Mentoring: is it really necessary for advancement in business and industry, education, and government ?

There is a perception that "Everyone who makes it has a mentor," (Collins and Scott, 1978) namely a person who takes an intense interest in a subordinate's career, develops a close personal, almost paternal relationship, and then actively works to ensure the subordinate's career advancement. The purpose of the study was to examine this assumption and determine whether or not mentoring was critical for the advancement of individuals holding top-level positions in three different kinds of organizations. The study examined mentoring from the perspectives of 15 primary subjects, persons holding top-level positions and 17 secondary subjects, persons named as mentors in three organizations (business and industry, education, and government). All subjects were given a definition of mentoring which limited the term to relationships that occurred as part of careers. In-depth interviews were conducted with all primary and secondary subjects. Data were analyzed inductively and deductively to identify and test patterns. Among the conclusions were: (1) Individuals at the highest levels of organizations perceived they were mentored as they advanced in their careers, but none saw mentoring relationships as critical to their career advancement; (2) Half of the individuals named as mentors agreed that the relationship could be characterized as mentoring. The remaining half saw the relationship as part of good supervision or friendship; and (3) Career assistance (whether or not it was characterized as mentoring) occurred across all three organizations; and the persons identified as mentors provided similar assistance. A model, "The Developmental Model for Career Relationships," emerged from the data. This model characterizes career assistance into four levels, distinguishes mentoring from non-mentoring, and outlines activities which occur at each level.