Document Type

Dissertation

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy

Major

Education, Educational Psychology

Date of Defense

4-18-2017

Graduate Advisor

Marvin Berkowitz

Committee

Wolfgang Althof

Cody Ding

Kevin Basik

Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation was to examine the mentoring culture at USAFA in terms of selected mentor and protégé motivational and effectiveness characteristics of faculty and administrative personnel (referred to as permanent party members) (mentors) and cadets (protégés). Results offer evidence which support the presence of a somewhat healthy culture in that those who indicated they were currently mentoring cadets were more generative, altruistic, and wanted to mentor cadets more compared to those who indicated they were not mentoring cadets. However, those who were currently mentoring cadets did not necessarily possess better emotional intelligence compared to non-mentors. Also, cadets who indicated they were currently being mentored wanted to be mentored more and possessed more of all selected motivational (locus of control and self-esteem) and effectiveness (job involvement, career planning, and learning goal orientation) characteristics compared to cadets who were not being mentored. In addition, a large number of cadets indicated they wanted to be mentored but were currently not being mentored. This group of cadets differed from those who wanted to be mentored and were being mentored in that they were younger by class year, had more of an external locus of control, and less of a learning goal orientation. Future research should focus on three aspects of mentoring at USAFA: assessing effectiveness, training motivated mentors to improve their emotional intelligence, and intervening with mentoring resources for freshmen cadets who possess motivational and effectiveness characteristics.

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