The Wiley International Handbook of Mentoring

6Mentoring as Loose Coupling: Theory in Action

Susan Brondyk

Hope College, Michigan, USA

Mentoring, like teaching, is a practice with its own set of knowledge and skills that needs to be learned (Achinstein & Athanases, 2006). Mentors come to the practice with their own understanding of the role and level of experience; each context and individual, with whom they work, is unique. In addition, programs vary in the amount of support that they provide for their mentors. Given these factors, it is understandable that mentors' practices differ. This chapter includes the theory of loose coupling to examine mentor variation.

Theory: Loosely Coupled Systems

Karl Weick's foundational work on a loosely coupled system provides a framework for analyzing the variation that occurs among mentors. Weick (1976) defined loose coupling as “a situation in which elements are responsive, but retain evidence of separateness and identity” (p. 3). This means that loosely coupled systems consist of “two components: (1) a source of order which consolidates, unifies and coalesces diverse elements or fragments and (2) elements or fragments, which are consolidated, unified, or coalesced by a source of order” (Orton & Weick, 1990, p. 213). In other words, there is a controlling source and fragments that are managed by the source. This definition stems back to earlier work by Burns and Stalker (1961), which “combine the contradictory concepts of connection and autonomy” (p. 216). Burns and Stalker described ...