The Dr. Hope Richardson Award for
Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation on Mentoring

• About the IMA's Dissertation Award
• Past IMA Dissertation Award Winners

About the IMA's Dissertation Award

The IMA Hope Richardson Dissertation Award is given to foster and disseminate research in the practice of workplace learning and performance. It is presented every two years to the person who has submitted the best doctoral dissertation for which a degree has been granted.

Criteria

1. The dissertation must report a study for which a doctoral degree was granted in the previous two years years between January 1, 2006, and December 31, 2007.
2. The study must focus on some issue of relevance to the practice of mentoring, its application or evaluation in settings such as education, business, industry, government, or youth based mentoring program.
3. All research methodologies will be considered on an equal basis, including, for example, field-, laboratory-, quantitative-, and qualitative-investigations.
4. The candidate must be recommended and sponsored by his or her committee chair. A committee chair may nominate more than one candidate who meets the criteria noted above in points 1 and 2.
5. All materials must be in English, in Word format, and submitted by email attachments with the exception of the nomination letter. Submissions should adhere to the format prescribed below.

Deadline: Entries must be received by December 1, 2008.

Submission Requirements

The application must include the following, without exception, be in Word document format, and be sent via email attachment:

1. Letter of application from candidate, a separate cover sheet that contains the candidate's contact details (work and home address, telephone numbers, and email), and a brief abstract of the submission that does not exceed 120 words.
   
2. Recommendation from committee chair (sent in separate email from email address of the academic institution as an attachment and also by mail, on institution letterhead to the Dissertation Chair [to be announced at a later date]) with the dissertation completion date noted in the letter.
   
3. Abstraction of the dissertation. The abstraction should not exceed ten (10) single-spaced pages in length (including abstraction, figures, tables, and references; 1-inch margins all around; 10-point font, pages numbered, APA 5th Edition, and no author identification in the documentation properties, document body, header, or footer of manuscript). Submissions that exceed the page limitations or do not adhere to the required format will not be considered.
   
4. The abstraction should include:
   • Introduction
     1) Summary of the problem
     2) Purpose of the study and rationale (why is it important?)
     3) Critique of relevant literature
     
   • Research Design and/or Methodology
     1) Sample selection 
     2) Instrumentation and/or interview protocol
     3) Data collection and analysis procedures
     
   • Results and Findings
     1) For quantitative studies, provide sufficient statistics, including power, significance, effect size, and strength of relationship.
     2) For qualitative studies, provide a concise analysis resulting from sufficient methodological rigor.
     
   • Discussion
     1) Strengths of the research
     2) Limitations of the research.
     • Strengths and limitations may address the following topics:
       • Why was the overall design chosen a "good" (i.e., methodologically rigorous and appropriate) design?
       • What measurement and analysis problems did you encounter, and how did you resolve them?
       • Threats to validity.
   • Implications for Practice and Research
     Particular attention will be given to those studies that thoroughly discuss the significance of the findings to the practice of workplace learning and performance.
     
5. Complete Electronic Copy of the Dissertation (may be in pdf format), including references, all appendices, tables, charts, etc.
   
6. To insure a blind review, do not include your name or affiliation on any portion of the actual abstract.
   
7. Send the entire email package to:
   Chair of the Dissertation Award Committee
   
8. *Call or email if you wish to submit your package on a CD.

The award winner will receive:

• Commemorative plaque presented at the awards ceremony during the IMA 22nd Annual Conference 2009.
• US$1000 cash prize to be used for conference travel and related expenses.
• Designated place on the 2009 IMA international conference program to present the research.
• Announcement of the award and a summary of the research findings in IMA publications and on the Website.
• All nominees will receive a 1-year paid membership in the International Mentoring Association with all benefits.

Information summarizing these dissertations and their findings are in the members only section of the web site and listed by topic, which is why there are no links to this information here. Join IMA so you can access these resources.

1997 - Dr. Corinne Dickey, "Effects of Quality Mentoring of Women Students of Color in Higher Education"

1999 - Dr. Linda Stromei, "An Evaluation of the Effectiveness of a Formal Mentoring Program for Managers and the Determinants of Protégé Satisfaction"

2001 - Dr. Janine Knackstedt, "Organizational Mentoring: What About Protégé Needs?"

2003 - Dr. Alan Ladd, "The Applicability of Zey's Mutual Benefits Model (1984) for Mentoring in the Cooperative Extension Service"

2005 - Dr. Truls Engstrom of Stavanger, Norway, "Individual Determinants of Mentoring Success"

2007 - Dr. Julia Pryce, Ph.D., Chicago, Ilinois, "Up Close and Personal: A View of School-Based Mentoring Relationships"

All materials on this web site are copyright protected and all rights are reserved to the IMA.

http://www.mentoring-association.org

However, if you do so for free, you may duplicate and distribute this information or link to it, as long as the full page and all attributions and contact information are preserved as they appear on this page. You may not sell this information in any form.