Whose Best Interests Are Served? The Distinction Between Mentoring and Support

Abstract

The problem and the solution. Researchers have proposed reconceptualizing mentoring to include other developmental relationships held by protégés. However, questions remain as to how various developmental relationships might differently exhibit attributes that have been associated with strong-tie entoring relationships. This article reports on one finding of a phenomenological study of women faculty’s mentoring experiences that explored the diversity of mentoring (both concurrent and sequential) that these women had experienced over the course of their careers. Participants identified a distinction between those relationships that they perceived as “mentoring” and other relationships that they perceived as “supportive.” The importance of understanding this essential distinction between mentoring and support is examined with respect to the human resource development domains of career development, training and development, and organization development to foster effective developmental relationships in organizations.

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