Search results

Many organizations have implemented formal mentoring programs within the last few years. Some organizations have realized success with their formal mentoring programs, while others have not fared so well. A missing link with many formal mentoring programs is a corporate level mentoring strategy. The lack of a corporate level mentoring strategy inhibits the mentoring process from becoming an integral part of an organization’s culture, therefore not allowing for the maximization of benefits that can be gained from effective formal mentoring processes and programs. Thus, this paper offers a framework for creating a corporate level mentoring strategy; a standardized mentoring process; and customized mentoring programs, all of which should align with the organization’s strategic positioning to facilitate the achievement of maximum effectiveness from the implementation of formal mentoring programs.

This paper aims to investigate the impact of monitoring and mentoring strategies on sustainability diffusion within supply networks through focal companies and how suppliers engage in implementing these strategies.

The paper reports on three in-depth case studies conducted with focal companies and their suppliers. An interaction approach was adopted to guide the analysis of focal companies’ strategies for implementing and diffusing sustainability in supply networks.

The monitoring strategy impacts sustainability diffusion at the dyadic level, while the mentoring strategy is a prerequisite for the diffusion of sustainability at the supply network level. The findings suggest that coupling monitoring with mentoring can lead to diffusion beyond first-tier suppliers. Interaction intensity, supplier proactiveness and mindset change facilitate sustainability diffusion in supply networks.

The authors suggest more research be conducted on specific practices within monitoring and mentoring, as some of these imply very different levels of commitment and interaction.

The paper suggests that in the future, companies will be increasingly called upon to adopt cooperative initiatives to enable the diffusion of sustainability in supply networks.

The contribution of the paper lies in its identification of the impacts of monitoring and mentoring strategies on the diffusion of sustainability in networks, revealing different supplier engagement in these strategies, which may foster or hinder sustainability diffusion.

The “hypercompetitive environment” within which businesses are now operating demands that organizations look for ways to continually improve their competitiveness if they are to remain viable and successful. This paper integrates ideas on competitive strategies and effective mentoring to demonstrate the link between employee mentoring and organizational competitiveness. It is proposed that mentoring can offer a unique opportunity to enhance competitiveness through a carefully designed and structured program that both supports and drives an organization’s business strategy.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of organizational-related variables and the moderating role of career strategies on protean career among employees.

Research data are gathered from a sample of 306 employees in 18 electrical and electronics multinational corporations (MNCs) in Malaysia. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) is used to examine the influences of organizational-related factors and the moderating role of career strategies on protean career.

The results demonstrate that organizational-related variables, namely, employability culture and mentoring are viewed as potential predictors of protean career. There are significant moderating effects of career strategies on the relationship between both employability culture and mentoring toward protean career among employees.

This paper provides an empirical framework to explain protean career based on the review of career-related literatures.

The findings provide implications to both organizations and human resource development practitioners on new career trends of protean career. Practical interventions are suggested to assist individuals and organizations toward protean career development.

This paper offers new insight into the predicting factors of protean career and its moderating role on career strategies.

The author's purpose is to identify and analyze the progress of proposals and dissertations after mentor–mentee relationships rapidly transitioned to intensive online doctoral mentoring as a result of coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19).

An exploratory pedagogic research design was implemented in 2020 to examine the COVID-19 Dyadic Online Mentoring Intervention, a four-month individualized approach to mentorship. A survey was completed by mentees in an educational leadership cohort that revealed the benefits and drawbacks of technology for learning within online doctoral mentoring contexts. Additional sources of data were published literature, mentor's notes, email exchanges, and scholarly enrichment products.

Data analysis yielded three themes: (1) mentoring strategies were utilized; (2) the pandemic unsettled reality and (3) personal professional development opportunities were evident. Although life challenges were exacerbated by the pandemic, the online doctoral mentoring intervention met dissertation-related needs and supported academic progress in a Doctorate in Education degree program.

Technology-mediated mentoring during crises involves more than modality changes. Faculty mentors should not be solely responsible for mitigating program and dissertation disruption. Academic cultures must support the adoption of pedagogic innovations like high-quality online doctoral mentoring.

Online doctoral mentoring structures utilizing synchronous and asynchronous technologies can help mentees make academic progress in a crisis, not only in “normal” times.

The purpose of this paper is to examine mentoring relationships involving minority graduate students in the USA.

The authors take a multifaceted approach to providing strategies to improve the opportunities of minority students to acquire mentors by directing attention to institutional practices, faculty development, and the behaviors of students themselves.

