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Mentorship Driven Talent Management

The Asian Experience 1st Edition Payal


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To date, studies of cultural differences between Western
and Eastern models of mentoring have been sporadic.
Payal Kumar and Pawan Budhwar have assembled eleven
substantive chapters in which authors offer unique
organizational case studies, as well as qualitative and
quantitative studies of mentoring relationships in
countries including India, Thailand, China, Japan,
Pakistan, Indonesia, Malaysia and Bangladesh. This is a
‘must read’ for scholars and practitioners who claim to be
experts on mentoring in a global context.

Dr Kathy E. Kram
Shipley Professor in Management Emerita
Boston University Questrom School of Business, USA

Although mentoring is a critical developmental


relationship, the field has been constrained by Euro-
Western approaches and ideologies. This fine volume
offers mentoring scholars needed insights into the unique
experiences of mentoring within Asian contexts.

Dr Belle Rose Ragins


Sheldon B Lubar Professor of Management
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA

Asian societies are high power distance in nature. I am


delighted that Professors Kumar and Budhwar focus their
book on mentoring in Asia, where respect and reverence
are the norms and mentoring is much more than offering
advance on career development. This edited volume
offers unique insights into mentoring relationships across
several Asian countries.
Dr Eddy Ng
James and Elizabeth Freeman Professor of Management
Bucknell University, Canada

This book unravels the dynamics of mentoring across


various Asian cultures, from academic and practitioner
perspectives. It brings to the fore contexts that have so
far been given scant visibility in mentoring research. As
such, the book brings fresh ideas and perspectives to
developmental relationships, thereby validating,
questioning, challenging and importantly putting in
context the existing theories and frameworks of
mentoring.

Dr Aarti Ramaswami
Deputy Dean ESSEC Asia-Pacific
ESSEC Business School, Asia-Pacific, Singapore
Mentorship-driven Talent
Management: The Asian
Experience
EDITED BY
PAYAL KUMAR
BML Munjal University, India

PAWAN BUDHWAR
Aston University, UK

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia –


China
Emerald Publishing Limited
Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK

First edition 2020

© Selection and editorial matter of the Work © Editors, chapters © their respective
authors, 2020. Published by Emerald Publishing under an exclusive licence.

Reprints and permissions service


Contact: permissions@emeraldinsight.com

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any
form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without
either the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying
issued in the UK by The Copyright Licensing Agency and in the USA by The Copyright
Clearance Center. Any opinions expressed in the chapters are those of the authors. Whilst
Emerald makes every effort to ensure the quality and accuracy of its content, Emerald
makes no representation implied or otherwise, as to the chapters' suitability and application
and disclaims any warranties, express or implied, to their use.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data


A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-78973-692-2 (Print)


ISBN: 978-1-78973-691-5 (Online)
ISBN: 978-1-78973-693-9 (Epub)
To Professors Stacy Blakebeard, Simmons College (USA) – a
friend and a trusted mentor, and Manish Singhal, XLRI
(India) – thesis advisor and mentor (Payal Kumar)

To Professors Paul Sparrow, RD Pathak and Michael West (Pawan


Budhwar)

To all those who believe in the significance of mentoring in present-


day organizations.
Table of Contents

About the Contributors

Foreword

Chapter 1 Contextualizing Mentoring in the Asian Contexts


Payal Kumar and Pawan Budhwar

Theme 1: Country Reviews

Chapter 2 A Qualitative Study on Mentoring Practices and


Challenges in Indonesia
Yuliani Suseno, Ely Susanto and Damita Lachman Sherwani

Chapter 3 Mentoring in Japan: A Systematic Review and


Conceptual Model
Masaki Hosomi, Tomoki Sekiguchi and Fabian Jintae Froese

Chapter 4 How Mentors and Protégés Perceive and Practice


Mentoring in Thailand
Sununta Siengthai, Patarakhuan Pila-Ngarm and Monthon
Sorakraikitikul

Theme 2: Perspectives

Chapter 5 Exploring Why and When Mentors' Drinking


Norms Impact Protégés' Alcohol Misuse
Ho Kwong Kwan, Xiaofeng Xu, Haixiao Chen and Miaomiao Li

Chapter 6 Accounting Firms and Gendered Mentoring –


Qualitative Evidence from India and Malaysia
Sujana Adapa, Subba Reddy Yarram and Alison Sheridan
Chapter 7 Workplace Mentoring and Leader–Member Dyadic
Communication in Malaysia
Marlin Marissa Malek Abdul Malek and Hassan Abu Bakar

Theme 3: Case Studies

Chapter 8 Reverse Mentoring in India: How Organizational


and Socio-cultural Context Matters
Nimruji Jammulamadaka

Chapter 9 Dynamics of Paternalistic Mentoring: An Insight


into Family Firms in Bangladesh
Farzana Nahid

Chapter 10 Coaching in India as a European Woman


Jasmin Waldmann

Chapter 11 Cultivating Talent of Interns through Workplace


Mentoring: A Critical Appraisal of a Pakistani Initiative
Muhammad Zahid Iqbal and Mian Imran ul Haq

