Doctoral supervision as an academic practice and leader–member relationship: A critical approach to relationship dynamics

Abstract

<p>Recent rationalisation of academic work has challenged the role of traditional supervision, which<br />still plays a significant part in students’ experiences of their doctoral studies. Accordingly, we give<br />a voice to doctoral students’ lived experiences and trace how relationship dynamics are constructed<br />during encounters between the supervisor and supervisee in the contemporary academic<br />context. We approach the topic with interview data and written stories from 33 doctoral students.<br />First, aided by the LMX theory, our findings demonstrate supervisory relationships to be leader–<br />follower relationships that contain imbalanced power relations. Second, a narrative reading of<br />our data helped us identify the critical moments and encounters that pushed relationships towards<br />either a fruitful co-operation or a destructive endeavour. Our findings add a critical view to<br />the mainstream pedagogical research on supervising practices. In addition, we contribute to the<br />research on doctoral students’ wellbeing by demonstrating how a combination of intertwined<br />elements explain the overall satisfaction and experience of the supervision.<br /></p>