Date of Award

2010

Document Type

Open Access Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts in Leadership (MAL)

Department

Leadership

First Advisor

Daniel Hanson

Abstract

Mentoring relationships pair a more experienced person with a lesser experienced one, to promote the personal and professional development of both participants. Understanding how the gender combinations of these relationships impact success is essential to designing strong mentoring programs for organizations in today's marketplace. Previous research on mentoring relationships presents unclear results as it relates to the impact of gender. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between gender combination and mentoring relationship success specifically related to career development for leaders. The researcher collected and analyzed data from 68 subjects using an electronic survey tool. Results of this research indicate favorable perceptions regarding mentoring relationships regardless of role and gender, however, there were some interesting findings including notable rating differences of male mentees rating their female mentor relationships lowest and their male mentor relationships highest of all other gender combinations. Findings also indicate that cross gender combinations may be more effective in achieving career development progress.

Identifier

SC 11.MAL.2010.Spreck.KE

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