Mentoring relationships provide critical personal and professional development opportunities throughout one's career. These relationships are especially important for racial minorities who often lack access to informal networks and information that is required to be successful in academic and professional environments in which they are under‐represented. The lack of mentors for minority graduate students is important to consider given the potential impact of this experience for minority graduate students’ retention and subsequent success, but also for the future diversity of the discipline (especially its instruction and research). This article identifies the challenges that minority graduate students confront in establishing healthy mentoring relationships, and the unfortunate outcomes of when minority graduate students lack productive mentoring relationships.

The paper provides a multilevel analysis of mentoring of minority graduate students.

Aims to illustrate how Japan possesses cultural characteristics to support mentoring as a relationship, as opposed to the West, whose favoured approach is to view mentoring as a strategy.

A comparative analysis of the mentoring literature from two world views; the Japanese mentoring context (primarily the senpai‐kohai relationship) is compared and contrasted with the Western mentoring context.

The US and European context for mentoring increasingly consists of formalised schemes, targeted at specific groups (such as the talented or socially disadvantaged), and forms a co‐ordinated activity of human resource departments. As Western organisations have changed, mentoring has become defined in strategic terms, and aligned with a variety of popular management theories. In contrast, Japanese views of mentoring are characterised by informality, organic growth of relationships at all organisational levels, and are based on emotional bonds between seniors and juniors.

A very useful source to explain why Western organisations find it difficult to establish mentoring relationships based on emotional bonds. The Japanese show that there is an alternative; one requiring many Western organisations to adapt their organisational cultures and re‐conceptualise their views of mentoring.

This paper brings together the few contributions by authors of the Japanese senpai‐kohai relationship (a form of mentoring exclusive to Japan). It compares a rarely examined context in the mentoring debate (i.e. Eastern views of mentoring) with the larger body of work examining mentoring in the West. Originality resides in the results of the comparative analysis, revealing one context which views mentoring as a relationship, and another which views mentoring as a strategy.

Academic and research libraries have made many efforts to diversify their workforces; however, today the profession remains largely homogenous. We recognize that diversification cannot be achieved without creating inclusive and more equitable workspaces and workplaces. This requires rethinking our assumptions and behaviors as individuals and as a profession, questioning entrenched structures that maintain the status quo, and developing practices that keep these critical questions in the forefront as we do the difficult work of redefining our infrastructure in order to create equitable and socially just workplaces. To inspire a different type of dialogue, we offer actionable information and tools – strategies, ideas, and concepts from outside our profession. In this chapter, the authors present strategies used by corporations, industries, organizations, or fields outside of academia that have contributed to substantially diversifying their workforces and discuss how they could be integrated into our own workplaces. While these efforts are imperfect, incomplete, or have mixed results, we focus on strategies that demonstrate outside-the-box thinking for our profession, practices that will require academic and research libraries to rethink their operations, the behaviors and structures that support them, and thus the way library management and leadership are practiced. We are hoping that providing strategies outside our profession, as well as guidance on applying these strategies, will create reflection, dialogue, and innovative ideas for our own institutions.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how a mentor training intervention affected research scientists’ perceptions of diversity and their subsequent behaviors.

Data were originally collected as part of a randomized controlled trial measuring the effectiveness of a research mentor training intervention that covered six mentoring competencies, including addressing diversity. Here, the results of a secondary qualitative analysis of interviews with trained mentors, 135 faculty from 16 institutions from across the USA and Puerto Rico, are reported.

Analyses provide insights into how the diversity content of a mentoring intervention is interpreted, internalized, and acted upon. Mentors reported increased awareness, an expanded understanding of diversity and the implications of human differences, as well as a greater recognition of personal biases. While some were able to act on that increased awareness and make changes to their mentoring practice, most did not report doing so.

Well-designed mentor training incorporating culturally aware practices could better prepare mentors to work successfully with mentees from diverse backgrounds. Cultivating a more culturally diverse scientific community is of benefit to science as well as society.

Little is known about how faculty perceive diversity or internalize training content on the topic, either within the context of mentoring or more broadly. This exploratory study provides unique insights into these phenomena and invites further research. Implications for mentoring relationships, mentor training initiatives, and efforts to address diversity are discussed.

Mentoring can help an organization to win in today’s escalating “war for talent” – but will achieve this most effectively if the mentoring program is aligned with the organization’s strategic positioning and long‐term objectives. Mentoring can support career‐development initiatives, help the firm to communicate its values and behaviors, enhance staff recruitment and retention, provide employees with a sense of belonging, communicate and foster a more inclusive environment, provide opportunities to expand networks, increase employees’ sense of empowerment, boost a person’s sense of job satisfaction and personal effectiveness, improve decision‐making skills, augment training efforts and facilitate knowledge transfer.