The OB Division Mentorship Award recognizes a scholar who has excelled at mentoring others in achieving their career objectives through moral, social, and intellectual support. We define each of these criteria in more detail below:
- Intellectual support: Helps the mentee develop ideas constructively (e.g., by brainstorming, offering a sounding board, suggesting a diverse perspective, providing written feedback) – investing one’s intellectual capital in the service of mentees.
- Social support: Helps the mentee develop a professional network that will allow him/her to be successful (e.g., introducing them to others, writing reference letters, suggesting them as coauthors/reviewers/editors) – investing one’s social capital in the service of mentees.
- Personal support: Genuinely cares about the wellbeing and development of the mentee (e.g., encouragement through difficult times, helps maintain self-efficacy, provides perspective or specific career/work strategies) – investing one’s personal energy in the service of mentees.
Any member of the OB Division is eligible for this award. This award is not meant to recognize research productivity, advocacy activities in the field, or personal longevity in the field but rather to recognize a scholar who has an impactful effect on other scholars through their outstanding mentorship. To be eligible, the person needs a minimum of three mentees who are willing to write a letter of nomination on behalf of their mentor. Based on the letters or recommendation received, a young and upcoming artist, being mentored by a more senior artist, will develop a personalized piece of art representing the award winner as a mentor. The award winner will be announced at the Academy of Management conference. To nominate an individual for the 2024 Mentorship Award, a nomination packet must include:
- A letter of nomination that identifies the candidate, the individual(s) making the nomination, and a short motivation about why this person is being nominated (one page, single spaced);
- As supporting evidence, we ask the three nominators to each write a supporting letter (one page, single spaced) about how this person (mentor) has impacted their development, career and lives. These letters will be used as input for the artist crafting the award. We need a minimum of three, and a maximum of 10, letters per person. Nominations are accepted from all OB Division members.
- If you nominated a candidate in a prior year/years who was not successful, you will need to resubmit the nomination materials this year.
The 2024 winner: Robert Liden
Robert Liden exemplifies what he studies: servant leadership. Quoting from the cover letter from 10 of his mentees: “Bob always has time for his students, giving needed advice, but also giving room for students to develop in their own right (intellectual support). Bob encourages his students to form professional relationships with top scholars, often inviting them to campus, and seeks opportunities in earnest to include students on projects with scholars outside of UIC (social support). Bob is always kind, thoughtful, and encouraging, even in the most difficult of times and maintains these relationships long past graduation (moral support). Bob has a way of making research fun, even in the darkest and most frustrating of times.” In their personal recommendations, his mentees wrote of how Bob supported them even when no one (including themselves) believed in them, of Bob treating them as true colleagues rather than simply as students, of Bob helping them find promising research sites, of Bob going to great efforts to endorse them for academic positions, conferences, editorial boards, and awards, and of his exacting ethical and research standards. Perhaps this is why Bob has served on 75 dissertation committees, chairing or co-chairing 29 of them, why he is the Associate Dean for Doctoral Programs at UIC, and why, incredibly, 76 of his 112 refereed publications are with current or former students. As one mentee summed it up, “He is a dedicated scientist and he loves what he does, and watching him work, it is impossible not to want to walk the same path. His mentoring changed my life.”
Past award winners: