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This study focused on the relationship between mentoring constellations and intrinsic career success. Hierarchical regression analyses on the data of 416 female and 594 male university members showed that mentoring was positively associated with intrinsic career success (i.e., career satisfaction and intrinsic job satisfaction. Several characteristics of developmental networking appeared to be associated with intrinsic career success, e.g. size of the advice network, range, emotional intensity, frequency of the contacts, and years acquainted. Moreover, some moderating effects of gender on the relationship between mentoring constellations and intrinsic career success were found, e.g. for size of the advice network, emotional intensity, and stability of the relationship. Implications of results and directions for future research are discussed.

This paper explores the nature of mentoring and contrasts traditional approaches with a developmental format that may be more suited to today's flatter organisations. A definition of developmental mentoring is given plus a model for differentiating between traditional and developmental mentoring, coaching, counselling and managing. Trends facing organisations are summarised and the reader is invited to review developmental processes and consider the impact of various mentoring formats on communication processes within their organisation.

The purpose of this paper is to present a synthesis of the origins and theoretical frameworks of adult mentoring practices in educational and workplace settings along with an analysis and critique of their application to mentoring processes.

The authors systematically analyzed books and articles published in peer-reviewed journals from 1978 to 2012 using qualitative meta-summary and qualitative meta-synthesis methodological approaches.

This systematic review of the literature resulted first, in an organized, historical framework of theories of adult mentoring in academic and workplace and educational contexts from 1978 to 2012. Second, it provided information regarding the recognized challenges in traditional mentoring endeavors that led to the more expansive concept of developmental networks and participation in communities of practice. Third, it served as a foundation for a critique of the theories as applied to mentoring relationships and programs.

The paper provides the theoretical foundation for future empirical work in the field of adult mentoring in educational and workplace settings.

This paper is the first to condense the vast theoretical frameworks that inform the field of adult mentoring in the twenty-first century.

To elaborate how an adult development perspective can further an understanding of mentoring (developmental) networks and their value to focal individuals in terms of the developmental functions provided and outcomes such as personal learning, task performance and development.

The article utilizes Kegan's developmental stage theory to explore the implications of an adult development lens for individuals' mentoring networks.

Theoretical propositions suggest varying network structures among individuals at three of Kegan's latter stages of development: interpersonal, institutional, and interindividual, as well as implications for networks and stage on relationship dynamics.

Several propositions are offered for future research that will help to illuminate what mentoring networks may look like at various adult development stages, as well as what organizations should consider as they go about fostering both formal and informal mentoring for their members.

Individuals should consider how their developmental stage may influence the relationships that they have, and those that they should seek to foster for continuous development. Organizations should consider stage of potential mentors and protégés when creating formal mentoring programs, and include opportunities for individuals to reflect on their own developmental stage as part of the self‐assessment and career development process.

The article identifies and describes an individual antecedent – one's developmental stage – that influences developmental relationship qualities and outcomes.

The context of the present study is the early careers of lawyers. I examine if and how receiving “more” mentoring – in terms both of number of relationships and amount and type of assistance received – affects individuals’ satisfaction at work. Results suggest that the more developmental relationships an individual has and the more developmental assistance he or she receives, the greater will be his or her work satisfaction. Findings also suggest, however, that receiving a high amount of psychosocial assistance from just one person, who is not necessarily of higher status, is associated with high work satisfaction. Practical implications and suggestions for future research that explores the effects of multiple developmental relationships in other contexts are discussed.

The purpose of this study is to examine the under‐researched subject of the role of mentoring relationships within and outside of organizational boundaries as individuals make the career transition from being a corporate employee to becoming an entrepreneur.

Using structured interviews, the authors collected data from 24 men and women in the financial services industry in the UK about their experiences in making the transition from a corporate organization to a new venture work context. All interviews were transcribed and systematic Nvivo coding was used.

Developmental relationships with structural, relational, and cognitive embeddedness were most likely to transfer from the individual's corporate workplace to their new venture. Support for both the recent literature on multiple mentors and for gender differences in the patterns of these mentoring relationships was also found.

This is the first published study to examine whether mentor relationships from previous corporate employment transfer to the protégé's new entrepreneurial venture and whether other types of relationships (e.g. coworkers, clients) are transformed into mentor‐protégé relationships after the career transition to entrepreneurship. It is also among the few studies to examine mentoring of entrepreneurs and gender differences in mentoring within the entrepreneurial work context.

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.

To examine the influence of demographic differences on congruence of mentors' and protégés' perceptions of developmental support and frequency of communication.

Data on demographics (organizational tenure, age, gender, and educational level), mentoring functions, and frequency of communication were collected from both the mentor and protégé in 27 mentoring dyads from two medium‐sized high technology companies. Correlation and pattern analysis were used to analyze the data.

Results indicated significant congruence between mentor and protégé perceptions of developmental mentoring and frequency of communication. Differences between the mentor and protégé on organizational tenure and age reduced congruence of perceptions, whereas differences with respect to gender and education did not.

The small sample size limits the statistical power of the analysis and the inclusion of high technology companies limits generalizability.

While mentors and protégés generally view aspects of their relationship in a congruent manner, large discrepancies in age or tenure in the organization may lead to disagreement about the nature of the relationship. This information should be considered in developing formal mentoring programs.

This research is one of only a few studies that use the mentoring dyad as the unit of analysis. Unlike others, this study focuses on how the participants view the mentoring relationship itself.

Purpose – This paper seeks to examine the relationship between individuals' developmental mentoring networks and a subjective career outcome, clarity of professional identity. How developmental network characteristics are related to professional identity over time is explored. Design/methodology/approach – This is a three‐wave, longitudinal survey study, covering a five‐year span (1996‐2001). The participants (n=136), full‐time MBA students at the inception of the study, provided complete developmental network data on each survey. The relationships between clarity of professional identity and three different measures of developmental network density were explored: early‐career density; general density; and density dynamics (e.g. the change in density over time). Findings – Developmental network density, which reflects the professional identity exploration process, is negatively related to clarity of professional identity. Research limitations/implications – The study is limited by the use of graduating MBA students from a single, top‐20 business school as participants. Practical implications – The findings suggest that people might be able to improve their careers through changing their developmental networks, particularly during their early‐career years. Originality/value – This paper provides novel insights to the mentoring, identity, and careers literatures. Given the previously uncharted territory of understanding the dynamics of developmental networks and its relationship to career outcomes, this study opens avenues for future research, while also answering questions about developmental networks and the ways they function over time.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the changing of institutional logics in an established field shapes the developmental networks of high‐achievers.

This research combines time series analysis of more than 80 years of historical data (1922‐2004) with qualitative analysis of induction speeches of 99 hall of fame players from the same period.

Findings indicate that a change in field logics from a more staid “insular” logic to a market or more business‐oriented logic coincided with changes in key players' developmental networks. In particular, the key players' self‐identified developmental relationships become both more numerous and more diverse in nature. Results of the time series analysis connect the shift in logic with the late 1950s which was an important time in Major League Baseball's history. It was during this period that, for the first time, each team had at least one African American player on their roster and each team had an average of at least one full‐time scout based in a country outside the USA – both indicators of MLB's increasingly global search for talent.

The study focuses on extraordinary career performers (versus all performers) in an all‐male professional sport where the nature of the sport and the number of organizations remains relatively stable over time.

These findings show how changes to industry level logics can affect individual level changes in mentoring and developmental networks. In particular, they demonstrate how organizations can create and remove potential developer roles as their respective logics change from era to era.

This is the first known study to explore the effect of macro level changes on mentoring and developmental networks at the individual level.