Senior Women Managers’ Experience of Mentoring in the Private

Although a formal mentoring scheme is a well-established concept amongst public sector women, this is not the case in the private sector as the majority of private sector women do not have formal mentors. Neither of the private sector organisations had an official mentoring scheme, and as far as the interviewees were aware, there were no plans to introduce one. Private sector senior women expressed a preference for informal mentoring and as women become more senior, they prefer to look outside of the organisation for a mentor. These senior women are much more active in seeking out ‘powerful’ mentors, whom they know will be able to offer good career advice, access networks, and provide reflected power. This is echoed in the study in the West where women choose their own potential superiors to be their mentors (see Singh, Bains and Vinnicombe, 2002; Durbin and Tomlinson, 2014). This indicates that the lack of choice could also explain the prevalence of informal mentoring in this sector. Yet, getting the right mentors with the relevant experience at senior management levels outside the employer provided structured scheme is not easy. As women progress to higher managerial ranks, they are more likely to be without female mentors (Broadbridge, 1999; Powell and Graves, 2003).

The data analysis has demonstrated that private sector women were more likely to have had male mentors throughout their careers. Almost three quarters of private sector interviewees had a male mentor, and most of these were external and informal so mentoring was much

more important for private sector women. The majority mentioned that the reason why they became competent was because they had been mentored by male superiors. These women had become attached to their direct bosses who were mostly males and attributed their success largely to the support of the male mentors. Lily shared her experience of having an American male mentor who gave her a lot of insight with respect to both technical and cultural perspectives. She felt comfortable having him as a mentor because he did not look patronise or dismiss Asians and thought that she had a ‘shared wavelength’ with him, whom she later learned had sponsored her career. Zaleha personally preferred to have a male mentor as men appear to have less family commitments and could guide her to prioritise and focus ton succeeding in her career.

“In terms of mentoring, men are far sighted … in terms of looking ahead, strategic wise, men would be able to do that … they are more focused in that sense because they do not have other baggage, they do have but not really sitting on their shoulders.” (Zaleha, Senior Vice President, Private Sector)

Interestingly, Xiu Ying had rationalised the reason of why her male mentor kept pushing her to do more and perform well in her career by linking the situation to the #HeforShe campaign, a gender equality movement, initiated by UN Women (2014).

“I hate going up to do presentation but my mentor, who was my Chairman, he always pushed me and said Oh you can do so much more … we must get a man to speak for a woman because there are men in a leadership position. That is why there is a #HeforShe campaign … He has to speak for the women to be promoted to the leadership position. That was what my Chairman and Managing Partner did for me” (Xiu Ying, Assurance Leader, Private Sector)

This campaign seeks to actively involve men and boys in a women’s movement against gender stereotyping (UN Women, 2014). Additionally, the interviewees believed that male mentors had helped them access important resources and this can also be associated with male networks (Bevelander and Page, 2011). The analysis has demonstrated that as long as the executive suite is still largely populated by men, male mentors will be in a better position to provide access to advancement opportunities than female mentors. Only two private sector women would prefer to have a female mentor, and Rose and Seroja regard their spouse and father as their mentors, respectively.

In significant contrast to women in the public sector, more than two-thirds of private sector interviewees said they had informally mentored others in organisations due to the lack of

women in senior positions. When asked what their roles as mentors were, most women cited three roles; coaching in terms of job performance, advising on career decisions and nominating their mentees for promotion.

“I mentor quite a number of people. When you work with people, you must care about them. I am very strict and fussy in terms of work. When I review the board paper, I would really scrutinise … but when it comes to other things, they know I am there for them” (Kamelia, Vice President of Treasury, Private Sector)

From an intersectional view, all non-Malay women in the private sector felt that it is necessary to have either a formal or informal mentor in the workplace. Xiu Ying believed that a good mentor will help her to think about what her work means to her, and considers it important to have mentors who women can relate to and have a good affinity with.. Mei Feng mentioned that it would be good to have someone to talk to when you are trying to find solutions, but not necessarily just work solutions. Madhuri felt that in the business world, women do need a mentor when they first join the organisations so they can learn how to develop their career. For Daisy, although she did not have a formal mentor, she thought that women tend to feel insecure in the workplace as compared to male counterparts, so it is necessary for women to have a mentor to help increase their confidence. Notwithstanding, six private sector women mentioned that it is unnecessary to have a mentor in the workplace. Kenanga believed that women are as good as men, so that mentors did not help her much in terms of progressing her career.

To summarise, women managers in the private sector are likely to have had informal mentors, male mentors or no mentor at all. Meanwhile, public sector women appeared to have female mentors as the majority had worked in female-dominated departments. Across both sectors, senior women valued informal mentoring more, where career progression had been achieved predominantly through this strategy rather than through formal mentoring schemes. More women in the private sector served as mentors to other women as compared to their public counterparts. Regardless of ethnic backgrounds, these senior women still believed that having a mentor is important for both men and women in the workplace. Though it seemed difficult for junior female managers to have senior mentors in the workplace, the next section will discuss how networking is a platform for women to climb up the career ladder more quickly.

8.4.2 Networking

Similar to mentoring, research in the West has shown that networking provides access to valuable resources, improves performance ratings, has a positive impact on salary, and increases the likelihood of promotion (see Kanter, 1977; Ibarra, 1992, 1993; Marshall, 1995; Wacjman, 1998; Singh, Vinnicombe and Kumra, 2006; Klerk and Verreynne, 2017). While

networking is arguably important to career success at every level, it might be viewed to be of vital importance in senior managerial positions. The discussion below therefore reports evidence relating to the similarities and differences on how senior women managers in public and private sectors in Malaysia may or may not leverage their networks to the same extent as their male colleagues in the workplace.