How Academic Climate Shapes Mentorship and Enhances Lecturer Career Development

Abstract

In this article we investigate how the academic climate and the research culture influence the career development of lecturers by embedding mentoring as a key developmental process in higher education. This paper contributes to the sparse literature on the interaction between institutional contexts and professional development by developing an integrated model of how relational (baselining from environments) and structural factors (features of academic activities that vary in degree to which they are individualized) intersect in the shaping lives of academics. The results demonstrate the direct role played by conducive academic atmospheres and robust research environments in facilitating career trajectories; they also work through mentorship, which may reinforce developmental support, professional growth and involvement in scholarly work. The study provides a new understanding of the role mentorship plays as a main conduit that institutional conditions are channeled through to affect individual academic advancement, providing further evidence regarding the strategic importance of merging support at an institutional level with personal development as practices. These findings enhance our understanding of academic human resource development and have implications for how universities can promote more productive, research-intensive and mentorship-based academic communities.