| The purpose of this dissertation was threefold. The first purpose was to examine the advisor-advisee mentoring relationship using Mentoring Enactment Theory (Kalbfleisch, 2002). The second purpose was to examine the relationship between advisees' use of relational maintenance behaviors and their own and their advisors' reports of relational characteristics (i.e., liking, communication satisfaction, relational satisfaction, trust, work commitment, and control mutuality). The third purpose was to examine the extent to which advisees' relational uncertainty with their advisors was related to their use of relational maintenance behaviors and their advisors' provision of career support and psychosocial support. The results of Principal Component Analyses, Pearson correlations, and MANOVAs indicate that advisors and advisees have similar perceptions of what behaviors advisees engage in to maintain their advisor-advisee mentoring relationships. These behaviors are: appreciation, courtesy (advisees only), tasks, goals, protection (advisors only), and humor. Advisees' use of these relational maintenance behaviors generally is related positively their own reports of relational characteristics and received mentoring support from their advisors, but advisees' use of relational maintenance behaviors is not related negatively to their relational uncertainty. Similarly, advisors' reports of their advisees' use of relational maintenance behaviors generally are related positively to their own reports of relational characteristics. The results indicate further that the sex composition of the advisor-advisee dyad has minimal impact on advisees' use of relational maintenance behaviors and advisors' provision of career support and psychosocial support for their advisees. |
