Mentoring and Other Communication Support in the Academic Setting

The purpose of this study was to determine the dimensional structure of mentoring and other communication support behaviors in an academic environment. Professors (N = 224) at two universities were surveyed. A communication support questionnaire was developed, and three separate factors emerged as elements of perceived communication support: the Mentor/Protégé Dimension, the Collegial Social Dimension, and the Col legial Task Dimension. The Mentor/Protégé Dimension appears to represent the tradition al concept of mentoring. The Collegial Social Dimension is more reciprocal and friendship oriented. The Collegial Task Dimension reflects reciprocal support that is work related. The study supported the idea of multidimensional support within an academic organization.