Does Professional Support from Colleagues Influence Supervisory Competencies and Experienced Burnout among Doctoral Supervisors?

Abstract

Doctoral supervisors conduct supervision in increasingly complex and demanding environments. Professional support from colleagues may enable supervisors to navigate such complexities and overcome demands. This paper reports on supervisory experiences of collegial professional support. The dynamics between the professional support from colleagues, perceived supervisory competencies, and experienced burnout symptoms is explored. Survey data from a total of 474 doctoral supervisors from across the African continent were collected in 2022 with a modified version of a supervisory experience survey. The data were analysed using structural equation modelling. The results showed that informational support from colleagues was positively related to supervisory competencies, while emotional support buffered the development of all burnout symptoms. Also, supervisory competencies were associated with a reduced risk of suffering from exhaustion, cynicism, and inadequacy. The study extends the existing body of knowledge on supervisory experience by explicating the dynamics between the professional support, supervisory competencies, and burnout symptoms, and by introducing a new scale for studying professional support from colleagues.

Keywords:

• burnout
• doctoral supervisors
• professional support
• structural equation modelling
• supervisory competencies