Building a Mentoring Community: Some Insights from the Social Sciences

1. Building a Mentoring Community: Some Insights from the Social Sciences Sue Monahan Department of Sociology & Anthropology Montana State University

2. What are our hopes for mentoring? • Strong one-to-one relationships • Support • Feedback, guidance and advice • Opportunities • Advocacy and enhancing visibility • Increased productivity and focus

3. Social capital is a quality of a community • A community with strong social capital has: • Clearly articulated norms and expectations • Networks through which valuable information flows • Trust in group members and group processes • A community with strong social capital is: • Collectively, more productive

4. The organizational sociologist in me… • First line of defense for mentoring: Department Heads and Chairs • Effective annual reviews • Career and professional planning • Helping faculty access resources and expertise • Key nodes in an effective collegial network • Chairs and head embody social capital. • Training and community for heads/chairs pays off for departments and institutions.

5. The strength of weak ties

6. Advantages of weak ties • Otherwise unavailable opportunities • Introduction to whole new networks • New knowledge, ideas and perspectives • Enhanced standing and visibility for boundary spanners • Lower stakes, less personal, less intense

7. How to find weak ties • Interdisciplinary research and teaching • Meaningful committee work • Involvement in professional activities • Institution-wide forums and colloquia • These are not just burdens – they can be opportunities when used strategically.

8. Challenges of pursuing weak ties • Seeking advice and support from unfamiliar people • Going outside a comfortable intellectual community • Potential difficulties in communicating across sub-specialties or disciplines • Working with people who operate with different norms and bases of trust