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The study aims to explore the role of mentoring and the moderating effects of gender on protean and boundaryless career orientations in the African albeit Nigerian cultural context.

Data were collected from 250 Nigerian nurses through a questionnaire.

Mentoring support predicted protean career dimensions but was non-significant for boundaryless career dimensions. Gender directly accounted for a significant percentage of the variance in physical mobility in favor of women but did not predict self-directed, value-driven and psychological mobility career attitudes. Gender significantly moderated the relationship between mentoring and new career dimensions except physical mobility.

The male sample was limited and data from a single professional group/organization in Nigeria may not typify organizations in general. This calls for caution in generalizing findings.

Proactive career management and value-driven attitudes can be fostered by ensuring quality mentor support. The peculiar direct and moderating effects of gender on protean and boundaryless careers deserve particular attention.

The absence of African perspectives on new career directions in most reference journals limits the global scope of comparative studies. The present study provides information on the under-researched role of mentoring and gender in modern career models from Africa, and makes useful theoretical contributions to new career perspectives, especially in the context of how relationships among study variables may differ across national cultural contexts.

The purpose of this paper is to examine mentoring experiences and preferences aimed at creating equal mentoring opportunity for male and female employees in the Nigerian work setting.

Data were obtained from 140 randomly selected managers (70 males and 70 females).

Results revealed that mentoring occurrence is entirely informal and more males compared to females served as mentors. Respondents commonly reported and preferred career‐related benefits of mentoring. An examination of preferred mentor gender indicated a significant relationship between gender of respondent and that of preferred mentor and protégé. Concern for positive interaction reflects frequently mentioned reasons for this preference among men and women. The preferred qualities of a mentor often cited by respondents were those which enable a mentor to deliver career functions while reverence was the most mentioned protégé quality. The distribution of male and female respondents differed on some of the preferred qualities.

Though based on a self‐report instrument, findings imply that mentoring preferences of males differ from those of females.

A training and policy intervention should be considered to enhance delivery of mentoring and create equal opportunity for male and female employees.

Mentoring is currently being canvassed as a mandatory human resource tool in the Nigerian work setting. Empirical guidance on fostering the relationship in ways that create equal opportunities for male and female employees however, remains elusive due to a lack of research in this direction. This study narrows this gap in literature and contributes empirical information that equips management to better deal with the gender issue in mentoring. Beyond the Nigerian environment, it serves as a basis for advancing equal opportunities in mentoring, especially for Africans. This addresses shortcomings in the scholarly scope of reference journals which has a dearth of African empirical findings on mentoring.

The study examined gender differences in careerist attitudes toward work of Nigerian managers. Participants were 150 first‐line managers (75 males and 75 females) of four large industrial organisations in Lagos, Nigeria. Results revealed that male managers were significantly higher on careerist attitudes toward work compared to female managers. Independent t‐test analysis showed that marital status significantly in fluenced careerist attitudes toward work among women but did not play a significant role in the career istattitudes to ward work of men. The study concludes that gender enhances the use of careerist strategies in men but inhibits it in women. The implication of this finding for policy formulation and future studies were discussed.

The study aims to examine the impact of mentor's gender on perceived mentoring functions in the Nigerian work environment.

Data were obtained from 161 employees through a survey of a large government‐owned health institution in South‐western Nigeria.

Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that control variables jointly account for a significant variance in career development functions (R²=0.050, p<0.05) but did not predict psychosocial functions (R²=0.037, P ns). When mentor gender was entered in the second step, there was no significant change in R² (ΔR²=0.01, P ns) for career development functions. However, R² increased from 0.037 to 0.181 (p=<0.001) in psychosocial functions to indicate a significant change in R² (ΔR²=0.144, P<0.001). Protégés perceived more psychosocial functions from female mentors compared to their male counterparts.

The findings are based on self‐report measures and results may not generalize to other organisational settings. Future research should consider other relevant covariates and utilize objective measures in a wider domain.

A training intervention is needed to enhance delivery of mentoring functions by both sexes.

There is paucity of research on mentoring in the Nigerian work environment, and a virtual absence of African perspective in the mounting‐mentoring literature. This study addressed this gap in literature and assesses the extent to which findings on gender and mentoring can be generalized in the Nigerian setting.

This study seeks to examine the role of informal mentoring in career success in an African work environment.

Data were collected from 510 first‐line bank managers through a survey of ten banks in four central business districts of Lagos State, Nigeria.

