Qualitative Descriptions of Developer Changes or Consistency Over Time

Abstract

Developmental networks comprise individuals (i.e., developers) who take an active interest in and concerted action to advance protégé’s career. Research demonstrates that the social composition and characteristics of developmental networks change over time as protégés’ careers evolve. However, little qualitative research explores if, how, and why developmental networks change. This analysis examines why protégés change or maintain connections to their developers, focusing on social constraints and deliberative actions. Using an exploratory qualitative approach, we explored the reasons that university faculty respondents changed their developmental networks over time. We considered the potential for individual/developer characteristics and structural constraints on relations between developers and protégés (e.g., job change) to understand how and why respondents added, maintained, or dropped developers from their networks. We conducted 56 semi-structured interviews with faculty mentors and mentees from three universities and the Mountain West Clinical and Translational Research Infrastructure Network, enrolled in a larger study of mentor training interventions. Respondents discussed how their developmental networks changed over 30 months. Self-reported network maps at baseline, 12, and 24 months were used to augment these interviews by showing who was in their network at these time points. Decisions about stability or change in networks mainly appeared unrelated to strategic decisions based on respondents’ goals or identified network gaps. Instead, themes related to consistency or change included personal reasons (e.g., position change by respondent), or the personal or situational characteristics of the developer such as: being supportive and trustworthy; a collaborator on projects; genuinely caring; having similar experiences, goals, or values as respondent; social and work overlap; and time or capacity changes (e.g., developer retiring). Our findings establish the rationale for developing and implementing a structured, evidence-based networking intervention to educate faculty on intentionally changing developmental networks based on action plans.