Exploring the lived experiences of mutuality in diverse formal faculty mentoring partnerships through the lens of mentoring schemas

Abstract

Mentoring programs continue to be an important HRD tool as they provide faculty, regardless of career stage, an opportunity for professional learning and development. However, the traditional hierarchical mentor–mentee model may limit the quality and utility of these relationships. A solution provided by emerging literature is the relational mentoring perspective that calls for a mutual approach to mentoring. Nonetheless, mutual learning and growth in diverse mentoring might be difficult for underrepresented faculty mentees and their mentors. Our study offers a unique contribution to the mentoring literature by identifying how mentoring schemas may guide experiences of the factors that challenge and cultivate mutuality within diverse formal mentoring relationships. Findings indicated that difference in career stage and culture/power‐distance challenged the mentoring partners' ability to experience mutuality, especially if they had a traditional mentoring schema. Interestingly, they managed to overcome these challenges and experience mutuality in their mentoring partnerships if they were paired with a senior mentoring partner with a relational mentoring schema who was skilled to nurture mutual learning and growth. Also, similarity between mentoring partners in deep‐level diversity characteristics such as research interest, work styles, and approach to career building facilitated experiences of mutuality. Guided by the findings, we recommend that program designers solicit information on how cultural identities might have shaped mentoring schemas as part of the matching process and engage mentoring participants in a discussion about how these differences may influence the way mutuality is conceptualized and practiced early in the mentoring process.

How Does Mentoring Affect the Creative Performance of Mentors: The Role of Personal Learning and Career Stage

“…An increasing number of studies discuss the benefits of mentors from mentoring (Mao et al, 2016 ; Ghosh et al, 2020 ), yet some research studies focusing on the creative performance of mentors and mentors at different career stages are still scarce. To address this gap, we developed a moderated mediation model to explore the relationship and underlying mechanisms between mentoring and the creative performance of mentors via personal learning.…”

“…Compared with previous studies that either focused on the benefits of mentees obtained from mentoring (Eby et al, 2013 ; Hu et al, 2020 ) or largely investigated the in-role performance of the mentors (Fowler et al, 2021 ), our finding broadens the application of the COR theory into the perspective of mentors to find that mentoring can lead mentors to gain resources as well. Theoretically, mentors can experience positive interactions, including mutual learning and collision of various ideas during mentoring provision (Lentz and Allen, 2009 ; Ghosh et al, 2020 ), which serve as valuable resources to promote their creative performance. This finding further supports previous studies of viewing reciprocity as one fundamental attribute in mentoring (Haggard et al, 2010 ).…”

“…Previous studies have revealed the positive effect of mentoring on the outcomes of mentees (Lapointe and Vandenberghe, 2017 ; Chen et al, 2020 ; Zheng et al, 2020 ). Beyond the benefits of mentees, mentors may also broaden their knowledge and get inspiration when they contribute energy and time to help mentees (Ragins et al, 2017 ; Ghosh et al, 2020 ). Several researchers have shifted their focus on the outcome variables of mentors that result from participating in mentoring, for example, job performance (Fowler et al, 2021 ), leadership capacity (Chun et al, 2012 ), and career development (McNall et al, 2010 ; Ghosh and Reio, 2013 ).…”

Career stages in management studies: a systematic review of scientific production from 2011 to 2020

“…Finally, we highlight the operationalization of the career stages in the studies by Kraimer, Greco, Seibert and Sargent (2019) and Ghosh, Hutchins, Rose and Manongsong (2020). Both researches aimed at teachers/academics: members of the Academy of Management and professors who participated in formal mentoring programs, respectively.…”

“…The career stages proposed by Kraimer et al (2019) involve early career stage (assistant professor), mid-career (associate professor), and final career stage (full professor). Similarly, Ghosh et al (2020) named junior faculty those with the title of Assistant Professor and senior faculty those with the title of Associate or Full Professor.…”