Index
About the Contributors

Sujana Adapa, Associate Professor, principally teaches Marketing


units in the UNE Business School. But, her research expertise covers
both Marketing and Management areas. Her research interests
include information and technology adoption, sustainable practices,
gender studies covering leadership and entrepreneurship.
Hassan Abu Bakar is an Associate Professor in the Othman Yeop
Abdullah Graduate School of Business, Universiti Utara Malaysia,
Malaysia. His main research interests are in dyadic communication in
the workplace, leadership style, organizational communication and
intercultural communication.
Pawan Budhwar is the 50th Anniversary Professor of International
HRM at Aston Business School. He is also the Associate Pro-Vice
Chancellor International, the Director of India Centre at Aston
University and the Co-Editor-in-Chief of British Journal of
Management. Pawan's research interests are in the fields of strategic
HRM, International HRM and emerging markets with a specific focus
on India. He has published over 120 articles in leading journals and
has also written and/or co-edited 20 books. Pawan is a Fellow of the
Higher Education Academy, British Academy of Management, the
Academy of Social Sciences and the Indian Academy of
Management.
Haixiao Chen is a PhD candidate in the College of Business at the
Shanghai University of Finance and Economics. His research
interests include ethics, mentoring, leadership and work–family
issues.
Fabian Jintae Froese is Chair Professor of Human Resource
Management and Asian Business at the University of Goettingen,
Germany, and editor-in-chief of Asian Business & Management.
Previously, he was a Professor of International Business at Korea
University in Seoul, Korea. He obtained a doctorate in international
management from the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland, and
another doctorate in sociology from Waseda University, Japan. His
research interests lie in expatriation, diversity and talent
management. His work has been published in refereed journals such
as Academy of Management Learning & Education, British Journal of
Management, Human Resource Management, Journal of
Organizational Behavior and Journal of World Business. For his
research he has received numerous best paper awards from the
Academy of Management, Academy of International Business,
Association of Japanese Business Studies, and European Academy of
Management in recent years.
Masaki Hosomi is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Commerce
and Management, Kansai University, Japan. He obtained a doctorate
in management from Osaka University, Japan. His research interests
are related to the field of work and organizational psychology, and
human resource management, including work–life balance, telework,
work–family interface, work engagement and job crafting. He
currently serves as the Chairperson of Western-Japanese Division of
Japanese Association of Administrative Science. His work has been
published in refereed journals such as Journal of Applied Behavioral
Science, the Japanese Journal of Labor Studies and Japan Journal of
Administrative Science. He wrote Wakuraifu baransu wo jitsugen
suru shokuba: Misugosarete kita joshi doryo no shiten [Workplace
for work-life balance: From an overlooked viewpoint of the boss and
the colleague] (Osaka University Press).
Mian Imran ul Haq studied English Literature and Mass
Communication and served as lecturer initially. Mr Haq is pursuing
research work to complete his doctoral thesis from the Department
of Media Studies, Bahria University, Islamabad, Pakistan. He has
been serving the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics as
Senior Publications Officer since 2010.
Muhammad Zahid Iqbal is an Associate Professor in the
Department of Management Sciences, COMSATS University
Islamabad, Pakistan. He holds a PhD in Human Resource
Development from the National University of Modern Languages,
Islamabad, Pakistan, and a Post Doctorate from the University of
Liverpool Management School, Liverpool, United Kingdom.
Nimruji Jammulamadaka is an Professor at Indian Institute of
Management Calcutta. Her research interests include post- and
decolonial management studies, power, social sector, CSR,
innovation and research methods. Her recent books are Indian
Business: Notions and Practices of Responsibility (Routledge);
Governance, Resistance and the Post-colonial State: Management
and State Building (Routledge); and Workers and Margins:
Understanding Erasures and Possibilities (Palgrave). She is also the
co-editor of the book series Managing the Post-colony (Springer).
She serves on the editorial boards of Organization, Journal of
Management History and Qualitative Research in Organizations and
Management. She has served as the Chair of the Critical
Management Studies Division of the Academy of Management.
Payal Kumar is Professor and Chair HR/OB, Head of Research and
International Collaborations, BML Munjal University, Gurgaon, India.
As a business leader, Payal has the rich, practical experience of
mentoring managers. As a scholar, she has published journal papers
and books on mentorship, following her thesis on Examining the
Outcomes of Mentor–Protégé Personality Congruence and the
Mediating Role of Affect. Payal is also the series editor of the
Palgrave Studies in Leadership and Followership.
Ho Kwong Kwan is an Associate Professor of Management in the
Organizational Behaviour and Human Resource Management
Department at China Europe International Business School (CEIBS).
His research interests include mentoring, leadership, deviant
behaviours and work–family issues.
Miaomiao Li is a PhD candidate in the School of Economics and
Management at Tongji University. Her research interests include
mentoring and deviant behaviours.
Marlin Marissa Malek Abdul Malek is an Associate Professor at
Othman Yeop Abdullah Graduate School of Business, Universiti Utara
Malaysia. Her main research interests are in female leaders, cross-
cultural management and generational differences.
Dr Farzana Nahid is Assistant Professor Department of Marketing
and International Business School of Business and Economics (SBE)
Room: NAC 734 (1), Level: 07 North South University 15,
Bashundhara R/A, Dhaka 1229, Bangladesh.
Patarakhuan Pila-Ngarm is currently a lecturer in management at
the Faculty of Business Administration and Accountancy at Khon
Kaen University, Thailand. She earned her PhD from Asian Institute
of Technology in 2016. She has taught organizational behaviour,
small and medium enterprise management, entrepreneurship and
principle of management. Her areas of research interests include the
organizational behaviour in SMEs. Much of her work has been on
improving the understanding of human capital, SMEs, human
resource management and performance management. She can be
reached at: ppattar@kku.ac.th.
Tomoki Sekiguchi is Professor at the Graduate School of
Management, Kyoto University. He received his PhD from the
University of Washington. His research interests centre around
employee behaviours, person–environment fit, cross-cultural
organizational behaviour and international human resource
management. He currently serves as Co-Editor-in-Chief of Applied
Psychology: An International Review and Associate Editor of Asian
Business & Management. He is President of Euro-Asia Management
Studies Association (EAMSA) and is Vice President of the Association
of Japanese Business Studies (AJBS). His work has been published in
such journals as Personnel Psychology, Organizational Behavior and
Human Decision Processes, the Journal of World Business, Asia
Pacific Journal of Management and the International Journal of
Human Resource Management. He has written several chapters in
books, including Routledge handbook of human resource
management in Asia, Handbook of employee selection, Oxford
handbook of organizational citizenship behavior and Challenges of
human resource management in Japan.
Alison Sheridan is a Professor of Management at the UNE Business
School, University of New England, Australia. Her research interests
span gender and human resource management, corporate
governance and regional development. She has published widely in
these areas, including a co-edited book with Dr Sujana Adapa,
Inclusive Leadership; Negotiating Gendered Spaces, which examines
inclusivity in organizations and workplaces.
Damita Lachman Sherwani is a Masters of Commerce student,
specializing in Human Resource Management, at the University of
Western Australia. She majored in Human Resource Management in
her undergraduate study at Edith Cowan University and has research
interests in organizational behaviour as well as culture and employee
engagement.
Sununta Siengthai was promoted to a full professor of HRM and
OB at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Thailand in 2014.
Currently, retired and served as an Adjunct Faculty of the Asian
Institute of Technology. She earned her Ph.D. in Labor and Industrial
Relations from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in
1984. She has taught, researched and published on HRM and HRD,
OB, performance management and industrial relations in the new
economy. She can be reached at: sununta.siengthai@gmail.com.
Monthon Sorakraikitikul is a lecturer at Thammasat Business
School, Thammasat University, Thailand. He teaches human resource
development and organizational development. He earned his PhD
from the Asian Institute of Technology in 2014. His dissertation
focused on organization learning capability and workplace spirituality.
He is also certified with WIAL Action Learning Coach and Gallup
Strengths coach. He can be reached at: monthon.sor@gmail.com.
Ely Susanto is a lecturer at Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia. His
current research interests include public service motivation,
innovative work behaviour and conflict management. He has
published in several journals, including in the Journal of Applied
Psychology, International Journal of Human Resource Management
and International Journal of Conflict Management.
Yuliani Suseno is an Associate Professor and the Assistant Dean of
Research Training at the Faculty of Business and Law, the University
of Newcastle, Australia. Her research interests include social capital,
international HRM, and innovative work behaviour. She has published
in several journals, including in the Journal of Strategic Information
Systems, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Asia Pacific
Journal of Management, International Journal of Human Resource
Management, Australian Journal of Public Administration,
Information Technology & People, Systems Research and Behavioral
Science, Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, Asia Pacific
Business Review, Journal of Organizational Change Management,
and Employee Relations.
Jasmin Waldmann is a life transformation expert. Ms Waldmann is
a goal-oriented, multi-faceted woman with certifications in sports
and health training, Neuro-linguistic programming, and expertise in
mind-and-body holistic coaching, meditation, wellness, Life
Coaching, and self-leadership. She started her entrepreneurial
journey in 2008. However, since coming to India in 2012 as part of a
promotional campaign for a sports brand, her mission has been to
guide and inspire corporate men and women, managers, athletes,
housewives, teachers and entrepreneurs to find the ideal balance of
mind, body and soul and become their successful best. She is also
the author of Change Me, which captures in detail a common man's
inspiring journey towards holistic fitness with the help of a life coach.
Xiaofeng Xu is a PhD candidate in the School of Economics and
Management at Tongji University. Her research interests include
mentoring, leadership and deviant behaviours.
Dr Subba Reddy Yarram is a Senior Lecturer in Finance in the
UNE Business School at the University of New England. He primarily
teaches Finance units in the UNE Business School. His research
covers corporate governance and small business
economics/management. His research has been published in reputed
journals including Economic Modelling, Managerial Finance and
International Journal of Managerial Finance.
Foreword

As I write this Foreword, I come straight from a meeting of senior


coaches in Africa. The subject? How to escape from the cultural
dominance by Western society of the concepts, theories and overall
debate around coaching and mentoring. It's a discussion I frequently
find across the Asian region, too. While the words coach and mentor
have their origins in Europe and have been given radically different
interpretations from these origins in the United States in recent
decades, the principles that underpin developmental dialogue belong
to many cultures and often find their richest expression in the Asian
region, from the gurus of India, to the Buddhist traditions of the
Himalayan kingdoms, Southeast Asia and Japan.
In my recent travels in Central Asia, I was struck by the impact of
medieval scholars, such as the astronomer Ulum Beg, grandson of
Tamerlane, who stimulated learning as a way of life. A recurrent
theme I observe in all the Asian cultures I have engaged with –
brought home in particular in dialogue with monks in Laos and
Myanmar – is that knowledge and self-knowledge are inseparable in
creating a whole person. This is also the core of mentoring: by
raising the level of self-awareness and awareness of the world
around us, we are able to have powerful learning dialogues that link
these worlds.
This diffusion of conceptual bases for mentoring is both a
strength (in that people throughout the region can immediately
associate with the core principles of listening, questioning and
reflection) and a weakness because it opens the door for imposed
definitions from other cultures. The word ‘mentoring’ is a relatively
recent creation from the Anglo-Saxon world. The word ‘mentor’
comes from a character in The Odyssey. Although a dictionary
definition of mentor is ‘a wise man’, the old man Mentor was by and
large an incompetent. I am struck by the similarities with Nasiruddin,
the wise fool of Central Asian culture. The ‘real’ mentor was Athena,
the Goddess of Wisdom, who allowed Odysseus to make mistakes,
then sat with him to help him reflect and learn from his experiences.
In effect, she used her wisdom to help him become wiser in turn.
This role has much in common with that of a sage or guru in Asian
cultures.
Athena had multiple personalities, resulting from the merging of
many gods into one. In her role as Goddess of Martial Arts she was a
brutal, vengeful bringer of retribution. US scholars in the 1960s and
1970s failed to appreciate the subtlety of these contrasting personae
and lumped them into one. The result was that the mentoring role of
stimulating wisdom became overshadowed by the largely
incompatible role of a powerful and influential sponsor – someone,
who took action on the behalf of a protégé (someone who was
protected). It is interesting to note that this culturally biased
interpretation of mentoring occurred at a time when the United
States was pre-occupied with exercising its power and authority
around the world. With cultural dominance comes the power to
influence language – even in this book, which aims to be thought-
liberating, some contributors refer to protégé rather than more
accurate mentee (one who is helped to think).
In doing so, the US scholars also ignored the more recent history
and evolution of mentoring, in which the French cleric Fenelon,
appointed tutor to the son of Louis the XIV, continued the dialogues
of Athena, the goddess of wisdom, with Odysseus' son, in a book
titled simply Telemachus. One of the first books on leadership of
modern times, and translated into many languages, it established
the principles of reflective dialogue as the key to developing wise
leaders.
In co-editing the book Coaching and Mentoring in Asia-Pacific – a
project designed to illustrate the diversity of indigenous approaches
within the region – my respect for the insights to be gained from
Asian perspectives (in all their diversity) has deepened. For example,
while I have researched and written on the role of laughter in
learning dialogue, I had never comprehended the complexity of
smiling as a vehicle to steer the conversation, until introduced to the
concepts by a colleague in Thailand, where subtle variations in
smiling may convey multiple meanings.
Engaging with other cultural traditions reveals that mentoring
and coaching are complex, multi-faceted constructions heavily
influenced by local traditions and cultural assumptions. For example:

Many Asian cultures have a built-in reverence for age that


both encourages people to seek to explore issues with
someone older and wiser and at the same time inhibits open
challenge from the younger person to the older. Good
mentoring practice in Asia-Pacific therefore involves
encouraging the younger person to challenge themselves. In
contrast, there is an implicit assumption in much of Western
mentoring that the mentor (or coach) does the challenging.
My own practice has been enriched by recognizing that I have
a choice in which of these routes I take.
The simplistic Goal, Reality, Options and Will model
popularized in Western coaching and often advocated in
mentoring starts from the assumption that the person seeking
help knows what they want and simply needs support in how
to get there. One of the reasons GROW has been discredited
is that effective coaching and mentoring result in changes of
perception and identity that substantially change the person's
goals – so rigid pursuit of an initial goal is both pointless and
potentially harmful. By contrast, one of my Chinese
supervisees brought to me the case of a client, who typifies a
perspective found commonly in the region. The client begins
the learning dialogue by describing, bit by bit, the
circumstances and context of an issue not yet defined.
Working round it, meandering through the landscape of the
issue, the client and the mentor both develop insights into the
multiple systems in play. By the time the issue clarifies into a
goal, the choices and decisions to be made are already
evident. There are pluses and minuses with both of these
approaches, but I conclude that the greatest value lies in
being able to step outside the rigidity of a single, culturally
bounded approach and work with wherever the client is
coming from.

***
It is heartening to see the chapters in this pioneering volume
present a diversity of national and cultural perspectives along with a
range of applications. This edited volume has been divided into three
themes: country reviews, perspectives and case studies (which will
be useful to use in teaching purposes). The country reviews of
Indonesia, Japan and Thailand (Chapters 2, 3 and 4) are important
stepping stones towards creating and valuing national identities for
mentoring. Gender-based mentoring and reverse mentoring
(Chapters 6 and 8, studies from Malaysia and India) have emerged
as major forces for social change. Other chapters emphasize issues
that are of particular significance in an Asian economic context – for
example, Chapter 9 explores mentoring in the context of family
businesses in Bangladesh, a relatively unexplored theme in the
Western world. Other countries that are covered are China and
Pakistan. There is an also an interesting perspective of the
challenges in India faced by a female European coach.
For a mentor or mentor trainer in Asia, it cannot be healthy to
allow their practice to be defined solely by cultural assumptions from
the West – not least, because so much ‘good practice’ can be
challenged on the basis of lack of evidence. For example, the notion
that coaches and mentors should take copious notes flies in the face
of all the evidence from research into attentiveness and
neuroscience. (It also puts the power of the relationship firmly in the
hands of the mentor, not the mentee.)
One of the reasons for the sudden rapid emergence of an Asia-
Pacific chapter of the European Coaching and Mentoring Council is
pushback by serious practitioners against formulaic approaches to
accreditation and standards by the largest of the global professional
bodies in the field. 1 The great danger with standardization at a
global level is that it marginalizes the majority of cultures, expecting
them to conform to the mores of one or two dominant cultures.
Contextual differences are there and need to be acknowledged and
respected.
Equally, it cannot be healthy for Western mentors and coaches,
or the research communities built around them, to ignore the wealth
of insights into learning dialogue from other cultures, nor to discount
the value of diversity of approach. Indeed, not to do so is a negation
of two of the core principles of mentoring – curiosity about other
world views, seeking diverse perceptions that open up different
choices.
Hence the importance of this book. It is not enough just to
challenge the cultural dominance of coaching and mentoring by the
West, which is what I have been saying for long (Clutterbuck,
Kochan, Lunsford, Domínguez, & Haddock-Millar, 2017). It is equally
important to engage in dialogue that can benefit mentoring practice
in all parts of the world. This edited volume – the first of its kind –
does just that. Kudos to the volume editors Prof. Payal Kumar and
Prof. Pawan Budhwar for taking the pains to bring out this volume on
Asian mentoring experiences. In effective mentoring, all parties
learn. Indeed, one of the most accurate measures of mentoring
quality is how much of a learning exchange has taken place. It is, in
my view, imperative that we maintain this principle of collaborative
learning across cultures in the development of mentoring practice, in
accreditation, in research and in how we build the global mentoring
community. Anything less would be hypocritical!
David Clutterbuck, July 2019
Professor Clutterbuck, a leading global authority on coaching and
mentoring, has authored 70 books. He is the Special Ambassador,
European Mentoring and Coaching Council; and Visiting Professor,
Henley Business School, UK.

Reference
Clutterbuck, D. A., Kochan, F. K., Lunsford, L., Domínguez, N., &
Haddock-Millar, J. (Eds.). (2017). The SAGE handbook of
mentoring. SAGE Publications London.

1The oldest of the professional bodies in the field of coaching and mentoring, created in
1991 to bring together academics and practitioners.
Chapter 1

Contextualizing Mentoring in the


Asian Context
Payal Kumar and Pawan Budhwar

Abstract
Research on mentorship has been dominated by the West
and little is known about the cultural variations of the
mentoring phenomenon in Asian countries. A richer
understanding of the cultural context that is more attuned
to mentoring experience in Asia can help to improve
workplace experience, in general, for those working in and
for those who intend to work in the region. This chapter
captures the important theoretical lenses in the mentoring
literature, and also provides a clear demarcation between
negative mentoring and dysfunctional mentoring. This is
followed by contextualizing mentoring as per four of
Hofstede's six cultural dimensions by dwelling on mentoring
experience in countries such as China, India, Pakistan,
Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. It is hoped that this
chapter will pave the way for further research, which may
be a precursor for theory development.
Keywords: Asian countries; defining mentoring; negative
and dysfunctional mentoring; Hofstede's cultural
dimensions; contextualizing mentoring; mentoring
relationships

Introduction
Scholars are increasingly questioning the positivist trend of
decontextualizing human resource management (HRM) from the
social-historical context of the workplace (Clutterbuck & Ragins,
2002; Cooke, Wood, Wang, & Veen, 2019; Knights & Omanović,
2016). More and more studies suggest that cultural context does
impact strategic HR initiatives differently, implying that business
leaders and scholars would need to be aware of what makes
development, training and competency initiatives thrive in a
particular cultural context under the influence of larger historical and
social structures (Barkema, Chen, George, Luo, & Tsui, 2015;
Budhwar, Varma, & Patel, 2016; Srikanth & Jomon, 2015). In a
recent study on oneness behaviours – based on the understanding
of an inherent unity of self with others – cultural differences were
even found in scale validity (Aşkun, Sharma, & Çetin, 2019).
Within the HRM framework, research on mentorship has been
dominated by the West (Budhwar & Debrah, 2009; Chandler, Kram,
& Yip, 2011) and little is known about the cultural variations of the
mentoring phenomenon. This raises many questions, including that
of generalizability of the existing understanding on the topic of
mentoring. In this regard, Prof G. F. Dreher of Kelley School of
Business, USA, enquires: ‘Can the observed correlational or cause-
effect relationships that make up the mentoring literature be
generalized beyond low power distance western cultures?’ 1
While some studies on mentoring are emerging in Asian countries
such as China (Wang, Noe, Wang, & Greenberger, 2009), South
Korea (Joo, 2019) and India (Haynes & Ghosh, 2012; Kumar, 2018a),
in order to move the field forward there is a strong need for more
research. Heeding the call for mentoring relationships to be studied
across cultures (Clutterbuck, Kochan, Lunsford, Dominguez, &
Haddock-Millar, 2017), it is hoped that this edited volume
(Mentorship-driven talent management: The Asian experience) will
add value and fill an important gap in the existing literature. Given
that Asian countries have unique social contexts, for example, they
are known to be high power distance cultures where protégés tend
to perceive the mentor to be more of a paternalistic figurehead, it is
expected that the chapters in this volume will both consolidate and
add new elements to existing scholarship.
More and more global businesses are looking towards Asia,
resulting in this continent's economic rise over the last five decades
(Nayyar, 2019). For practitioners (within Asia and also for those
planning to work in the region), a richer understanding of the
cultural context that is more attuned to the mentor and protégé
experience in Asia can help to improve workplace experience in
general. Till date, there has been no publication that covers the
range of mentoring experiences in Asia. This edited volume aims to
provide a deeper understanding of the contextual interpretation of
mentoring by focusing on the Asian experience in countries such as
China, India, Pakistan, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.
This chapter begins with definitions of mentoring, negative
mentoring and dysfunctional mentoring. This is followed by a
description of different variables in the Asian context that can
influence mentoring. Thereafter, there is a precis of chapters in this
book, ending with a discussion on further areas of research to build
upon.

Background to Mentoring as a Practice


While mentorship had been practiced for centuries, the word
‘mentor’, meaning a trusted counsellor, was popularized by Francis
Fénelon in his 1,699 book – Les Aventures de Télémaque.
Historically, the practice of mentorship dates as far back as the
ancient Greek mythological times. Since then, many mentors have
counselled and coached the young and inexperienced in various
fields spanning philosophy, military, sports and education. Notable
thinkers like Socrates, Plato and Aristotle have been part of a direct
mentoring lineage (Cheatham, 2010).
Another ancient mentoring developmental relationship is the
classical Indian guru–shishya (teacher–disciple) tradition. This
relationship too involves a teaching–learning process, but there are
differences when compared to organizational mentoring in the
management literature, in terms of the nature of the relationship,
the outcomes expected and the duration of the relationship
(Ramaswami & Dreher, 2010). For example, in terms of the nature of
the relationship, in the guru–shishya relationship, the disciple is on
the path of spiritual self-discovery and his relationship with the guru
is based on absolute trust and obedience.
Scholarly interest in this phenomenon in the management
literature arose following some path-breaking studies in the 1970s
and 1980s from different domains, all pointing to the importance of
mentoring. In the field of education, Chickering's (1969) conceptual
study posited that informal student–faculty interaction positively
influenced students both in terms of their intellectual development
and in building their self-image. Later, in Levinson, Darrow, Klein,
Levinson and McKee's empirical study on 40 adults, mentoring
emerged as a critical factor for overall well-being in the context of
transition from childhood to adulthood (1978).
Sociologists came to a similar conclusion about the positive
outcome of mentoring in their landmark ethnographic study of 900
low-income urban youth, which suggested that mentorship was vital
for youth development (Williams & Kornblum, 1985). In this study of
teenagers seemingly trapped in poverty, it was found that with the
help of a mentor, some of the youth were able to build their self-
esteem and opt for a course of life that would steer them away from
self-destructive trajectories of street life. Furthermore,
developmental psychologists in a study of 700 high-risk children who
were tracked over a 30-year period suggested that the children who
succeeded in life had an ability to locate another adult as support,
apart from their parents (Werner & Smith, 1982). In other words,
those children who developed into competent adults had at least one
supportive adult to turn to for emotional support apart from family
members.
Management practitioners' interest in this phenomenon continued
to surge after two descriptive articles in Harvard Business Review
which linked mentoring to the protégé's professional growth, namely
‘Everyone who makes it has a mentor’ (Lunding, Clements, &
Perkins, 1978), and another article that reported that two-thirds of
almost 4,000 executives listed in the ‘Who's News’ of the Wall Street
Journal had a mentor (Roche, 1979), suggesting that those with a
mentor earned more and were more satisfied in their job.
Subsequently, Kathy Kram's pioneering study of 18 mentor–protégé
dyads (1985) proved to be a trigger for a burgeoning scholarship on
mentoring in the workplace.
In more modern times, the relevance of mentoring in the
management literature is growing, especially since studies suggest
that mentoring is not only associated with positive instrumental
outcomes such as managers' salary level and promotions (Barnes,
2004), but also with the job and career satisfaction of a protégé
(Day & Allen, 2004; Lankau & Scandura, 2002). In other words,
available research evidence suggests that mentoring plays an
important role not only in the career progression of the protégé, but
also in the reduction of stress (Blake-Beard, 2003) and an
affirmation of the protégé’s self-worth (Gibson, 2004). Effective
mentoring is also said to lead to more affect-driven constructs such
as better socialization and psychological adjustment for newcomers
in the firm, which in turn leads to greater job retention (Hamlin &
Sage, 2011), and also to a more fulfilling relationship with the
mentor (Wanberg, Welsh, & Hezlett, 2003).
Defining Mentoring 2
The definition of mentoring in Kram's (1985) study is possibly the
most highly cited in literature (Hamlin & Sage, 2011; Hansford,
Tennent, & Ehrich, 2002; Ragins, Ehrhardt, Lyness, Murphy, &
Capman, 2016). Kram describes mentoring as consisting of
developmental assistance provided to a protégé by a more
experienced organizational member in the form of career and
pyscho-social guidance (see Table 1). Since then, some scholars
have suggested that the definition of mentoring needs to be
widened in scope to include networking as a distinct function
(Tenenbaum, Crosby, & Gliner, 2001), or that role modelling should
be a third sub-construct of mentoring rather than be included as a
part of the psycho-social construct (Scandura, 1992).

Table 1.Career and Psycho-social Functions.


Career Functions Psycho-social Functions
Role modeling: The mentor demonstrates the
Sponsorship: The mentor opens doors that
kinds of behaviour, attitudes and values that
would otherwise have been closed.
lead to success in the organization.
Coaching: The mentor teaches and provides Counselling: The mentor helps the protégé
feedback. deal with difficult professional dilemma.
Protection: The mentor supports the protégé Acceptance and confirmation: The mentor
and/or acts as a buffer. supports the protégé and shows respect.
Challenge: The mentor encourages new ways Friendship: The mentor demonstrates
of thinking and acting, and pushes the personal caring that goes beyond business
protégé to stretch his or her capabilities. requirements.
Exposure and visibility: The mentor steers
the protégé into assignments that make him
or her known to top management.

Source: Adapted from Kram (1983).

However, other scholars and practitioners have defined mentoring


in multiple ways, which has led to a certain amount of conceptual
looseness of the construct (Brondyk & Searby, 2013). In fact, there
is a lack of alignment about the fundamental nature of mentoring.
For example, is mentoring best conceptualized as task-centred,
social support-centred or career guidance-centred (O'Neill &
Sankowsky, 2001)? Furthermore, there are also varying
interpretations as to how long the process of mentorship should last
(Chandler et al., 2011). There are also divergent views on whether
the mentoring relationship is an intense, personal one (Chun, Litzky,
Sosik, Bechtold, & Godshalk, 2010; Kram, 1985), or a less emotional
one depending on which culture one is from (Bozionelos, 2006).
In spite of the conceptual looseness of the mentoring construct,
there are some cohesive dimensions too.

Although definitions of mentoring have been scrutinized,


debated, and criticized by scholars, it is possible to
identify several key features of mentoring relationships
and to place some loose boundaries on what is often a
fairly fuzzy construct. (Eby, Rhodes, & Allen, 2007, p. 17)

Below are some key features of workplace mentoring


relationships to be found in the literature:

Mentoring is a unique relationship between individuals,


with some relationships being life-altering (Levinson et al.,
1978), and others destructive (Scandura, 1998). Mentoring
relationships are also complex, especially in formal mentoring
relationships given that relationships develop in the midst of
other organizational commitments during time-constrained
programmes (Eby & Robertson, 2019; Wanberg, Welsh, &
Kammeyer-Mueller, 2007).
Mentoring provides two types of functions to the protégé,
broadly classified as career-related and psycho-social (Kram,
1985).
Mentoring is a dynamic process which unfolds over time
(Garvey & Alred, 2003; Zachary, 2005), the impact of which is
said to increase with the passage of time. Not only do healthy
mentoring relationships develop over time, but problematic
ones do too.
Mentoring is a form of social learning in the form of
socialization, a process by which protégés learn attitudes and
behaviours needed to participate as organizational members
(McDowall-Long, 2004).
Mentoring consists of formal and informal relationships:
In formal relationships the mentor and protégé are assigned
to work together for a specified time, with set goals; whereas,
informal mentoring relationships develop more spontaneously,
largely out of mutual identification and interpersonal comfort
(Young, Cady, & Foxon, 2006).

Thus, the definition of mentoring has evolved over the years,


especially in light of the positive organizational scholarship
movement (Cameron, Dutton, & Quinn, 2003). There has been a
noticeable shift in the manner in which mentoring has been
construed, from the traditional, hierarchical, one-way relationship, to
more of a relational approach in which mentoring includes
interdependent relationships that enable mutual learning (Higgins &
Kram, 2001; Weinberg, 2019). Researchers are increasingly turning
their attention towards alternative dyadic relational models, including
peer coaching (Parker, Hall, & Kram, 2008; Parker, Hall, Kram, &
Wasserman, 2018), peer mentoring (Allen & Finkelstein, 2003),
reverse mentoring (Marcinkus Murphy, 2012; Meister & Willyerd,
2010) and e-mentoring (Ensher & Murphy, 2007).
Relational mentoring extends beyond the classical instrumental
and psycho-social functions, to encompass relational processes such
as reciprocity; behaviour such as empathy; and relational outcomes
that help develop future relationships (Ragins & Verbos, 2007). In
other words, while a host of studies indicate that there are several
positive instrumental and career-related protégé outcomes of
mentoring such as compensation, promotion and perceived career
success (Eby, Allen, Evans, Ng, & DuBois, 2008; Kammeyer-Mueller
& Judge, 2008; Ng, Eby, Sorenson, & Feldman, 2005; Underhill,
2006), researchers over the years have extended the range of
mentoring outcomes to include subjective states in the mentoring
relationship like protégé well-being (Eby, Durley, Evans, & Ragins,
2006). So, apart from instrumental (distal) outcomes, there are
increasing studies on relational (proximal) outcomes too (Wanberg
et al., 2003).
In the next section, we shall describe ineffective mentoring
relationships from the protégé perspective. Often in the literature,
the constructs ‘negative mentoring’ and ‘dysfunctional mentoring’ are
used interchangeably. In this section we make a clear demarcation
between the two.

