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Literature Review - Campbell
Literature Review - Campbell
Natalie Campbell
Professor Leonard
English 1201
20 March 2021
Literature Review
How does mentoring improve employee performance in the workplace? There are a
multitude of different career opportunities available in the working world, from the medical field
to sales and marketing, engineering or the military, and the list goes on. What is it that
contributes to one person’s ability to be happy and feel fulfilled at their job, while someone else
may find themselves unsatisfied and longing for something different? There are a number of
things that influence either situation, whether that be the work itself, the environment, upper
management, or available opportunities for advancement. Studies show that mentoring, “a formal
or new employee” (Heathfield) plays a big role in employee satisfaction and engagement.
Four key points that stand out across the cited sources include approaches to getting a
benefits. There are multiple avenues that can be taken in developing a mentor/mentee
relationship. Some organizations supply a mentor to new employees as a part of the onboarding
process, while others are established over time through networking. In a commercial partnership
with Indeed, Jay Munro states that, “If you're interested in building a meaningful mentoring
relationship, it pays to be open-minded to all the people in your network who might be able
contribute to your development. But there are a few exceptions. For example, it may not be a
good idea to choose a family member or friend for a mentor, as the close personal relationship
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you have with them could get in the way of you getting the candid advice you need, and it could
increase the chances of conflict or friction” (Munro). The article was located in The Sydney
Morning Herald and intended for a general audience. This supports the normalization and of
mentorship, as it should be a common practice in all fields of work. In a 2018 survey done by
Olivet Nazarene University, 61% of the three thousand full-time employees interviewed who
claimed to have mentors stated that the relationship developed naturally, while 25% stated that
their mentor offered to be their mentor. The other 14% approached the mentor and initiated the
relationship. This sample taken was across twenty-one different industries, ages ranging from
twenty-one to sixty-eight.
On the other side of the mentoring relationship, Stephen Billett with Griffith University
in Australia explained in his article, Workplace Mentors: Demands and Benefits, that the
different “genres” of mentoring create different demands and in turn, different outcomes. Some
mentors approach the relationship with eager enthusiasm and see it as an obligation to assist
others in learning, as they were provided the same assistance when they were in the place of the
mentee. Other mentors may be fearful of the possibility of displacement by those that they are
mentoring. It’s important to be aware that being a mentor or mentee is not always seen as a
positive for every employee. “For some, the requirements of the role including being under-
prepared for the role made the role highly and unwelcomingly demanding. For others, the task
built upon what they had done previously and/or was seen as a welcomed opportunity to assist
others and enjoy acknowledgement of their capacities. So, the demands and benefits of
mentoring played out in different ways in these workplaces. So, it is important to learn more
about mentors’ workplace experiences and the benefits and demands of that role” (Billett).
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used to review the career benefits associated with mentoring in the Journal of applied
psychology. In the article, Why Mentors Matter: Summary of 30 Years of Research, she states
that compared to non-mentored employees, mentored employees feel more satisfied and
committed to their career (Bidwell). The satisfaction one feels with their career often coincides
with their career development, supported by a survey of 170 sales and marketing professionals
(Sange and Srivastava) which concluded that those who are mentored “felt more positively about
their organization as a place to work for” and “believed their organization provided opportunities
for career growth” (Bidwell). In the abstract for the study being referenced, Shalini Srivastava
states “The purpose of the study is to investigate the relationship between mentoring, managerial
effectiveness and employee engagement. The study was administered on 300 middle level
managers who were representatives of five different private sector banks in Delhi/NCR”
(Srivastava). Stephen Billett stated in conclusion of his study of a yearlong mentorship with eight
mentors and their experiences throughout it, that “the success or otherwise of the guided learning
approach was premised on the efforts and energies of workplace mentors. The provision of
additional affordances for workers may have eased their interest in participating and made that
participation more easy and more rewarding. Similarly, some support (even mentoring) and
acknowledgement might have made the task of mentoring easier, more focused and more
rewarding” (Billett). The satisfaction created is not just for the mentee, but for the mentor as
well.
employee engagements, she explains that “Mentoring is used to engage and coach employees so
as to endow them with prospects for development; also, it facilitates organizations accomplish
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better retention and engaged employees. Mentoring helps recognize and focus on exact needs for
employee advancement and pair’s employees with others who are dedicated to sprouting in a
safe, one-on-one and honest work relationship” (Srivastava). She continues to elaborate how
mentoring reduces training time, which allows for quicker advancement. Jay Munro, Head of
Career Insights at Indeed, states that, “finding a mentor could be a game-changer for your
professional development.” He goes on to say, “having the opportunity to learn from other
people’s real-life experiences and knowledge can teach you new ways to do things, inspire
alternative ways of thinking and give you motivation around your career path” (Munro). This is a
reoccurring idea throughout the cited sources, as Susan M. Heathfield with The Balance Careers
states in her article, Use Mentoring to Develop Employees, “An overall career mentor can help
an employee develop skills, take on more challenging roles and responsibilities, and generally,
guide the progress of an employee's career” (Heathfield). She then goes on to quote, “A recent
Harvard Business Review article reports, ‘Research on junior to mid-level professionals shows
that [mentorship] programs enable them to advance more quickly, earn higher salaries, and gain
more satisfaction in their jobs and lives than people without mentors do. For employers, the
benefits are not only higher performance but also greater success in attracting, developing, and
There is obviously a plethora of studies done around the benefits of mentoring for the
mentee, but the toll is may take on the mentor is less discussed. Stephen Billett wrote an article
for the Journal of Workplace Learning where “data from eight mentors who participated in a
year-long trial of guided learning in a workplace are used to illuminate the demands upon and
benefits for workplace mentors” (Billett). During an interview with the mentor six months in,
Billett found that practice, support, experience, and understanding the requirements of the
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mentee assisted in the relationship, while production demands, irregularities, time constraints,
and attitude of both mentor and mentee inhibited the relationship. The article also noted that the
The possible answers to the question, “How does mentoring improve employee
performance in the workplace?” are complex and detailed. There are multiple different aspects in
which mentoring improves employee performance, but a better question may be “How does
mentoring impact the employee’s experience” or “How does mentoring impact career
development?” As, mentoring has a high likelihood of positive impacts on employee satisfaction
and career development/advancement for both the mentor and mentee, but it can create difficult
Works Cited
www.sap.com/insights/hr/why-mentors-matter.html.
Heathfield, Susan M. “What Is a Mentor and What Does a Mentor Do to Develop Your
develop-employees-1918189.
"Looking for career guidance? How to ask someone to be your mentor." Sydney Morning
Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A616447594/OVIC?
Madan, Poornima & Srivastava, Shalini. (2017). “Investigating the role of mentoring in
University, online.olivet.edu/research-statistics-on-professional-mentors.
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