Developing an Effective Mentor-Business School Relationship in the AACSB Initial Accreditation Process

A key factor in achieving initial AACSB accreditation is establishing an effective relationship between the mentor and the business school. If individual issues are not addressed during the development and implementation of the accreditation plan, time to initial accreditation can be increased substantially. We review four steps in the initial accreditation process and identify seven challenges to the mentor-business school relationship. Strategies for meeting these challenges are developed for both mentors and business schools. General principles from the organizational mentoring literature are applied to the initial accreditation process to maximize and enhance interaction between mentors and business schools.