Defining Ineffective Mentoring Relationships


Kathy Kram had warned against simplifying mentoring as a positive
experience: ‘…it is argued that the potential value of a mentor
relationship is limited and that, indeed, a relationship of this kind can
become destructive’ (Kram, 1983, p. 608). Subsequently, in her
qualitative study of 18 mentoring dyads she observed that one
mentoring relationship was noticeably ‘destructive’ (Kram, 1985, p.
10). Yet, since her seminal studies, there has not been much
research on ineffective mentoring relationships. Rather, this is a fairly
new development in the literature, with an increasing number of
studies associating mentoring with epithets such as ‘dysfunctional’,
‘toxic’, ‘negative’ and ‘marginal’ (Eby, Durley, Evans, & Ragins, 2008;
Hamlin & Sage, 2011; Wu, Turban, & Cheung, 2012).
Mentoring scholars often describe positive and negative
mentoring relationships along a continuum, with each relationship
consisting of a range of experiences, some proving to be life-altering
in a positive way, and others destructive. Effective mentoring
relationships are said to be at the one end of the continuum, while
truly dysfunctional ones are at the other end (see Fig. 1). Neutral
relationships known as ‘marginal mentoring relationships’ are said to
rest somewhere near the middle of the continuum, and are said to
neither help nor harm the protégé (Ragins, Cotton, & Miller, 2000, p.
1178).
Fig. 1. Mentoring Effectiveness–Ineffectiveness: An Organizational
Perspective. Source: Based on Kram (1985), Levinson et al. (1978),
Ragins et al. (2000) and Scandura (1998).

There is a lack of clarity at the far end of the continuum when it


comes to ineffective mentoring relationships, with references in the
literature to either negative mentoring experiences or dysfunctional
mentoring experiences (and at times these terms are used
interchangeably). There is little consensus as to how these two
constructs are defined and thus differentiated from each other.
For a better understanding of ineffective mentoring relationships,
predominant references from the management literature to negative
mentoring and dysfunctional mentoring relationships have been
listed in Table 2 and thereafter analyzed by categorizing them as per
Duck's classification of experiences based on both intent and
outcome (1994). In Duck's 2 × 2 typology, the two categories of the
classical mentoring definition of Kram, namely vocational and
psycho-social, are associated with bad intent towards the other or
good intent, leading to four types of destructive relationships
(negative relations, sabotage, difficulty and spoiling, e.g. betrayal).

Table 2.Definitions of Ineffective Mentoring Relationships for the


protégé.
Intent Consequences
Good Bad Good Bad
Negative mentoring relationships
These (ineffective relationships) are marked by ✓ ✓
problems relating to one another which can lead to the
premature termination of a relationship or feelings of
disappointment or regret. However, ineffective
relationships are distinct from dysfunctional ones
because there is no bad intent expressed, and they do
not seriously damage the mentor or protégé
Intent Consequences
Good Bad Good Bad
(Scandura, 1998). For example, functional, well-
intentioned mentoring can lead to poor learning
outcomes for the protégé if the relationship lacks
mutuality (Weinberg, 2019).
Duck (1994) had said that negative mentoring
experiences should not be conceptualized simply as a
‘deviation from the positive, but (rather) a
phenomenon that also composes the totality of ✓ ✓
relational experiences’ (p. 5). The experiences can be
both good and bad, in various degrees (Eby, Butts,
Durley, & Ragins, 2010).
A protégé may experience both positive and negative
experiences with the same mentor, e.g. a mentor could
provide the protégé with greater visibility in the
✓ ✓
organization, yet also engage in manipulative work by
taking credit for the protégé's work or acting
tyrannically (Eby, Butts, Lockwood, & Simon, 2004).
Dysfunctional mentoring relationships
Dysfunctional mentoring involves mala fide intent of
the mentor, e.g. blocking the protégé's career goal
attainment. It is also dysfunctional when the mentor
engages in theoretical abuse defined as ‘a mentor
attempting to satisfy his own meaning-making needs at
✓ ✓ ✓
the expense of the protégé by imposing interpretation
of events on the protégé’ (O'Neill & Sankowsky, 2001,
p. 207). The authors add that, ‘Theoretical abuse can
happen whether the mentor is well intentioned or not’
(p. 213).
Mentor–protégé relationships will be considered
dysfunctional only if the mentor or protégé engages in
concrete, destructive behaviours to intentionally disrupt ✓ ✓
the work or career of the other (Duck, 1994; O'Neill &
Sankowsky, 2001; Scandura, 1998).
Three key attributes of dysfunctional mentoring: ✓ ✓

(1) If the relationship frustrates the major needs of


either the protégé or the mentor.
(2) When one or both partners perceive the long-term
costs of the relationship as outweighing the
benefits.
(3) If one or both parties engage in specific, concrete
behaviours to sabotage the work projects or career
success of the other (Feldman, 1999).
Intent Consequences
Good Bad Good Bad

We propose that dysfunctional relationships are on one


end of this continuum. These relationships are marked
by serious problems where one or both individuals
✓ ✓
express bad intent towards the other and the
consequences are personally and/or professionally
damaging (Scandura, 1998).

Source: Authors' own.

In order to demarcate the boundary conditions of these


constructs and help establish construct validity (Cronbach & Meehl,
1955), four essential differences between negative mentoring
relationships and dysfunctional mentoring relationships are detailed
as follows.

(1) Mentoring outcomes: Dysfunctional mentoring relationships


are those in which the outcomes are almost exclusively
negative, including damage to the protégé in terms of both
negative personal interactions (Eby & McManus, 2004) and goal
attainment (O'Neill & Sankowsky, 2001). On the other hand, a
negative mentoring relationship for the protégé can be a
mixture of negative and positive experiences (Fletcher & Ragins,
2007; Kumar & Blake-Beard, 2012). For example, although a
mentor may be engaged in manipulative work by taking credit
for the protégé's work (Eby et al., 2004), a protégé may still
benefit because as part of the dominant coalition, the mentor is
able to provide the protégé with greater visibility in the
organization.
(2) Range of experiences: Negative mentoring experiences may
range from being minor to more severe for the protégé (Eby,
McManus, Simon, & Russell, 2000). In comparison,
dysfunctional mentoring experiences are more one-dimensional
in nature in the sense that they are severe in terms of damage
to the protégé. In terms of goal attainment, the relationship
does not meet the needs of one or both of the partners, and
furthermore the cost of the relationship outweighs the benefits
(Feldman, 1999; Scandura, 1998).
(3) Mentor intent: Another difference between the two constructs
is that dysfunctional mentoring is generally characterized by
mala fide intentions of the mentor, while in negative mentoring
relationships this is not necessarily the case (Eby & McManus,
2004). For example, in a negative mentoring relationship a
mentor and protégé may have a congenial relationship (with no
mala fide intent of the mentor), and yet the relationship may be
marked by lack of goal attainment for the protégé (Ehrich,
Hansford, & Tennent, 2004).On the other hand, dysfunctional
mentoring experiences, marked by mala fide intent of the
mentor, can be said to be closer to abusive supervisory
experiences like workplace bullying, which is characterized by
mala fide intent of the bully (Einarsen, Hoel, Zapf, & Cooper,
2011). Also, dysfunctional relational dynamics which include
jealousy, possessiveness, sabotage, selfishness and deception
(Duck, 1982) have similar outcomes to those described in the
abusive supervisory literature, such as less organizational
commitment (Tepper, 2000).
(4) Termination of the relationship: Negative mentoring
relationships may not necessarily lead to an end of the
mentoring relationship, unlike dysfunctional mentoring
relationships, which often end in a termination (Ragins &
Scandura, 1997). A protégé may continue in a negative
mentoring relationship for several reasons, including a
perception that the cost of alternatives is higher, or a fear that
the mentor will retaliate (Burk & Eby, 2010).

These boundary conditions indicate that within mentoring


relationships, negative mentoring experiences and dysfunctional
mentoring experiences need to be studied separately as distinct
constructs.
To conclude, research on the ‘darker side’ of mentoring in terms
of ineffective relationships and subsequent outcomes is still evolving.
Many questions still require more in-depth investigation, such as:
What are the long-term effects of mentor neglect on the protégé
and the firm? Is there a possible tipping point for the protégé when
the number of mentoring episodes leads to enhanced negativity, and
actual exit of the job (Fletcher & Ragins, 2007)? What are the
outcomes for a protégé with a mentor who has career failure
(Dougherty & Dreher, 2007)? Can ineffective mentoring relationships
lead to positive growth experiences for protégés, such as better
coping mechanisms in the workplace (Kumar & Blake-Beard, 2012)?
What are the cultural determinants that can lead to negative
mentoring experiences for a protégé in one country, and not in
another?

Contextualization of HRM and Mentoring


As far back as 1988, Kogut and Singh stressed the importance for
further study of the cultural determinants in management (Kogut &
Singh, 1988), yet the mentoring literature so far has been
predominantly based on fairly homogenous data sets from the west.
In recent studies that are emerging from non-Western countries,
possibly more questions are being asked than answered, but this is
indeed a stride forward in the rightful contextualization of HRM in
social-historical milieux. Do negative mentoring experiences differ
according to race (Gu, 2016)? Incongruence in the dyad as per
personality, workstyle and values has been mentioned as predictors
for negative mentoring outcomes (Eby & Allen, 2002). Are there
other types of dyadic incongruences that need to be explored, such
as demographic background in terms of regional belonging, or
membership of a particular caste or class (Kumar, 2018a)?
It is important to take credence of the culture of each country in
the context of mentoring, given that some cultural values take
precedence over others (Osland & Bird, 2000), which may influence
the outcomes of mentoring differently (Ramaswami, Huang, &
Dreher, 2014). One of the chapters in the edited volume addresses
this very issue. Examining mentoring in Japan, Masaki Hosomi,
Tomoki Sekiguchi and Fabian Jintae Froese describe how historically
HRM had led to naturally occurring informal mentoring relationships
in the workplace, deeply rooted in Confucian values in which juniors
respect and obey seniors, while seniors are expected to guide and
advise juniors. More recently, many firms have adopted Western-
style HRM practices, including formal mentoring programmes, and
these seem to be taking over the earlier mentoring tradition. The
authors analyze what actually suits the Japanese society. They also
suggest examining intersectionality as a future area of research, e.g.
both the national Japanese background and then membership of
specific demographic groups such as men and women; young and
old employees; home and foreign employees.
Four of Hofstede's six cultural dimensions (1994) in particular
need to be taken into consideration by mentoring scholars, namely
individualism-collectivism, uncertainty avoidance index, masculinity
versus femininity and power distance index. In the next section we
shall describe these in reference to the chapters in this book, while
referring to areas ripe for future research work.

Individualism-collectivism

In individualism-collectivism, society is either individual- or group-


centric. The process of tacit knowledge transfer differs between
these two societies. In individualist societies knowledge transmission
is often independent of its context, while for collective societies
context is highly relevant to the learning process (Bhagat, Kedia,
Harveston, & Triandis, 2002). This would merit more macro-level
research, in terms of both antecedents and mentoring outcomes.

Knowledge transferred through a long process of


apprenticeship or mentoring is characterized by high
viscosity, with the recipient gaining a significant amount
of tacit knowledge, but only after a long period of time.
(Bhagat et al., 2002, p. 207)

Furthermore, collectivist cultures prefer harmonious relationships


to direct confrontation, while the reverse is true for individualist
cultures. How far does this help or hinder positive mentoring
outcomes?
The chapter by Marlin Abdul Malek and Hassan Abu Bakar
examines how leader–member dyadic communication in the
Malaysian workplace operates at not only the leader–member dyadic
level, but also at the group level in the context of cultural norms.
This study suggests that a greater conformity to cultural norms in
leader–member relationships leads to a protégé having a more
robust exchange of information or ideas with the mentor. A
suggested area for future research is how leader–member
communication based on the cultural context of budi bicara
(discretionary communication) pans out in virtual teams.

Uncertainty Avoidance Index

Another dimension that needs to be considered is Hofstede's


uncertainty avoidance index (collective willingness of a society to
tolerate ambiguous outcomes), which is emerging as an important
construct in research on cultural differences (Rapp, Bernardi, &
Bosco, 2010). In societies with high uncertainty avoidance, people
feel uncomfortable in unpredictable situations, are more comfortable
with rules and regulations and are thus less likely to challenge
authority (DiRienzo, Das, Cort, & Burbridge, 2007). Studies suggest
that Indians have a preference for more indirect communication with
greater interpersonal sensitivity (Kapoor, Hughes, Baldwin, & Blue,
2003).
India has a medium-to-low preference for avoiding uncertainty
(with a score of 40). Jasmin Waldmann writes of her experiences of
coaching in India as a European woman, in which she had to
navigate through cultural differences and enhance her own
intercultural sensitivity in order to work with clients. For example,
she discovered that her clients would communicate about their
ambitions indirectly, rather than be upfront about these.

Masculinity versus Femininity

A third dimension is masculinity versus femininity: The former


represents societal preference for task-orientation, assertiveness and
also material rewards; while the latter represents a preference for
collaboration, cooperation and person orientation. In an inter-
country study of India and Malaysia, with the former being higher on
the masculinity index, Sujana Adapa and Alison Sheridan observe
that notions of mentoring in the accounting profession in both
countries are masculine by nature. Generally, senior men hold
partner or principal positions as mentors, in a profession that is
heavily regulated, male-dominated and compliance-oriented. Due to
this, women at lower positions often find a middle ground settling at
the intermediate accountant positions, preferring to be less assertive
and maintain the status quo. The authors suggest that future studies
on gender identity and mentoring may focus on social exchange
theory and also on self-efficacy.

Power Distance Index

High power distance is defined by Hofstede as the extent to which


the less powerful members in a country accept that power is
distributed unequally. How mentoring is practiced and experienced in
countries of high and low power distance raised several interesting
queries.
It is important to question whether assumptions of mentoring
frameworks also apply to non-Western countries, for example, how
replicable are the four stages of mentoring (Kram, 1983)? It seems
unlikely that a protégé in a high power distance country would
necessarily reach the fourth stage of the developmental relationship
between mentor and protégé, namely redefinition, which implies
becoming a peer or a friend. It was after interviewing 18 pairs of
mentor–protégés from a large northeastern public utility in America
(low power distance country) that Kram concluded:

The young manager, operating independently of the


senior manager, now enters the relationship on a more
equal footing. With gratitude and appreciation for the
guidance of earlier years, the young manager is now
content to continue the relationship for the friendship it
provides. (Kram, 1983, p. 620)

In societies that have high power distance, even if a protégé


progressed beyond his mentor in the hierarchy, there is usually a
high level of regard and awe for an ‘elder’, and thus it is difficult to
envisage the mentor–protégé relationship evolving into the fourth
stage of friendship and familiarity.
Furthermore, power distance can impact mentoring outcomes.
For example, in a Chinese study it is suggested that a protégé's
power distance moderates the negative relationship between
mentoring and burnout, so that for protégés low in power distance,
the relationship between the two variables is stronger (Qian, Han,
Wang, Li, & Wang, 2014).
Also, for societies high in power distance, the level of reciprocity
required may be lower than what is required for a mentoring
relationship to thrive, thus impeding both two-way communication
and also participative goal setting by the management (Apospori,
Nikandrou, & Panayotopoulou, 2006). In low power distance
societies, a mentoring relationship is characterized by constant
dialogue between a more learned person and a protégé at the
workplace, so much so that the protégé is within his rights to ask
questions of the mentor. Is it possibly more difficult for a protégé in
a high power distance context to learn from a mentor, given that
studies have so far suggested that high-quality mentoring
relationships in the west involve communication and reciprocity over
a period of time?
Several chapters in this volume explore mentoring in high power
distance societies. Take the qualitative study from Indonesia by
Yuliani Suseno, Ely Susanto and Damita Lachman Sherwani. Drawing
on social exchange theory, this study suggests that high power
distance throws up several challenges in the mentoring relationship,
including the expectation for the protégé to conform to the mentor
and also to give gifts to the mentors. The authors suggest that
future researchers could investigate peer-to-peer mentoring in Asian
countries.
In an exploratory study by Sununta Siengthai, Patarakhuan
Pilangarm and Monthon Sorakraikitikul based in Thailand, dyadic
case studies of manager and subordinates were examined. It seems
that mentors perceive their mentoring role to consist largely of
teaching and advising the protégé on how to perform their job well.
In terms of selection of a protégé, it was found that in some
organizations, mentoring takes on the hue more of a patron–client
system, in which new or existing employees with high potential are
selected informally as mentees by their supervisors (rather than in a
formal manner by the firm).
In a chapter on protégés' alcohol misuse in China, Ho Kwong
Kwan, Xiaofeng Xu, Haixiao Chen and Miaomiao Li suggest that so
engrained is the obligation to conform to the accepted workplace
behavioural norm of social drinking by mentors that this is positively
related to protégés' alcohol misuse. The authors suggest that moral
disengagement is a possible moderator. They also suggest that the
effect of alcoholic misuse on mentor and protégés' job performance
needs to be investigated further.
A case study by Nimruji Jammulamadaka describes how reverse
mentoring was used as a strategic HR initiative in a large
organization in India. Some mentor–protégé relationships were not
able to flourish due to the high power distance index, which became
a barrier of sorts. However, for mentoring dyads that were able to
navigate through this, mentors were able to learn from their
protégés and thus enhance their skills.
Drawing on six caselets of large family firms of Bangladesh,
Farzana Nahid provides an insight into the paternalistic style of
mentoring, and also into the generational differences in mentoring
between the firm's owner and the successor. Paternalism entails a
long-term developmental relationship, in which the leader treats
subordinates almost like members of his family. This style of
leadership is also possibly more suited to high power distance
countries, where hierarchy is accepted and respected more readily.
This could explain the study in which paternalism had a positive
correlation with employee job satisfaction in India, but not in the
United States (Pellegrini, Scandura, & Jayaraman, 2010). An
interesting research question that arises is, “Does this paternalistic
style of leadership make mentoring more challenging for the mentor
in the process of grooming a protégé to think and act
independently?” given that the protégé may have a tendency to
depend on the mentor for both advice and actual decisions.

