Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Sep 22;5(1):e53.
doi: 10.1017/cts.2020.547.

Measuring organizational mentoring climate: Importance and availability scales

Beth B Tigges  1 , Akshay Sood  2 , Nora Dominguez  3 , Jonathan M Kurka  4 , Orrin B Myers  5 , Deborah Helitzer  4
Affiliations

Measuring organizational mentoring climate: Importance and availability scales

Beth B Tigges et al. J Clin Transl Sci. .

Abstract

Introduction: Although organizational climate may affect faculty's mentoring behaviors, there has not been any way to measure that climate. The purpose of this study was to test the reliability and validity of two novel scales to measure organizational mentoring climate importance and availability at two public research universities.

Methods: We developed 36 content-valid mentoring climate items in four dimensions: Structure, Programs/Activities, Policies/Guidelines, and Values. In total, 355 faculty completed an anonymous, structured, online survey asking about the importance (very important to very unimportant) and availability (no, don't know, yes) of each of the items. We conducted reliability analyses and construct validity testing using exploratory common factor analysis, principal axis factoring, and oblique rotation.

Results: The majority of the predominantly female, White non-Hispanic, senior, tenure-track faculty were not currently mentoring another faculty or being mentored. Analyses demonstrated a 15-item solution for both the Organizational Mentoring Climate Importance (OMCI) and the Availability (OMCA) Scales, with three factors each: Organizational Expectations, Mentor-Mentee Relationships, and Resources. Standardized Cronbach alphas ranged from 0.74 to 0.90 for the subscales, and 0.94 (OMCI) and 0.87 (OMCA) for the full scales. Faculty rated all items as somewhat to very important; however, perceived availability was very low ranging from mentor training programs (40%) to guidelines for evaluating mentoring success or managing conflict (2.5%).

Conclusions: The scales will allow studying of how organizational climate may affect mentoring behavior and whether climate can be changed to improve faculty mentoring outcomes. We provide recommendations for furthering the science of organizational mentoring climate and culture.

Keywords: Faculty mentoring; measurement; organizational climate; organizational culture.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Individual and organizational influences on mentoring behavior and outcomes (adapted from [17]).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Bertram A, et al. How we developed the GIM clinician-educator mentoring and scholarship program to assist faculty with promotion and scholarly work. Medical Teacher 2015; 37: 131–135. - PubMed
    1. Lach HW, et al. The challenges and benefits of distance mentoring. Journal of Professional Nursing 2013; 29: 39–48.
    1. Sambunjak D, Straus SE, Marusic A. Mentoring in academic medicine: A systematic review. Journal of the American Medical Association 2006; 296(9): 1103–1115. - PubMed
    1. Shaw KB, et al. The Oregon Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine career development program: Innovation in research training for complementary and alternative medicine. Teaching and Learning in Medicine 2003; 15: 45–51. - PubMed
    1. Shea JA, et al. Career development of physician scientists: A survey of leaders in academic medicine. American Journal of Medicine 2011; 124(8): 779–787. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources