Exploring Early Career Extension Agents’ Perceptions of Their Mentors, Best Liked Coworkers, and Organizational Commitment

Abstract

Forming positive relationships is an important part of the onboarding process for new Extension professionals. Often, formal mentors are assigned to new employees, but they also develop relationships with other colleagues in the organization. Past studies have found quality relationships with mentors and coworkers can positively influence job outcomes such as employee turnover, organizational performance, and organizational commitment. This study examined the perceptions that early career Extension agents in Florida, Georgia, and Mississippi had of their formal mentors and best-liked coworkers using a causal-comparative design and online survey. Results showed early career Extension agents tended to have marginally positive views of their relationships with their formal mentors but perceived high-quality relationships with their coworkers. Neither type of relationship was significantly related to organizational commitment, but increased frequency of contact with the formal mentor was significantly related to more positive perceptions of the mentoring relationship. Extension organizations should provide structured guidelines for frequency of interactions between mentors and mentees to help improve those relationships.

Extension Mentor’s Discussion and Action Guide

“…This publication provides Extension mentors with a discussion guide to generate potential actions and talking points to include throughout the mentoring relationship. Discussion points correlate with core mentor functions as cited by Kram (1983) and support needs identified by early-career agents (Harder et al, 2021). For more EDIS resources on Extension mentoring, see Appendix A for a brief review.…”

“…Psychosocial support refers to the mentor serving as an emotional resource for the mentees when they experience barriers and challenges (Harder et al, 2021) and can take the form of counseling and providing friendship (Kram, 1983). A mentee may view a mentor as an unofficial authority figure in their worklife (Ragins, 1997).…”

Examining Belongingness, Uniqueness, and Inclusivity Within a Land-Grant University Agricultural and Life Sciences Institute

“…LGUs may consider creating or strengthening mentoring programs within Extension tailored for students in colleges of agriculture to help with institutional belongingness. New hires at UF/IFAS Extension have been required to have one mentor during their tenure probationary period, an estimated 6 years (Harder et al, 2021). Still, this amount of time could be extended.…”