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Makes the case that companies intending to become globally competitive must recruit and develop the most talented people, men and women. Describes the experience of one company in developing women for global leadership positions. Shows how this initiative integrated organizational development, team and network building and individual leadership development.

One of the goals of many formal mentoring programs is to bring the organization to the point where the majority of mentoring is carried out informally, without the need for substantial, structured support from HR and elsewhere. The problem, in most cases, is that completely informal mentoring – where people come together without guidance and without clarity about the mentoring role – is a hit and miss affair. Not only is the quality of the relationships highly variable, but the pairings tend to exclude people who do not fit the mould, by virtue of their gender, race, culture or some other differentiating factor.

Assessing Equal Opportunities Policies. This is the title of an article by Sonia Lift in Volume 18, Number 1 of Personnel Review in which the strengths and weaknesses of equal opportunity codes are discussed, in the light of the recently issued Equal Opportunities Code of the Institute of Personnel Management.

To highlight the gender and diversity in organizations (GDO) division's conference program at the 66th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management (AoM).

A select group of presentations are summarized based on observation, notes, discussions, and reading of material.

Attempts to advance diversity are being made via a variety of avenues to include research, teaching, and service efforts. Presentations illustrated how important diversity is at the individual, organizational, and societal levels of analysis.

The GDO division of the AoM is making positive strides as it relates to advancing diversity. This report summarizes some of the key contributions made during this conference.

The purpose of this study is to explore the different contributions of work and non‐work relationships that comprise individuals' developmental networks to career success.

A multi‐method approach provides a rich understanding of how work and non‐work developmental relationships combine to support individuals' careers. Survey data were analyzed from 254 working adults who were also part‐time MBA students. Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 37 participants.

Quantitative results indicate that non‐work developers provide more overall support than work developers. Support from non‐work developers is positively associated with career satisfaction and life satisfaction. In contrast, support from work developers is positively associated with salary level and career satisfaction. Qualitative data indicate differences in the sub‐functions and quality of support offered by work versus non‐work relationships, particularly in terms of role modeling.

Developmental relationships from different domains emphasize different sub‐functions of support and differentially affect career outcomes. While broad functions – career support, psychosocial support, and role modeling – are identifiable across domains, non‐work relationships provide some distinct sub‐functions from work relationships.

Practicing managers should develop and maintain developmental networks that extend beyond the boundaries of their current organization. Human resource professionals will want to consider how well their initiatives encourage individuals to enlist a variety of potential developers into their networks.

The findings indicate that non‐work relationships are a critical part of developmental networks and individuals' career success.

Black people, as members of a historically underrepresented and marginalized racial identity group in the workplace, are often confronted with identity references – face-to-face encounters in which their race is referenced by a White colleague in a comment, question or joke. Identity references can be interpreted by a Black colleague in a variety of ways (e.g. as hostile and insulting or well-intentioned, even flattering). Identity references can derail the building of relationships across difference, but under certain conditions may open the door for deeper understanding and connection. The conceptual framework in this article delineates conditions under which an identity reference may elicit an initial negative reaction, yet, when engaged directly, may lead to generative experiences and promote higher connection and learning in relationships across difference.

This article builds theory on identity references by incorporating relevant research on race, identity, diversity, attribution and interpersonal relationships at work.

The framework identifies a common precursor to identity references and three factors that are likely to influence the attribution a Black person makes for a White colleague's identity reference. It then describes how, based on that attribution, a Black person is likely to respond to the White referencer, and how that response is likely to affect their interpersonal relationship over time.

By explicating how a single identity reference can have significant implications for relationships across difference, the framework deepens understanding of how race affects the development of interpersonal relationships between Black and White colleagues at work. In doing so, this article advances research on race, diversity, workplace relationships and positive organizational scholarship.

The purpose of this paper is to examine expatriates' developmental networks in terms of their structure and content.

The study employed in‐depth interviews with 64 expatriate professionals and managers in Singapore and China.

The study highlights the unique characteristics of expatriates' developmental networks in cross‐cultural contexts including the nature of cross‐border and culturally diversified network structures, the dominance of psychosocial support, and the importance of cross‐cultural transition support.

Expatriates' self reports and retrospective sense‐making may suffer from hindsight bias and/or attribution bias. A longitudinal study that follows expatriates over time is necessary to examine relationship dynamics through different relocation stages.

The findings suggest the necessity for companies to recognize the limited role of formal mentoring in expatriates' overseas adjustment and relocation success, and to encourage a wider range of developmental relationships that comprise expatriates' developmental networks.

This paper makes two main contributions to the mentoring, developmental networks, and expatriate literature. First, it highlights the necessity of using “network base” as a new structural dimension of developmental networks to examine expatriation and repatriation adjustment. Second, it points out the importance of psychosocial and cross‐cultural transition support in expatriates' relocation success.