Creating a Favorable Work Climate: Recognition Scenario

Question Title

Review the following Climate scenario and select the correct answer(s) based on the insight gained from the Increasing Women in Neuroscience course. This question was adapted from the Stewardship Workgroup of the University of Arizona ADVANCE program.

The following interaction takes place at a faculty meeting:

Maria: I think we need a mentoring program for our grad students; it’s been demonstrated to reduce time to degree.

Paul: We tried that a few years ago and it was a big waste of time.

Peter: I’ve been grad director for 12 years, so our last effort must have been before my time, but I agree these things can consume a lot of time with little reward.

John: While I wasn’t directly involved, we did that in my last department and it worked really well. We saw retention rates go through the roof.

Paul: John raises some good points. And Peter, we’ve been discussing the fact that our student retention rates are too low. Maybe we should listen to John because he brings expertise to the table.

John: I’d be happy to work up a plan if you’d like.

Peter: It seems to me that you’re busy enough so why don’t you give the details of what you did at Penn to Maria and let her write it up. Can you get it to me in two weeks? If it looks good, I’ll present it during our next department meeting.

What factors could help ensure that Maria (the woman who proposed the mentoring program) gets the credit for the mentoring program and not just the responsibility? (Check all that apply)

Maria will ask Peter if she can be involved in the planning of the program to add another perspective.

The department should not invest faculty time on mentoring.

Peter should acknowledge the value of Maria’s contribution and recommend that Maria and John work together on building the mentoring program.

John can share the successes of the mentoring program in his department and ask for a diverse group of faculty to assist in building the new mentoring program.

Peter should assure Maria in a separate conversation that her idea was valuable and allow John to lead since he has tried a similar program in his department.