Page 310 - Psychological Management of Individual Performance

296 enhancing performance through mentoring
mentor and prot´eg´e define their roles. Typically in this phase, the mentor provides coach-
ing, challenging work, and some visibility. The prot´eg´e’s technical proficiency increases
and he or she expresses the desire to be coached by the mentor. As the relationship ma-
tures, it moves into the cultivation phase. In cultivation, a period that may last from two to
five years, both individuals continue to benefit and contribute in the relationship. As the
prot´eg´e advances in career and responsibility, the mentoring relationship provides in-
creasing opportunities for meaningful and more frequent interaction. This is considered
to be the stage of mentorship during which most benefits accrue to the mentor and the
prot´eg´e. As noted by Scandura (1998), most mentoring research has focused on issues
in the cultivation phase. Finally, as the prot´eg´e advances beyond the need of the current
mentoring relationship, the nature of the mentoring relationship begins to change. This
signifies the separation phase. In this period, which may last from six months to two years,
the prot´eg´e has moved on to another position either through job rotation or promotion
which begins to limit opportunities for continued interaction (Ragins & Scandura, 1999).
In the final phase, redefinition, a new relationship is taking place. After the separation
phase, the existing mentoring relationship is no longer needed. The relationship either ter-
minates or it is redefined into a peer-like friendship. Ragins and Scandura (1997) found
that mentoring relationships might terminate for functional reasons such as physical
separation or evolution of the relationship. Conversely, the termination of the mentoring
relationship may be dysfunctional when one of the parties refuses to let go of the rela-
tionship and psychological issues such as over-dependency, competitiveness, or jealousy
arise.Functionalseparationsaremorelikelytoevolveintopeerfriendships(Kram,1985).
Viator and Scandura (1991) defined the mentor–prot´eg´e relationship along a contin-
uum. At one end of the continuum is the intense paternalistic relationship; at the other end
is the peerlike relationship, pal or “helper” (Kram & Isabella, 1985). In the middle of the
continuum is the mentor–prot´eg´e relationship where the mentor is more of a “sponsor”.
A sponsor may provide visibility to the prot´eg´e, but less of the direct face-to-face coach-
ing that is described in the prototypical mentor–prot´eg´e relationship. More research is
needed to examine potential differences between these mentor roles and how they may
impact the development of the prot´eg´e’s individual performance and other attitudinal
outcomes. Future research might explore a broader range of the mentoring modalities.

MENTORING AND INDIVIDUAL PERFORMANCE

In today’s work environment, mentoring is considered by many to be an important tool
for enhancing career success, particularly upward mobility and compensation. However,
the mentoring relationship offers additional benefits not only to the prot´eg´e but also to the
mentor and additionally, may play an important role in the organizational socialization
of new employees (Ostroff & Kozlowski, 1993; Wilson & Elman, 1990).

BENEFITS TO PROT´ EG´ E

Research has found that mentoring provides many benefits to the prot´eg´e. Such benefits
include higher rates of promotion (Dreher & Ash, 1990; Scandura, 1992), salary and
compensation (Chao et al., 1992; Dreher & Ash, 1990; Scandura, 1992; Whiteley,
Dougherty, & Dreher, 1991), and higher performance (Dreher & Ash, 1990; Scandura,
1992). Also, mentoring has been related to career and job satisfaction (Baugh et al., 1996;