Relational Saavy: A New Construct for the Mentoring Literature

Abstract

My dissertation research is dedicated to the development, measurement, and validation of the concept, relational savvy, which refers to a set of personal attributes and skills that influence an individual's ability to establish and maintain mutually enhancing developmental relationships. The dissertation proposal includes an overview of the multi-dimensional construct and an explanation of how it can contribute to the mentoring as well as other literature streams and to practitioners. I identify construct dimensions and review relevant mentoring, learning, and organizational behavior literature. The proposal describes a multifaceted methodology, which includes in-depth interviews, construct mapping, and structural equation modeling. Relational savvy is intended to be a unifying framework that brings together some of the prior research on individual protégé factor in order to be fully accessible to practitioners and to best reveal the implications of prior studies. The construct is comprised of existing constructs-e.g., learning goal orientation, self-esteem-as well as newly identified protégé attributes-relationship-building skills, metacompetencies-to explain why some individuals may be more or less effective in establishing and maintaining successful developmental relationships.

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