In the context of mentoring junior faculty members, it is important that senior faculty members encourage them to couple their research to practice and to think about the practical applications of their research. That means studying dependent variables that are of interest to decision makers and independent variables that can be changed by instituting new policies (Ruback & Innes, 1988). Junior faculty members who do research without implementation in mind risk becoming disconnected, and therefore out of touch, with the kinds of workplace issues that many of their own students face.