Learning with the devil: mentoring and advocates
ISSN: 0048-3486
Article publication date: 2 August 2021
Issue publication date: 29 March 2022
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this research was to understand the lived experience of mentoring to provide insight for those who manage and experience mentoring at work.
Design/methodology/approach
Semi-structured interviews with a cohort of 43 mentors and their mentees plus key informants were conducted. It is a longitudinal qualitative study undertaken with a year's cohort of mentors (referred to as “devilmasters”) and mentees (“devils”) in the profession of law, amongst Scottish barristers, advocates.
Findings
The meanings of mentoring differed widely between individuals. Mentoring relationships differed in their depth, quality and benefits the mentees received. The research findings reveal the inconsistencies and inequalities that are a fundamental part of the experience of mentoring that, as yet, the research literature has missed. The research also revealed how mentoring alone was not enough and that structured training was required to supplement mentoring. Further, there is a dependency to be found in mentoring. The mentoring process is power laden.
Research limitations/implications
Researchers may need to provide a definition of mentoring to those they research. Power needs to be fore-grounded in research.
Originality/value
As almost all previous research on mentoring is survey based, this is one of the few studies of the lived experience of mentoring, socialization and cognitive apprenticeship.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This paper forms part of a special section “Understanding work experience and experiential workers: the interplay between experience-(ing) of work and people management”, guest edited by Nelarine Cornelius, Mustafa Bilgehan Ozturk and Eric Pezet. Fiona Wilson would like to acknowledge the work of Sabina Siebert in gaining access and collection of data for this research.
Citation
Wilson, F. (2022), "Learning with the devil: mentoring and advocates", Personnel Review, Vol. 51 No. 2, pp. 464-479. https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-08-2020-0649
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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