Struggling with developing mentoring relationships

Some participants lost prior mentoring relationships and were having a hard time in

about it. Another participant was really concerned about establishing such a

relationship and kept reflecting about what he could do to secure for himself someone

who would help him with his career. This was the case of Participant 9 whose mentor

left the company and the participant felt he needed to find someone else inside the

organisation to take this role. He is considering several options, in terms of feasibility

and in terms of where he wants his career headed to. However, he is having a hard

time in making any of these real:

“My former director left the company two weeks ago, and he was my

mentor, so I am dead. So, my biggest conclusion is that I have to find a

Godfather. One of the things I wrote in the diary is that I think that

Godfathers, if well used, are good for both sides, both for the Godfather

and the Godchild.” (Participant 9, Follow-up interview)

“This is the Plant Manager; I passed him from here to here because I

am seeing that I was not using him as a mentor, it was more for

technical learning. But now I recognise that this guy is the only

possibility I have for a mentor. […] What I see is that he is a very

capable guy, very good with technical things, very decisive, right? And

very skilful. I mean, analysing a little bit the profile, I realised that he is

very skilful in how he presents things and I think that is a quality I

would like to imitate from him. […] And I’ve told him I would like to

have a couple of talks with him… but I haven’t achieved them yet. The

truth is that I should ask him for a meeting on Outlook, but it is obvious

that there is something about me that stops me, you know.” (Participant

“I should say to the Human Resource person: ‘I would like to get into

this’. I mean, I thought about telling him: ‘Look, in the long run I

would like to work in the commercial area, I would like the current

Commercial Director to be my mentor’, and then that he would help me

convince him. But this is the guy who did not choose me for the

position, so in fact it is my last shot because if the guy says no to this

now …” (Participant 9, Follow-up interview)

6.4 Conclusion

This chapter introduced the social context in which participants were developing their

professional identities and adjusting to the new role. In understanding who individuals

choose to form relationships with, it is notable that this depends on the type of

relationship. In the case of relationships providing strategic information, the

perception that the colleague has good information was the main rationale for

approaching the person, showing a clear utility principle. In terms of friendship

relationships, the rationales for choosing a person as a friend were more diverse. The

most important one was feeling that the colleague contributes to one’s work, followed

by having developed a trusting relationship over time. Despite the dissimilarity

between the main reasons for choosing strategic informants and friends, homophily

plays a role in both types of relationships. In terms of gender, 73% of relationships

providing strategic information at the beginning and 67% four months later were of

the same gender, while 84% of friendship relationships at the beginning and 73% four

months later were also of the same gender. Homophily is also significant in terms of

matching working styles. Besides gender, individuals look for strategic information,

for friendship, and also for mentoring, from others who are similar to them in the way

Regarding the factors that favour the creation of these relationships, there is also

correspondence between what contributes to strategic and friendship relationships.

The first factor is previous relationships, followed by task interacting. As newcomers

enter a new role, having the excuse to interact with others is an important way to meet

people and develop a relationship. The third factor is physical proximity, followed by

newcomers’ proactivity. Finally, some positive behaviours and attitudes newcomers

naturally express at work may favour the creation of relationships, suggesting the

indirect benefits for the social environment of contributing to others and of good

performance.

Results suggest that networks are quite unstable when individuals start a new role,

particularly in terms of strategic relationships but also in terms of friendships. One

third of individuals recognised as providing strategic information at some point were

not fulfilling this role one or two months later, while 11% of friendship relationships

were also dropped.

In terms of mentoring relationships, participants were eager to experience a

continuation of their mentoring relationships through their career transitions. This

could be done when mentors were active in helping the newcomer achieve the new

job and when participants transitioned to a role which was a continuation of their

professional identities. At the same time, participants were enthusiastic about

developing new mentoring relationships facilitated by the new role. Most of these

relationships were formed with the supervisor, and by the time data collection was

over, these relationships were also the more developed ones. On the other hand,

participants who had new mentoring relationships with other senior colleagues were