“Mentoring,” Past and Present

Presenting my first paper at the Western Political Science Association (WPSA, or “the Western”), I lucked into having the late Professor Rita Mae Kelly as discussant. Her presence proved providential: as the man chairing the panel attempted to cut my presentation time relative to what he had accorde...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PS, political science & politics Vol. 53; no. 4; pp. 770 - 774
Main Author: Yanow, Dvora
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: New York, USA Cambridge University Press 01.10.2020
Subjects:
Adult development
Amnesia
Attention
Behavior Theories
Careers
Feminism
Gender
Human resource management
Human Resources
Human resources management
Institutionalization
Job Satisfaction
Labor Turnover
Males
Managers
Memory disorders
Men
Mentoring
Mentoring in Political Science: Examining Strategies, Challenges, and Benefits
Mentoring programs
Mentors
Minority Groups
New employees
Occupations
Organization theory
Organizational behavior
Political science
Public administration
Resource management
Systematic review
Teaching Methods
The Profession
Treatment methods
Vignettes
ISSN:1049-0965, 1537-5935
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Presenting my first paper at the Western Political Science Association (WPSA, or “the Western”), I lucked into having the late Professor Rita Mae Kelly as discussant. Her presence proved providential: as the man chairing the panel attempted to cut my presentation time relative to what he had accorded the other presenters, all male, Rita intervened. Hours later, heading out to dinner with a group of colleagues, Rita spotted me and invited me to join them. That and later interactions modeled for me the kind of senior–junior relationship that has been called mentoring. Had it not been for that gesture and all that ensued, I am likely not to have remained in academia, let alone in political science. This and other encounters, with different people, sparked my academic interest in mentoring. That concept has attracted increasing attention in recent years, especially in a work-related, career context. I find a certain degree of amnesia in the current attention. The concept is not new, as the opening epigraph attests. Its rejuvenation is typically credited to Daniel Levinson’s research on male adult development stages (1978), which explored the role and place of mentors and mentoring in men’s careers.1 But Levinson’s description of mentoring practices as experienced by men prior to 1978 differs from the concept’s current meaning. Comparing earlier forms of what I term “voluntary mentoring” with contemporary practices of assigned or managed mentoring raises some critical issues that should be considered today, especially when a practice developed in business organizations—with very gendered origins that sometimes still color it today—is imported for use in higher educational organizations. Mentoring comprises a significant segment of the human resource management, career theory, and organizational behavior subfields of organizational and management studies and public administration. Its literature is vast. In lieu of a systematic review, I am autobiographical in situating my assessment of this shift to managed mentoring. The first of two vignettes shows what a more informal, organically developed mentoring relationship can look like. The second illustrates the normative dimension in academic treatments. Practice studies contextualizes my approach to the subject.2 I conclude with a note on the idea of collective mentoring, which may constitute a feminist version of what originated as a gendered practice.
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ISSN:1049-0965
1537-5935
DOI:10.1017/S1049096520000578