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Mentoring has been identified as a key strategy to career development and has been argued to be indispensable for women to advance to positions of power. For mentoring to succeed, it is imperative that mentors trust their protégés. However, recent research has suggested that male mentors trust their male protégés more so than their female protégés. Since women are frequently mentored by men, it is imperative that they gain the same level of trust as their male peers enjoy. According to an established model of trust, trust is shaped by the mentor's perceptions of protégé ability, benevolence and integrity, as well as perceptions of the risk inherent to mentoring. This exploratory research aims to examine what influences these perceptions to shed light on how protégés can gain the trust of their mentors.

Because little research has been conducted in this area, an exploratory qualitative design was chosen. Mayer, Davis and Schoorman's model of organizational trust is used as the theoretical framework.

This research sheds light on what predicts how trust is formed, fostered and lost in a mentoring context by examining factors that may influence perceptions of ability, benevolence, integrity and risk. Several protégé behaviors were identified that influenced perceptions of ability. Perceptions of benevolence were described as “feelings”. Perceptions of integrity were influenced by keeping confidences. Finally contextual factors, such as gender, were also identified as influencing the level of trust.

The sample size was based on only 24 mentors; as a consequence, the findings are exploratory in nature and not generalizable.

Trust has been identified as a critical component of an effective mentoring relationship. As a consequence, mentoring programs must include activities that assist in establishing and fostering trust between mentor and protégé.

Women are still under‐represented in positions of power. Mentoring has been widely adopted as a mechanism to help women climb the corporate ladder. The lack of female mentors frequently means that female protégés have to be mentored by men. If women are to break the “glass ceiling,” it is imperative that male mentors trust their female protégés to the same extent as their male protégés and provide them with the same career advancing opportunities.

Very little research has examined the role of trust in mentoring, although trust has been identified as a critical element in other organizational activities, such as leadership, performance appraisal, labor‐management relations, interpersonal cooperation, e‐commerce transactions and self‐managing work teams.

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.

A continued focus in organizational research has been on career development, and mentoring has been identified as a key determinant of career success. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the interpersonal dynamics which contribute to variations in the effectiveness of mentoring support behaviors. Specifically, the effects of mentoring relational quality (MRQ) (i.e. affective perceptions held by mentors and protégés) on mentoring behaviors (i.e. vocational and psychosocial) as well as professional identification are considered. Interpersonal skills (e.g. behavioral integrity and political skill) of mentors and protégés are examined for their impact on MRQ.

Utilizing matched dyadic survey data from 100 mentor-protégé pairs in academe (i.e. dissertation chairs and doctoral candidates or recent doctoral alumni), partial least squares was used to test the research model.

Results support MRQ as an integral component in mentoring dynamics. MRQ for mentors and protégés was significantly linked with mentor support behaviors provided and received, respectively. Mentors’ perceptions of MRQ were predicted by protégés’ behavioral integrity and mentors’ political skill. Similarly, protégés’ political skill and mentors’ behavioral integrity significantly predicted protégés’ perceptions of MRQ. Further, mentors and protégés reported higher levels of professional identification when MRQ was high.

This study links affective and behavioral perspectives of mentoring, revealing the importance of interpersonal skill in career development. The interpersonal dynamics characteristic of mentor-protégé interactions determine the extent to which mentoring support behaviors may actually be provided by mentors and received by protégés.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the mediating role of commitment in the relationship between protégés’ anxious attachment styles and feedback behaviors of both mentors and protégés.

Data were collected from 100 academic protégé-mentor dyads, and reports from both members of the mentoring relationships were used to test hypotheses.

The results suggested that protégé perceptions of mentor commitment and self-reported protégé commitment mediated the relationships between protégé anxious attachment style and protégé feedback seeking and feedback acceptance. Additionally, mentor perceptions of protégé commitment played an important role, mediating the relationships between protégé anxious attachment and quality and quantity of mentor feedback.

Taken together, the results reveal the important role of perceptions of partner commitment in high-quality mentoring behaviors.

This study was among the first to examine feedback and commitment in academic mentoring relationships, particularly taking into account commitment of each member of the dyad as well as their perceptions of the other person’s commitment.

Explores the roles of sexuality and intimacy in cross‐gender mentoring relationships. Today’s leaders are concerned about controlling sexuality and intimacy in cross‐gender work relationships and there is an increased awareness of the sexual harassment aspect of sexuality in today’s society. Describes sexuality and intimacy in cross‐gender mentoring relationships and explores the sex role spillover model’s explanation for sexuality in these relationships. Views sexuality and intimacy in cross‐gender mentoring relationships along a continuum ranging from non‐sexual, psychologically intimate relationships to the extreme of sexual harassment. Includes mentors’, protégés’ and co‐workers’ perceptions of sexuality and intimacy in cross‐gender mentoring relationships in this discussion along with the impact of these perceptions on cross‐gender mentoring relationships. Finally, considers ways to manage sexuality and intimacy in cross‐gender mentoring relationships.

The purpose of this paper is to reflect the multi-level mentoring practices of a Teacher Education Program in Greece and the mentors’ perceptions on them. The mentoring practices of the specific Program are unique in Teacher Education in Greece; and therefore, the paper examines the extent to which they are considered as capable of developing in mentors and mentees specific skills that contribute to the development of student-teachers’ professional identity.

The case study is based on qualitative research and 32 interviews with mentors of the specific Program who report their experience. Six mentees have also been asked to provide the researchers with comments, so as to observe whether their answers confirm the mentors’ perceptions.