Concluding Thoughts
Theory building in mentoring literature is noticeably limited
(Bozeman & Feeney, 2007). Identifying assumptions can help to
advance theory and research on formal mentoring. Examining
assumptions in the literature also helps to identify patterns in the
literature that may have become accepted over time by falling into a
‘truth-default pattern’, which may have led to a glossing over of
anomalies from initial assumptions. As per the truth-default theory,
people have a tendency to believe others (Levine, 2014).
We argue that one of the assumptions in the mentoring literature
so far has been that mentoring processes, outcomes and
experiences are universal across cultures, and that ‘existing theories
lack appreciation for the multiple contexts within which mentoring
relationships operate’ (Ramaswami & Dreher, 2010, p. 502). This
perspective is gradually being challenged and more credence is
being given to the view that there is variance in the cultural values
and traditions of different countries, which in turn impacts mentoring
differently.
Thus, the mentoring relationship is not just affected by variables
such as the mentoring objective of the firm, or the personality traits
of the mentor and protégé, or the interpersonal relation in the dyad.
In other words, apart from individual and dyadic variables, the
macro-country perspective also plays a significant role. As is evident
from the ensuing chapters, what may work in one country may not
work in another. ‘While macrosystemic influences may appear distal
to the micro-level phenomenon of mentoring, they play a critical role
in shaping the organizational and relational microsystems in which
mentoring takes place’ (Chandler et al., 2011, p. 548).
Just as the definition of mentoring has evolved from a dyadic,
hierarchical relationship, to a more relational and multi-mentor
phenomenon, so too we hope that a more nuanced understanding of
country variations can lead to a more profound understanding of the
mentoring phenomenon, possibly paving the way forward for theory
building.

Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to the insightful comments of Prof Kathy
Kram, Boston University Questrom School of Business, and Prof
Frankie J. Weinberg, Loyola University New Orleans, USA.

References
Allen, T. D. , & Eby, L. T. (2011). The Blackwell handbook of
mentoring: A multiple perspective approach. New York, NY: John
Wiley & Sons.
Allen, T. D. , Eby, L. T. , Poteet, M. L. , Lentz, E. , & Lima, L. (2004).
Career benefits associated with mentoring for protégés: A meta-
analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89(1), 127–136.
Allen, T. D. , & Finkelstein, L. M. (2003). Beyond mentoring:
Alternative sources and functions of developmental support. The
Career Development Quarterly, 51(4), 346–355.
Apospori, E. , Nikandrou, I. , & Panayotopoulou, L. (2006).
Mentoring and women's career advancement in Greece. Human
Resource Development International, 9(4), 509–527.
Aşkun, D. , Sharma, R. R. , & Çetin, F. (2019, November 26). Factor
structure and measurement invariance of the oneness behaviors
scale across India and Turkey. The Journal of General Psychology,
1–26.
Barkema, H. G. , Chen, X. P. , George, G. , Luo, Y. , & Tsui, A. S.
(2015). West meets East: New concepts and theories. Academy of
Management Journal, 58(2), 460.
Barnes, G. (2004). The mentoring experiences and career
satisfaction of dental hygiene program directors. Journal of Dental
Hygiene, 78(2), 331–339.
Bhagat, R. S. , Kedia, B. L. , Harveston, P. D. , & Triandis, H. C.
(2002). Cultural variations in the cross-border transfer of
organizational knowledge: An integrative framework. Academy of
Management Review, 27(2), 204–221.
Blake-Beard, S. (2003). Critical trends and shifts in the mentoring
experiences of professional women . CGO Insights. No, 15.
Boston, MA: CGO, Simmons School of Management.
Bozeman, B. , & Feeney, M. K. (2007). Toward a useful theory of
mentoring a conceptual analysis and critique. Administration &
Society, 39(6), 719–739.
Bozionelos, N. (2006). Mentoring and expressive network resources:
Their relationship with career success and emotional exhaustion
among Hellenes employees involved in emotion work. The
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Brondyk, S. , & Searby, L. (2013). Best practices in mentoring:
Complexities and possibilities. International Journal of Mentoring
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Cuareim River with Quarahim, Brazil, and its Great Southern
Railway running northward. At Salto there is considerable
interchange of traffic with Argentina through Concordia opposite, an
important railway junction and city. At Cabellos connection is made
with the Uruguay Northern, another road running to the Brazilian
Boundary, the terminus San Eugenio.
The Uruguay East Coast Railway with 78 miles of road, starting
from Olmas on the Central Uruguay runs to Maldonado. Much of the
traffic is to the seaside resorts, Puente del Este and Piriápolis; there
is also considerable freight for the Montevideo market, of agricultural
and pastoral products and fish. An extension northward from San
Carlos to Rocha is authorized. The road has been purchased by the
Government. A line from Durazno on the Central to Trinidad, begun
by the Farquhar-Pearson Syndicate as part of a line designed to
cross the country diagonally from Colonia to the Brazilian border,
was taken over by the Government, which has in view the securing
of a system of State railways. Besides building the 31-mile line from
San Carlos on the East Coast Railway it intends purchasing the 23-
mile line from Rocha to the port Paloma. Further needed
construction is planned by the Government as soon as may be
practicable.
Aeroplane service is to be installed by a British company from
Montevideo to Rio de Janeiro and Pernambuco, and aerial postal
service is planned for the interior.

Resources and Industries

Stock raising is by far the leading industry, as is evident from the


fact that in 1917 nearly 98 per cent of the exports were of stock
products. Of the 44 million acres devoted to livestock and agriculture
the latter occupies hardly 5 per cent. In 1603, 100 cattle and two
herds of horses were brought into the country; the cattle increased
so rapidly that at one time they were killed for their hides, as more
recently in Paraguay. Since 1860 when Durham bulls were imported
and stock breeding began, much advance has been made in quality.
Herefords, Devon, a few Polled Angus and others have also been
imported; some for dairy purposes, as Swiss and Flemish. In 1917
the cattle numbered about 8,000,000. The best estancias have
sheds to house pedigreed stock, they plant trees and have cattle
dips. Societies encourage scientific breeding and the Government
subsidizes agricultural shows. One estancia of 60,000 acres has
15,000 cattle, 20,000 sheep, some horses, and pays dividends of
16-25 per cent on a capital of £120,000. Another company with
40,000 acres and a capital of £40,000 pays dividends of 14-20 per
cent. At least 20,000 acres are devoted to dairy farming; 50,000
pounds of butter are made monthly, and both butter and cheese are
exported. The best of apparatus is employed.
Sheep, imported from Argentina in 1608, flourish to the number of
11,700,000; the varieties of Merino, Lincoln, Romney Marsh are
found among others, the English breeds being preferred.
Horses of good quality are raised, 570,000, both light and heavy,
but few in comparison to the cattle. There are 300,000 pigs, a few
mules, 16,000, and 12,000 goats.
Meat Packing. In 1754 the first meat salting plant was established
but the true pioneer dates from 1786. Others followed. There are
now 13 besides seven factories for preserving meat and two
frigorificos. The slaughter season is from November to January. The
meat for saladeros is separated from the bones, dried 4-6 days in
the sun, and then salted. It is arranged in four grades according to
fat or lean; the fat meat is sent to Brazil, the lean to Cuba and
elsewhere.
Of frigorificos the Swifts own one, and exported to Europe in 1915
and 1916, each, over 700,000 frozen quarters of beef and 100,000
chilled; also mutton and lamb. The Frigorifica Uruguaya shipped
nearly 44,000,000 pounds of beef to Europe in 1916 and over
2,000,000 pounds of mutton. The total export of animal products
shipped in 1916 was worth $73,000,000. A model slaughter house
and cold storage plant is in prospect. A new one for wool washing
has a capacity of 132,000 pounds daily. Saving in freight cost and
immunity from deterioration are thereby attained.
The Liebig Extract of Beef Company, with extensive holdings in
and near Fray Bentos and with a total capitalization of £2,000,000
usually pays 20 per cent dividends on the ordinary shares; 5 per cent
in 1916. They use the best of meat, and their Oxo capsules and
Lemco have a world-wide reputation. They own and rent in Uruguay,
Argentina, and Paraguay 1,120,000 acres.
In spite of strikes and labor troubles the livestock industry has
brought prosperity to the country, with record prices for beef, mutton,
hides, and wool, thus greatly increasing land values. The cattle are
pastured on the natural long thick grass, very little alfalfa being
cultivated. Hogs, hens, bees, and silkworms are raised. The seal
industry and fisheries are important.

Agriculture

The agricultural products are insufficient for the use of the country
although 2,000,000 acres are in cultivation. About 900,000 acres are
in wheat, 700,000 in corn, 128,000 in flax, 100,000 oats, some
barley and canary seed. In 1916 agricultural exports were valued at
$1,500,000. Among other crops are tobacco, which is especially
promising, linseed, alfalfa, sugar cane, some cotton, potatoes, etc.
Viticulture is quite extensive, American grapes growing better in the
south, and French and Italian in the north. Other fruits, oranges,
olives, apples, pears, cherries, peaches, and melons flourish.

Forestry

Forestry is encouraged so far as planting is concerned; about


1,000,000 acres are in natural forest land. Millions of trees have
been planted on land not otherwise useful. The supply of wood in
future will be greatly increased and there may even be export.

