Developmental Relationships in Engineering

Heidi M Sherick

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Conference: 2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Tampa, Florida
Publication Date: June 15, 2019
Start Date: June 15, 2019
End Date: June 19, 2019
Conference Session: Faculty Development Technical Paper Session
Tagged Division: Faculty Development Constituent Committee
Page Count: 10
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--32661
Permanent URL: https://strategy.asee.org/32661
Download Count: 456

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Heidi M Sherick University of Michigan

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Dr. Heidi Sherick has worked in higher education for over 25 years. Currently, Heidi is the Faculty Development and Leadership Specialist in the College of Engineering and the Medical School at the University of Michigan. Her primary role is to design and initiate a suite of professional leadership development activities and coaching, mentoring, and sponsoring strategies for faculty. She provides one-on-one coaching for faculty in new executive leadership roles and for Associate level faculty in Engineering, facilitating career advancement, fostering connections, and providing leadership development opportunities. Heidi served as the Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Programs and Diversity in the College of Engineering at Montana State University from 2001-2012. She also served as the Director of EMPower, the engineering minority program. Heidi earned her PhD in Educational Leadership from University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 2014. She studied developmental relationships in higher education and investigated the processes through which higher education leadership is fostered including mentoring, coaching, role-modeling, sponsoring, and networking.

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Abstract

Developmental Relationships in Engineering

This RESEARCH paper discusses a study exploring informal faculty development of engineering faculty leaders; specifically, the purpose of this study is to better understand how mentoring relationships help promote faculty career advancement. Higher education rarely develops the capacity of its leaders in an intentional way (Eckel & Hartley, 2011). “Colleges and universities, unlike many similarly sized corporations, do not view talent development as a strategic priority” (Eckel & Hartley, 2011, p. 29). The complexity of higher education, as well as the increased demands and challenges, require better prepared leaders. Despite this need, there is little research on informal one-on-one leadership development tactics in higher education. To understand how leadership is fostered informally, this study focused on developmental relationships experienced by engineering faculty leaders. The research question answered by this study is: What functions of developmental relationships, such as role modeling, stretch assignments, and networking, help engineering faculty leaders along their career journeys?

This paper highlights preliminary findings of a study which utilizes a qualitative approach using interviews with engineering faculty leaders at two institutions. Through the interviews, data were gathered about what happened in the faculty member’s developmental relationship experiences, and to what extent the individual developmental relationship functions impacted their leadership development and career advancement. Through the data collection and analysis the researcher identified emergent developmental relationship functions specific to engineering faculty. The power of observation, highlighting the significance of role modeling in developmental relationships experienced by the participants will be discussed. In addition, the findings identified a unique set of functions of developmental relationships experienced by these higher education leaders that are not identical to the developmental relationship functions in business sectors. The new functions specific to the population of higher education leaders represented by the sample were collaboration and problem solving. The importance of peer relationships and the existence of multiple developers are also consistent with previous findings. Results from this study inform a mentoring model which helps faculty focus on being intention about relationship building that can make a difference in career success, exploring networks, sponsors, mentors, and collaborators. The proposed model highlights a duality of strategies to serve faculty early in their career (mentee) and more senior in their career (mentor). Preferred presentation mode is traditional lecture.

Citation
Format

Sherick, H. M. (2019, June), Developmental Relationships in Engineering Paper presented at 2019 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition , Tampa, Florida. 10.18260/1-2--32661

TY - CPAPER
AB - Developmental Relationships in Engineering

This RESEARCH paper discusses a study exploring informal faculty development of engineering faculty leaders; specifically, the purpose of this study is to better understand how mentoring relationships help promote faculty career advancement. Higher education rarely develops the capacity of its leaders in an intentional way (Eckel &amp; Hartley, 2011). “Colleges and universities, unlike many similarly sized corporations, do not view talent development as a strategic priority” (Eckel &amp; Hartley, 2011, p. 29). The complexity of higher education, as well as the increased demands and challenges, require better prepared leaders. Despite this need, there is little research on informal one-on-one leadership development tactics in higher education. To understand how leadership is fostered informally, this study focused on developmental relationships experienced by engineering faculty leaders. The research question answered by this study is: What functions of developmental relationships, such as role modeling, stretch assignments, and networking, help engineering faculty leaders along their career journeys?

This paper highlights preliminary findings of a study which utilizes a qualitative approach using interviews with engineering faculty leaders at two institutions. Through the interviews, data were gathered about what happened in the faculty member’s developmental relationship experiences, and to what extent the individual developmental relationship functions impacted their leadership development and career advancement. Through the data collection and analysis the researcher identified emergent developmental relationship functions specific to engineering faculty. The power of observation, highlighting the significance of role modeling in developmental relationships experienced by the participants will be discussed. In addition, the findings identified a unique set of functions of developmental relationships experienced by these higher education leaders that are not identical to the developmental relationship functions in business sectors. The new functions specific to the population of higher education leaders represented by the sample were collaboration and problem solving. The importance of peer relationships and the existence of multiple developers are also consistent with previous findings. Results from this study inform a mentoring model which helps faculty focus on being intention about relationship building that can make a difference in career success, exploring networks, sponsors, mentors, and collaborators. The proposed model highlights a duality of strategies to serve faculty early in their career (mentee) and more senior in their career (mentor).
Preferred presentation mode is traditional lecture.

AU - Heidi M Sherick
CY - Tampa, Florida
DA - 2019/06/15
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Developmental Relationships in Engineering
UR - https://strategy.asee.org/32661
DO - 10.18260/1-2--32661
ER -