Dr. Robert Renn's Article Accepted For Publication in the Journal of Vocational Behavior

For release:  September 22, 2014

DDr. Robert Renn, associate professor of Management and research director of the Memphis Institute of Leadership Education (MILE), recently had his article entitled, "School-to-work transition: Mentor career support and student career planning, job search intentions, and self-defeating job search behavior," accepted for publication to the Journal of Vocational Behavior. This is Dr. Renn's second article accepted for publication that is based upon research through the MILE program. This article was co-authored with Dr. Bob Taylor, director of the MILE program, Dr. Robert Steinbauer, assistant professor of Brock University, and doctoral Management student Dan Detwiler.

"This is a very special honor for the MILE program and the Management department as a whole," said Dr. Chuck Pierce, chairman of the Management Department. "MILE will continue to grow as an institution dedicated to the development of leadership education and research under the guidance of Drs. Taylor and Renn."

In this study, the authors hypothesized and tested a model where mentor career support predicts college student career planning, job search intentions, and self-defeating job search behavior via student career self-efficacy. Using survey responses collected at two points in time from college students near graduation who were mentored by working business professionals for 8 months in a formal hybrid university-sponsored mentoring program, results showed that mentor career support positively correlated to student career planning and job search intentions and negatively correlated to student self-defeating job search behavior. In addition, results indicated that student career self-efficacy fully mediated the relations between mentor career support and the outcomes. The findings have important implications for future mentoring and job search research. They also provide practical guidance for improving college students' career planning and job searches.

"I am very pleased that our research team has now produced two scholarly journal publications in two years," said Dr. Renn. "With our recent publication acceptance to the Journal of Vocational Behavior, the MILE program continues to gain international recognition as a world-class mentoring program that prepares the Fogelman College's most promising business students for leadership positions around the world and that produces cutting edge research on mentoring and leadership."