development International, Career Development Quarterly, Journal of Career Assessment, and Journal of Career Development) between 2012 and 2016. Using a five-step procedure involving three researchers, the authors formulated the 16 most trending topics.

Findings

Some traditional career topics are still quite popular today (e.g. career success as the #1 trending topic), whereas other topics have emerged during recent years (e.g. employability as the #3 trending topic). In addition, some topics that are closely related to career research – such as unemployment and job search – surprisingly turned out not to be a trending topic.

Originality/value

In reviewing all published papers in CDI, CDQ, JCA, and JCD between 2012 and 2016, the authors provide a unique overview of currently trending topics, and the authors compare this to the overall discourse on careers. In addition, the authors formulate key questions for future research.

Perceptions of Male and Female STEM Aptitude

This study investigated evaluations and advice communicated to male and female technology interns experiencing work difficulties, using a 2 (workplace issue: ability or interpersonal) ×2 (intern gender: male vs. female) between-subjects experimental design. Technology professionals rated hypothetical interns on competence, qualifications, intelligence, and potential field issues. Results suggest that female interns with ability issues are viewed as having lower field aptitude than male interns with ability issues, when judged by individuals holding both hostile and benevolent sexist beliefs. Rater gender was not a significant predictor of aptitude rating. Aptitude assessments of male and female interns with interpersonal issues did not differ; however, open-ended analyses revealed that male interns were expected to be agentic and dissuaded from help seeking when facing interpersonal issues, while female interns were expected to find mentors and control their emotions. Findings show how sexist beliefs, workplace issues, and intern gender can affect responses and assessments by potential mentors.