Results of hierarchical regression analysis revealed that informal mentoring accounts for a significant proportion of the variance (β=0.64, p<0.01) in career success. Informal mentoring increased R² from 0.06 to 0.41 (p<0.01), indicating a significant change in R² (ΔR²=0.35, p<0.01).

The findings are based on self‐report measures from respondents in the banking sector. This underscores the need for further research with objective measures from a wider domain.

An intervention is needed to make informal mentoring thrive, enhance its quality and ensure career success.

There is a paucity of literature relating mentoring to career success in the Nigerian and, indeed, the African work environment. This study addresses this gap in literature and corrects the inappropriateness of generalising from foreign cultures to the Nigerian society.

This study seeks to examine the impact of career growth prospect (CGP) and formal mentoring support (FMS) on overall organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB) and its five dimensions.

Data were obtained from 72 supervisors and 182 of their subordinates in branches of a bank located in a city in South‐western Nigeria.

Results indicate that CGP accounted for a significant percentage of the variance in overall OCB (β=0.46, p<0.001), predicting three dimensions: sportsmanship, conscientiousness and civic virtue. Contrary to hypothesis, FMS did not predict overall OCB, but significantly influenced three OCB dimensions: sportsmanship, courtesy and altruism, predicting “sportsmanship” (β=0.26, p<0.001) to be better than CGP (β=0.22, p<0.01).

Although generalisation is limited in a study of a single organisation, the findings of the study imply that CGP and FMS have differential relevance in OCB.

Altering negative perceptions of CGP among employees engenders OCB but FMS needs to be complemented with other interventions to foster overall OCB.

Although career growth prospects and formal mentoring support are projected to foster OCB in the Nigerian banking sector, no research has investigated this expectation. The extant literature shows that research on the impact of career growth prospects on OCB is virtually absent. Again, the absence of African perspectives on research issues such as OCB, has limited comparative studies and the global scope of most reference journals. This study narrows these gaps in literature and contributes empirical information that equips management to deal more strategically with the integrated approach to OCB.

This special issue seeks to examine mentoring relationships and offer new perspectives and frameworks, suggesting exciting avenues for future research on mentoring and career development.

In the last two decades, the workplace has been dramatically transformed. Individuals traditionally had careers entrenched in organizations, relying on the paternalistic firm for career development. Increasingly now, individuals are enacting careers outside organizational boundaries, defining career success on their own terms rather than by the organizational measures of salary and rank. Rapid technological change and globalization have intensified the decoupling of individual careers from organizations, putting more emphasis on individuals for their own career development and creating an even greater need for mentoring.

Although much research has been done on the impact of mentoring on subjective and objective career success, there are still many unexamined and under‐explored aspects of mentoring. This collection of ten articles tackles some of these areas, providing new insights and offering new avenues for research and practice.

These articles are authored by individuals from a variety of disciplines (e.g. organizational behavior, psychology, health care), and countries (e.g. USA, UK, Nigeria), with each article bringing a unique lens to the study of mentoring and careers. Individually, each article makes a contribution to the better understanding of how mentoring has evolved and is enacted today. Together, this collection of articles provides important insights that it is hoped encourage even further research into the complexities of developmental relationships and their impact on career development.

This paper aims to examine the factors that drive the career progression of construction project managers (CPM) in the Ghanaian construction industry.

Based on the quantitative approach, the views of 80 CPMs working with D1 building construction firms were elicited using a structured questionnaire. Data was analysed using one-sample t-test, which was used to examine the relative significance of the variables. The mean scores, standard deviations and significance values (p-values) of each variable were used to examine the outcome of the survey.

The findings suggest that “existence of organizational support systems”, “ability to create identity”, “having an influential mentor and coach”, “accepting complicated and high visibility assignments” and “ability to gain managerial or leadership experience” are the key factors that drive the career progression of CPMs in Ghana.

Findings from this study is limited to CPMs, specifically within the Ghanaian construction industry. This implies that with the fragmented nature of the construction industry, adopting these findings in construction settings within other countries may not yield the desired results, especially, if those countries do not share similar characteristics and context with Ghana.

Practically, this study highlights for the benefits of project managers (PM) (especially those in the construction industry) the key factors that drive their career progressions. Identification of these drivers offers the professionals with those factors to be prioritized when seeking to progress their careers in the construction industry.

Empirical research on the factors that drive the career progression of CPMs has not been fully examined in previous studies, though such studies in other sectors aside construction are prevalent. Hence, the identification of the drivers for career progression of construction PMs advances literature in the area and offers the professionals with those factors to be prioritized when seeking to progress their careers.