Mentoring of scientists and engineers: Dyadic and formality effects on career development and psychosocial interactions

The current transition from the industrial age with its product orientation to the high technology information age with its service focus necessitates a new assessment of the mentoring process. Are organizations realigning their mentoring efforts to address the needs of the new technology workers? This study investigates the factors of mentoring program structure (initiation, direction, sustainment, monitoring, improvement, and facilitization) and their influence on mentoring roles associated with both career development and non-career support. Gender make-up of the mentor-protégé dyad is an additional factor considered in the research. The survey population consisted of 202 high technology protégés working in 22 organizations located in 4 countries.; Results indicate that the nature of an organization's involvement in its mentoring program was found to play a strong role in the outcome to the protégé. Attention must be given to the degree of formal structure in the mentoring program, if both career development and psychosocial activities are to be maximized. The depth of the structure should be sufficient to let the protégés know that the organization is concerned about them as employees and as individuals, but the organization should not dominate or dictate the mentoring relationship. The mentor-protégé dyads should be encouraged, and opportunities made available for potential mentors and protégés to meet, but the dyads should be allowed to form spontaneously. Overall mentoring program effectiveness is enhanced when dyads are homogeneous.; Two activities were found to most strongly relate to overall protégé career development: (1) getting assignments with high levels of visibility in the organization and (2) getting assignments that are recognized as preparatory for leadership positions.; No national preferences were found to differentiate one country's mentoring relationships from another's.