Exploring the Magic of Mentoring: Career Planning for the Public Relations Profession

Abstract

This chapter attempts to critique the role of mentoring relationships which are identified by Levinson (1987) as ‘one of the most complex and developmentally important relations’. Providing psychosocial and career support (Kram, 1983, 1985) public relations practitioners, employers and professional bodies could benefit from the literature and empirical studies which demonstrate the powerful relationships that can develop through mentoring. This chapter critiques the mentoring programmes identified through empirical research of public relations’ professional bodies (Kiesenbauer et al., 2015) and the findings of a European study of public relations practitioners (Zerfass et al., 2014) in order to contextualise the literature and consider how the public relations profession can make better use of the dynamic mentoring relationship.

Citation

Tench, R., Laville, L. and Kiesenbauer, J. (2016), "Exploring the Magic of Mentoring: Career Planning for the Public Relations Profession", The Management Game of Communication (Advances in Public Relations and Communication Management, Vol. 1), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 205-223. https://doi.org/10.1108/S2398-391420160000001011