Seeing You in Me and Me in You: Personal Identification in the Phases of Mentoring Relationships

Abstract

Identification is integral to mentoring relationships, yet we know relatively little about the process through which mentors and protégés identify with each other, how this mutual identification shifts through the phases of the mentoring relationship, and how identification impacts the quality of the relationship over time. In this paper, we integrate theories of the self, relationships, and relational mentoring to consider the role of identification in informal mentoring. Specifically, we theorize how the process of personal identification occurs in mentoring from the perspective of both the mentor and protégé and offer a model that demonstrates how shifts in identification relate to the quality of the relationship that develops over time. We conclude with a discussion of implications for research and theory in mentoring.

Study on the Influencing Mechanism of Enterprise Mentors’ Guidance on the Practice Performance of Engineering Masters

“…Different from previous research perspectives, the mediating mechanism, namely career competency, is introduced in this research, which interprets the action mechanism of mentors' guidance on the practice performance of engineering masters, and provides an interesting direction for the research on the enterprise mentor system. In addition, for research on the relationship between the mentor guidance and outcome variable of mentees, scholars usually explore impacts of career guidance and psychological guidance on mentees [23,24] , and few would explore whether the integration of the two guidance behaviors would promote the ability of mentees Management practice would usually highlight the career guidance of enterprise mentors, insisting that career support is more consistent with the guidance in workplace [25] [26] , but ignore the fact that the effect of mentors' career guidance cannot be separated from the support of psychological guidance [27] . This research shows that the enterprise mentors' guidance integrating the career support and psychological support is crucial for promoting the career competency of engineering masters, among which, the higher the degree of psychological guidance is, the more evident the effect of career guidance on the career competency of engineering masters will be, and the stronger the impact on practice performance will be.…”

Relationship between feedback environment established by mentor and nurses’ career adaptability: A cross‐sectional study

“…For improving career adaptability, prior research paid more attention to the supervisor and coworkers’ effects (Savickas, ). However, apart from the supervisor and coworkers, mentors play a direct, important and distinct role for nurses in assisting them in their practice (Humberd & Rouse, ).…”

“…Compared with the low accessibility of the supervisor and the coworkers’ lack of experience, mentors have a longer contact time with protégés, more knowledge exchange (Perez‐Nordtvedt, Payne, Short, & Kedia, ), and a greater probability of passing down social capital (Seibert, Kraimer, & Liden, ). Although mentors have the advantages of rich experience and accessibility to coworkers (Weijden, Belder, Arensbergen, & Besselaar, ), prior studies have neglected the contribution of mentor feedback (Humberd & Rouse, ). Mentoring relationships can function via the delivery of communal norms, and feedback is one form of transmission.…”

Diversified mentoring relationships: contested space for mutual learning?

“…To address these questions, it is important to first understand the process of personal identification. Personal identification in relationships can occur through three mechanisms: projection, recognition, and integration (Humberd and Rouse 2016). In projection, the mentor and the mentee ascribes aspects of himself/herself onto each other and thus, the mentor/mentee builds his/her own image of one another based primarily on fantasy.…”

“…Use of expressive and creative forms of knowing can further enable the mentor and mentee in diversified mentoring relationships to connect not only based on their past and future selves, but through their present selves as well. In other words, for mutual learning to occur, it is not sufficient for the mentor to see their past selves in the mentee or the mentee to see their future selves in the mentor as doing so reinforces differences between mentors and mentees in terms of career stages, work experiences, or hierarchical positions (Humberd and Rouse 2016). The mentor and mentee should also be able to identify based on their present selves (i.e.…”