Supervisors’ power sources and doctoral students’ working conditions: a qualitative study of doctoral supervision in a developing country

Higher education institutions around the world seek to expand their capacity to compete with one another in attracting more doctoral students and recruiting talented researchers by enhancing the quality and performance of their doctoral programs. In this study, we adopt a service perspective lens and explore the relationship between doctoral supervision and students’ working conditions by investigating the influence of supervisors’ power sources. Interview data was obtained from 22 doctoral students and 16 supervisors studying and working, respectively, at public universities in Iran. The findings suggest that the use of mediated power by supervisors is associated with poor-quality doctoral supervision, which negatively impacts the mental well-being and perceptions of decent work of doctoral students. Building on the literature and evidence from the interviews, we elaborate our arguments and offer several practical implications for higher education institutions.