Dissertation Chairing as Leadership: An Intersectional Path-Goal Framework for Doctoral Mentoring

Aim/Purpose: This qualitative study examines how dissertation chairs conceptualize and enact leadership and mentoring practices that support doctoral students’ persistence and progression toward degree completion during candidacy. Guided by the Intersectional Path-Goal Mentoring Framework (IP-GMF), the study explores how dissertation chairs describe clarifying pathways, reducing barriers, and supporting scholarly development during the dissertation phase. Background: Doctoral attrition remains a persistent challenge across higher education, with departure occurring most frequently during the dissertation phase (Council of Graduate Schools, 2008; Sverdlik et al., 2018). Although prior research has established the importance of supervision, mentoring, and doctoral socialization, comparatively less attention has been devoted to understanding how dissertation chairs themselves conceptualize and enact leadership practices that support doctoral students’ persistence through the challenges of navigating ambiguity, organizational complexity, barriers to progression, and scholarly development during candidacy, particularly within prominent research-intensive doctoral education environments. Methodology: This theory-informed qualitative study employed semi-structured interviews with 20 experienced dissertation chairs from social sciences and humanities doctoral programs at prominent research-intensive predominantly White institutions (PWIs) in the United States. Data were analyzed through an iterative process of inductive and deductive coding informed by the IP-GMF. Trustworthiness was supported through reflexive memoing, collaborative analytic review, maintenance of an audit trail, and ongoing comparison of participant narratives, codes, and themes throughout the analytic process. Contribution: This study advances doctoral education scholarship by conceptualizing dissertation chairing as an adaptive leadership practice embedded within complex organizational systems and by providing empirical support for the Intersectional Path-Goal Mentoring Framework (IP-GMF) as a theory-building framework for understanding how dissertation chairs support students’ persistence, scholarly development, and access to opportunities during doctoral candidacy. Findings: Three interrelated leadership practices emerged: (1) pathway clarification through transparency and demystification, (2) barrier reduction enacted through power-conscious mentoring, and (3) scholarly cultivation and sponsorship beyond degree completion. Participants described helping students navigate the hidden curriculum, institutional barriers, committee dynamics, and professional opportunities while supporting the development of scholarly identity and future participation in academic and professional communities. Although power-conscious mentoring was originally conceptualized as a distinct framework construct, participants most often described it as a mechanism for reducing barriers in practice. Recommendations for Practitioners: Institutions should provide formal preparation, developmental support, and organizational structures that support dissertation chairing as a critical mechanism for promoting doctoral persistence during candidacy while recognizing dissertation leadership as consequential faculty labor. Faculty can support doctoral persistence through pathway clarification, intentional sponsorship, adaptive mentoring practices, and explicit guidance that helps students navigate institutional processes, academic culture, and barriers to progression. Recommendation for Researchers: Future research should examine dissertation chairing across institutional, disciplinary, and national contexts, explore alignment between faculty and doctoral student perspectives, and further refine the IP-GMF through comparative, longitudinal, and mixed-methods inquiry. Impact on Society: The findings suggest that dissertation chairing influences not only doctoral persistence and completion but also how individuals access opportunities, navigate organizational systems, and develop as scholars and professionals. By conceptualizing dissertation chairing as a form of adaptive leadership, the IP-GMF highlights how pathway clarification, barrier reduction, and scholarly cultivation can shape who successfully completes doctoral study and ultimately contributes knowledge, research, and professional expertise to society. Through supporting persistence and participation, dissertation chairs may contribute to more equitable access to scholarly communities and the production of future scholarship. Future Research: Further examination of the IP-GMF across diverse organizational, mentoring, and leadership contexts may strengthen understanding of how leadership practices influence persistence, development, and participation within complex systems.