Mentoring Relates to Job Satisfaction for Fish Biologists: A Longitudinal Study of the USDA Forest Service
2020
Penaluna, Brooke E. | Shively, Dan | Roper, Brett B. | Cerveny, Lee K. | Witt, Shelly | Rothlisberger, John D.
Mentoring has had a recent resurgence as the key to achieving both individual and organizational goals, especially as workforce diversification efforts have led to the hiring of new talent. Few studies have evaluated mentoring within an organization or examined changes in mentoring practices over time. We describe the role and status of mentoring for current fish biologists in the USDA Forest Service, including correlations between participation in mentoring and gender, race/ethnicity, career level, time in career, and job satisfaction based on a survey of agency employees (n = 136). Mentoring relates to a more than two‐fold increase in job satisfaction. Neither gender, race/ethnicity, career length, nor position are reliable predictors of whether someone has a mentor, evidence that participation in mentoring is consistent across the workforce and, at least superficially, it is equitable. Respondents sought guidance from mentors regarding technical skills, program management, communication, and leadership. Fish biologists of color were more likely than others to look for mentoring to build self‐confidence, address conflicts, and inform professional values and ethics. More early‐career fish biologist respondents identify as women in 2019 compared to a 1984 assessment. Overall, our results suggest that mentoring plays an important and positive role in career development and job satisfaction for fish biologists in the USDA Forest Service.
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