Five Functions Of Mentoring

Functions of Mentoring According to Gentry (2015) there two types of mentoring functions that the mentor provides the mentee. First, Career-related support and second, emotional and psychosocial support.

Career- Related Support because of mentor’s senior position, experience, and influence it is possible. This helps the mentee understand organizational life, gain exposure, and obtain promotions. Developing talent and support of mentees may help the mentor to develop a reputation within organization. Mentoring theory identifies five observable career-related functions and behaviors: (1) Sponsorship. Within the organization mentors help build the reputation of a mentee. Mentors also assist the mentee obtain lateral or upward job opportunities;

In nursing, role modeling enables the novice nurse learn through interactions with or examples set by highly competent expert nurse. Role models include admired teachers, expert clinicians, researchers, or those who inspire others through their example. An intense form of role modeling is mentorship, in which the expert nurse serves as teacher, sponsor, guide and counselor for the novice nurse. The knowledge gained through personal experience is greatly enhanced by a quality relationship with a role model or mentor (Grove et al., 2015). According to Yoder-Wise (2015) the interpersonal relationship between the mentor and the mentee involves mutual positive regard. Because the mentee respects the career accomplishments of the mentor, the mentee identifies with the mentor’s example. This role modeling is both conscious and unconscious. The mentee with character and self-respect will evaluate the behaviors of the mentor and select those behaviors worthy of being emulated.

Quantity of

However, the concept of mentoring has been broadened; mentoring is not limited to one dyadic relationship. For instance, mentees’ having constellations of developmental relationships. The term developmental network or a set of mentors a mentees’ names as taking an active interest in and action to advance the mentees’ career by providing developmental assistance. They argue that diverse developmental networks are important, because these networks reduce the amount of redundant information that a mentee receives and facilitate the mentee’s career development. In a competitive workplace, a mentee may need more than one mentor to meet his or her diverse and changing needs. By having more than one mentor, mentees’ are exposed to different perspectives and expertise. This broadens the knowledge and skills they have the opportunity to acquire, enhancing what they stand to gain. Corresponding to this newer conceptualization of mentoring, mentoring scholars have called for more research on the effect of multiple mentors on mentoring outcomes and this study responds to this call. Historically, mentoring is most frequently operationalized as a dichotomous variable such that employees either have/had a mentor or not. To date, research has demonstrated that having a mentor