Exploring the role of a reciprocal mentoring scheme in a multinational engineering company

The issue of women’s progression into senior management positions continues to challenge organisations as progress remains stubbornly slow despite targeted focus and activity. There is a large body of literature exploring why this might be the case which includes themes such as the gendered organisation, second generation bias and women’s career equality. A review of the significant part of this literature indicates that the answers to the question “is it the women or the organisations that need to adapt” tend to be skewed to the latter. Similarly, coaching and mentoring have been widely deployed as mechanisms to support women’s transition into more senior roles, however, there is a view that rather than being used as progressive tools, in their traditional form, these interventions could be perpetuating the status quo by encouraging women to adapt. Reciprocal mentoring is a new and emerging form of mentoring which arguably has the potential to disrupt the traditional patterns of hierarchical mentoring relationships by creating a mutual exchange of perspectives. There is however little research into this approach. This qualitative case study sought to address this gap through exploring if the experience of participating in a reciprocal mentoring programme between mixed gender pairs could influence shared understanding of women’s career equality challenges within the case study organisation. Findings indicate that the reciprocal nature of the dialogue led to new understanding which includes themes that challenge some long held organisational assumptions. There are six main themes: a shift in the nature of mentoring, women’s congruence in the workplace, agentic leadership bias, organisational readiness for equality, flexibility stigma and diversity as a business, not just a Human Resources issue. Further research into the themes above would be of value to those seeking to understand career equality and reciprocal mentoring as a progressive intervention

Grantor dc:publisher

Oxford Brookes University

Year dc:date

2020

Author dc:creator

• Round, Sue

Contributors dc:contributor

• Bachkirova, Tatiana
• Cox, Elaine

Statement dc:rights

• All rights reserved

Language dc:language

en

DOI dc:identifier

https://doi.org/10.24384/vcjz-px03

OAI identifier oai:identifier

tle:6b9edad3-6260-4ceb-9314-ff1a878d9347:d6bd9758-527a-46cd-bfe2-c433766e8fca:1