Meanings of formal mentoring to women managers’ career

development

Anna-Maija Lämsä

University of Jyväskylä

School of Business and Economics

Sanna Mutanen

Sandvik Mining and Construction Ltd.

Human Resources, Tampere

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BackgroundNASTA, Women’s leadership – a research and education development project

A joint project between three universities in Finland during 2005-2009.

Consists of several subprojects

www.nastaproject.fi

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icsThe purpose of the study

The purpose was to investigate empirically the mentoring experiences of women mentees in relation to their careers.

The focus was on a formal mentoring programme in a large business organization. The programme was targeted only for women to advance their careers in management.

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icsWomen’s career development in

management and leadership

Difficulties in hierarchical career development: glass ceiling and glass labyrinth, double bind, tokenism

A challenge for gender equality and the full use of human competence

Recently, special programmes to support women’s career development in management: HRM practices, a part of HRM strategy

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ics Mentoring: a way to advance

women’s careers

Mentor was the name of the person to whom Odysseus entrusted the care of his son, Telemachus, when he set out on his wanderings.

A developmental and confidential relationship between two people, a more experienced mentor and a less experienced mentee, which enhances both individual’s growth and advancement.

Formal and informal mentoring

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icsMentoring functions

Kram (1983) identified two main functions:

Career development functions: sponsorship, coaching, protection, challenging assignments as well as exposure and visibility.

Psycho-social functions address interpersonal aspects of the mentoring relationship and provide four functions: acceptance and confirmation, counseling, friendship and role modeling.

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icsMentoring and gender

The underlying view of a good and successful mentor in a business management context: a man.

Formal programs can be useful for women by facilitating their possibilities to initiate mentoring relationships.

Differences in the quality of mentoring relationships may depend on partners' gender: - same-gender relationships are more desirable since women have more concerns about the image of the relationships. - mentees tend to believe that a same gender mentor is important from the viewpoint of role-modeling

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icsMethod

A qualitative research focusing on the experiences of five women case-managers who have acted as mentees. The aim was to get “an inner look” at the experiences, and in that way to interpret the meanings of mentoring for the women: the main point was to learn what the women say that mentoring is for them.

Taped, in-depth interviews, transcribed word by word.Interviews when two years had passed from the mentoring experiences. Two of the women had had a male mentor whereas three a female mentor. Women from a same company in a finance sector, participated in the formal mentoring programme; age varied from 28 to 48 years.

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icsResults

“A career focus” refers to mentoring as a way to advance consciously the mentee’s managerial career.Women started to think more deeply about the direction and future of their careers. This meaning construction emerged particularly in male mentor – female mentee relationships.

“In the same boat” refers to mentoring as sharing of experience and wisdom which ties two women together. The meaning construction came up particularly in female-female relationships. A common topic of the discussion was the career path of the mentor and the obstacles she had had to overcome to get to her position.

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icsResults

“An emotion handling space” refers to mentoring as a socially secure and open space, where the expression of (also negative) emotions was allowed instead of having to suppress them.

This kind of a heart-to-heart relationship seemed to develop more easily between two women.

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icsSummary and conclusion

It is concluded that a male mentor was experienced to act following a traditional masculine way of behaving in a mentoring role, whereas a female mentor was experienced to act following a traditional feminine way of behaving.

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icsSummary and conclusion

It is proposed that the appropriate mentoring model depends on what stage of a career the woman mentee is. In different stages of the career, women are likely to have different needs and expectations for mentoring.

Women may need both a woman and a man mentor at different times during their careers to be able to advance in a managerial rank.

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icsSummary and conclusion

The gendered nature of the women’s experiences can also be interpreted as a stereotypical generalization.

It is proposed that the view of a career boosting mentor may have become masculine in the same way as is the view of an “efficient” manager.

A stereotypical view may limit both mentor’s and mentee’s socio-cultural space of thinking and acting in mentoring processes.

It is suggested that it would be crucial also to study the “dark side of mentoring.