The different types of mentoring of the specific Program are perceived as able to enhance the mentors’ and the mentees’ professional development and self-confidence as well as to the latters’ improved transition and engagement to the Program. The authors also contribute to the fostering of the mentees’ experiential learning and to the capitalization of knowledge in Teacher Education. The EES teacher mentoring is considered of important adding value to the formation of student-teachers’ professional identity, according to the mentors interviewed. Mentees comments were found to confirm the mentors’ perceptions.

The conclusions of the paper are of significant value, since multi-level mentoring as a holistic approach to teacher-candidates’ experiential learning and professional development examined in a single paper is rather rare. Moreover, the Program of the paper’s case study follows this multi-level innovative approach, which includes EES teacher mentoring, and which is of considerable adding value, according to the mentors and the mentees interviewed. It could, therefore, constitute a paradigm for other Teacher Education Programs in Greece and in other countries.

This study aims to investigate student mentors' perceptions of peer mentor relationships in a health professions education program.

The design uses embodied hermeneutic phenomenology. The data comprise 10 participant interviews and visual “body maps” produced in response to guided questions.

The findings about student mentors' perceptions of peer mentor relationships include a core theme of nurturing a trusting learning community and five related themes of attunement to mentees, commonality of experiences, friends with boundaries, reciprocity in learning and varied learning spaces.

The study contributes original insights by highlighting complexity, shifting boundaries, liminality, embodied social understanding and trusting intersubjective relations as key considerations in student peer mentor relationships.

This study attempts to describe mentors' perceptions of their ethical dilemmas, the derived mentor roles, and the ethical guidelines suggested by mentors, with reference to previous studies exploring the mentors' multifaceted roles.

A total of 60 mentors participated in a two‐phase study: the mentors were asked to submit descriptions of their ethical dilemmas to the study web site, and submissions were then discussed in focus groups. A four‐stage coding process derived from grounded theory was utilized.

The findings were grouped by means of the ATLAS.ti 5.0 into five main categories: discretion, caring, accountability, autonomy, and distributive justice. The findings raise three important issues: first, mentors perceive their role mainly as empowering their mentees and perceive their powerlessness as being due to lack of tools for dealing with ethical dilemmas. Second, most mentors' ethical dilemmas involved conflicts with school principals. Third, a large number of mentor roles and several of the derived ethical guidelines are unique to the mentoring situation.

The findings may promote the design of an educational program for mentors that will relate to the ethical aspects of mentoring. Such programs call for the participation of school principals in program development and meetings to help mentors deal with their ethical dilemmas.

While previous studies in mentoring focused on defining mentoring, describing mentors' roles, and suggesting how to build effective mentoring, no study focused on the ethical aspects of mentoring. This study describes mentors' ethical dilemmas, and the unique ethical guidelines that emerged.

The purpose of this paper is to explore beginning teachers’ perceptions of the role of the mentor in the early stages of developing a professional identity. The beginning teachers in the authors’ study are defined as having been awarded qualified teacher status at the end of an initial teacher education programme or having completed their first term as a new teacher with responsibility for a class of pupils.

The research design was a qualitative, inductive study. The concepts of communities of practice, legitimate peripheral participation and power dynamics within a community underpinned this study. The data set was collected over a period of 18 months, through six focus groups and 40 questionnaires with beginning teachers across 34 schools altogether. The data set was analysed using interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA).

The findings indicated that the ways in which mentors use their power to recognise (or not) the legitimacy of beginning teachers as being part of the school community influences the development of beginning teachers’ professional identities. The thematic analysis of the data indicated the different types of support that mentors may provide: “belonging”, “emotional”, “pedagogical” and “space”.

Further research into how mentors perceive their role in supporting new entrants into the profession is needed.

These findings are pertinent in England, as the increase in school-based initial teacher training provision will intensify the role of school mentors. These findings will be of value to other countries that are moving towards an increase in school-based teacher training.

The aims of this critical review are to identify the mentor characteristics that lead to superior mentoring outcomes and to provide human resources development (HRD) professionals with evidence-based suggestions for recruiting, selecting and training mentors to improve mentorship programme effectiveness.

The authors conducted a critical review of existing quantitative research on mentor characteristics that have an impact on effective mentoring.

The authors identified five key categories of mentor characteristics linked to successful mentoring outcomes: competency in context-relevant knowledge, skills and abilities; commitment and initiative; interpersonal skills; pro-social orientation and an orientation toward development, exploration and expansion.

There is limited research on the characteristics of ineffective mentor characteristics, exclusion of articles that used qualitative research methods exclusively and how technology-based communication in mentoring may require different characteristics. Most of the included studies collected data in the United States of America, which may exclude other important mentor characteristics from other non-Western perspectives.

To ensure that there is both a sufficient pool of qualified mentors and mentors who meet the desired criteria, focus on both recruitment and training mentors is important. Incorporating the desired mentor characteristics into both of these processes, rather than just selection, will help with self-selection and development of these characteristics.

Despite the ongoing interest in identifying effective mentor characteristics, the existing literature is fragmented, making this challenging for HRD professionals to determine which characteristics are crucial for mentoring relationships and programme success. Addressing this practical need, this critical review synthesises the research literature and identifies patterns and inconsistencies. Based on the review, the authors provide evidence-based recommendations to enhance the recruitment, selection and training of mentors.