Minerals

Minerals are of some importance and may become of more. The


country is believed to contain considerable wealth in gold, silver,
coal, marble, jasper; and in other minerals and semi-precious
stones, including amethyst and topaz. There is little export save
sand, stone for paving, and similar articles.
Gold. The chief gold fields are in the Department Rivera near
Cuñapiru not far from the Brazilian border. A district 35-40 miles long
and 7 wide contains auriferous reef with gold 5 ounces to the ton; if
deep the prospect is limitless. A modern English plant is now getting
out gold. Bars worth $4000 were exported in 1915. Four hundred
mines have been denounced in the Department. Enormous
quantities of manganese are in the neighborhood. Gold is found also
in Minas, Salto, and Tacuarembó.
Copper exists in quantity in Cerro Largo, Maldonado, Minas,
Paysandú, and Salto. Iron, silver, slate, gypsum, asbestos, lead, etc.
may be exploited later. Even greatly needed coal of fair quality has
been found in Montevideo, Santa Lucía, and especially in Cerro
Largo where it seems promising, though no working of minerals is
sufficiently developed to present decisive results. Indications of
petroleum have been noted at the north, the strata coming in from
Brazil.

Manufactures

Naturally manufacturing save for home consumption is of slight


importance, except of products of the pastoral industry, as of dairies
and of meat extract. For home use there are 115 flour mills, 45
others, as of hardware, soap, macaroni; 1 sugar factory, 3 starch, 1
cement, 4 breweries. Many of these are in Montevideo. The
Government proposes the construction of chemical factories for the
production of sulphuric, nitric, carbolic, and acetic acid, glycerine,
benzol, alcohol, sulphuric ether, etc., and a powder and explosive
factory; these to cost over $2,000,000, material and machinery to
enter free of duty.
An important project of the Government is the development of
water power from the cataracts of the Uruguay River, which will be
equivalent to 3,000,000 tons of coal per annum. Two dams are
planned, one movable and one fixed, with canals by which 419 miles
of river will be open to navigation from the lower section. Irrigation is
included in the project, and 37,000 acres near Montevideo are to be
irrigated as an illustration. Fifteen cities have authorized work in
connection with this project.

Investments

Aside from the development of hydro-electric power and the


construction of public works of various kinds including railways, it is
probable that agriculture and fisheries present the most favorable
openings, with good possibilities also in manufacturing industries,
stone cutting, and mining. Stock raising is already pretty well
developed.
CHAPTER XLV
BRAZIL: AREA, HISTORY, GOVERNMENT, POPULATION, ETC.

The country of Brazil, largest of the South American Republics, has also
a greater area than the United States without Alaska, and is more than
three-fourths the size of all Europe. It cannot therefore be considered as a
whole so easily as the other Republics. It is essential to differentiate
between the various regions and States; for the dissimilarity is not confined
to climate and productions; or to the character of the people, by reason of
some being indigenous and others of European descent. It arises in part
from the long coast line and the difficulty of land communication; in part
from the fact that in some districts the population is almost entirely of
European descent while in others there is a large percentage of negro
blood; as well as from differences in physical and climatic conditions. Thus
the Capital is not so markedly the centre of the Republic as in Argentina,
and the States are more loosely bound together than in the other
Republics. The States and the character of the people may be said to
differ as much among themselves as the countries of the West Coast from
each other, a point of importance to notice in commercial relations.

Area, Population, Boundary

Area. Brazil covers a surface of 3,112,453 square miles. Its length, 2750
miles, is about that of Chile; its extreme width, 2560 miles, is ten times at
great. The coast-line is much longer, 4140 miles. A considerable portion of
this immense area is still but superficially explored.
Population. According to the cabled report of the census of 1920, Brazil
has 30,553,509 inhabitants. Its population, therefore, exceeds that of any
other South American Republic even more largely than its area.
Boundary. The boundary of the country, though familiar from that of the
others, may be rehearsed. On the north we find Colombia, Venezuela, and
the three Guianas with the Atlantic beyond; on the east and southeast the
Atlantic only, on the south Uruguay, a speck of Argentina, Paraguay,
Bolivia, a bit of Peru; on the west a small corner of Argentina, Paraguay,
Bolivia, and Peru. The only countries of the continent not touching its
border are Ecuador and Chile. However, a few writers mention Ecuador on
the west, as the southeast boundary line of that country is still
undetermined.

History

The first of the South American countries to be discovered after


Colombia and Venezuela, it was to the region of Brazil that the name
America was first applied. It is therefore especially unbecoming for us to
appropriate to ourselves in any exclusive sense the title of Americans;
though having no other name, with apologies to the others, it may be
pardonable for us to employ it when necessary.
In the year 1500 the first landing on this part of the continent was made
by Pedro Alvares Cabral, then on his way from Portugal to the West
Indies. In commemoration of that event, May 3rd is a Brazilian national
holiday and the date of the assembling of Congress. As soon as the news
was received in the home country, an expedition was sent out under
Amerigo Vespucci, who explored the coast from its eastern extremity
almost to La Plata, nearly 2000 miles. Fifteen Captaincies, each 150 miles
along the coast, were later allotted and settlements were begun. The
earliest of these which rose to importance were São Vicente in the
neighborhood of Santos, and Pernambuco; a little later, Bahia and Rio de
Janeiro. These were the first agricultural colonies to be founded in South
America, gold and silver being the attraction elsewhere. The French also
had an eye to this country, making a settlement at Rio de Janeiro; the
Dutch as well, who about a century later captured Bahia and Pernambuco;
but both were ultimately expelled, the whole country remaining in the
hands of the Portuguese. Conflicts with the Indians took place, at first with
some who were unfriendly, and afterwards through attacks made by the
invaders upon those Indians who had been christianized by the Jesuits.
Their settlements were destroyed, 300,000 are said to have been
slaughtered, and the rest were driven by the Paulistas from the region of
the upper Paraná.
As Philip II of Spain in 1581 became ruler of Portugal, during the 60
years following, the expansion of Brazil to the west in territory which had
been assigned to Spain was permitted, and such possession remained
permanent. At other times conflicts occurred with the Spaniards at the
south, but in 1777 peace was made with the boundaries as at present.
In 1807, Prince João, fleeing from Napoleon, came with his court to
Brazil. He soon opened the five chief ports to commerce, he encouraged
science, education, literature, art, and the immigration of foreigners, thus
inaugurating a development of permanent value. On his return to Europe
in 1821, the Prince, in view of the revolts of the Spanish colonies, hinted to
his son whom he left in charge the advisability of himself assuming the
crown, if a disposition towards independence became manifest.
Accordingly in 1822, the son was crowned Emperor of Brazil; but having
alienated his supporters, in 1831 he abdicated in favor of his infant son,
Pedro. In 1889, the old Emperor, Dom Pedro II, who for many years had
ruled wisely and well, was expelled on 24 hours’ notice; after a brief interim
a Republic was established in 1891. Extravagance, insurrections, and
financial distress followed, but since 1900 the country has made rapid
advancement in wealth and in varied lines of development.

Government

The government is a federalized republic with the usual branches, the


States more loosely bound together than with us, or than in any other
South American Republic. They may even fix export taxes, and levy stamp
duties. The President, with a Vice President, is elected for four years and
is ineligible for a succeeding term. He has a Cabinet of seven Ministers.
Congress is composed of a Senate with 63 members and a Chamber of
212 Deputies. There are 20 States, a Federal District, and the Territory of
Acre. The last is composed of three Prefectures, with capital cities where
government is administered by Government appointees. The States have
their own administrative bodies, some with one house of legislation, some
with two; and with a Governor or President as chief executive, a slight
confusion possibly arising at times where the latter term is employed. All
male citizens over 21 may vote except illiterates, soldiers, beggars, and
members of monastic orders subject to vows of obedience, a wise
prescription. The list of States precedes, with the usual figures, as
accurate as obtainable, the areas from the latest Government survey. The
list begins at the northwest, goes down the coast, and follows with the
interior.
States Area, Population Capitals Population Altitude,
in in feet
square
miles
Amazonas 645,940 435,000 Manaos 60,000 131
Pará 399,000 992,300 Belem 250,000 23
Maranhão 150,830 853,000 Maranhão 40,000 198
Piauhy 89,850 548,250 Therezina 35,000
Ceará 62,160 1,436,300 Fortaleza 65,000
Rio Grande 15,925 552,000 Natal 20,000 25
do Norte
Parahyba 22,548 785,100 Parahyba 20,000
Pernambuco 38,570 1,975,440 Recife 200,000
Alagôas 10,400 990,000 Maceió 40,000
Sergipe 8,983 535,000 Aracajú 30,000
Bahia 206,990 3,373,000 São 300,000 147
Salvador
Espirito 16,860 479,200 Victoria 20,000
Santo
Rio de 16,408 1,502,000 Nictheroy 30,000
Janeiro
São Paulo 101,890 4,823,000 São Paulo 510,000 2,510
Paraná 73,465 674,300 Curityba 50,000 2,980
Santa 43,168 633,000 Florianopolis 30,000
Catharina
Rio Grande 92,350 2,138,800 Porto Alegre 125,000
do Sul
Minas 227,238 5,789,000 Bello 35,000 3,081
Geraes Horizonte
Goyaz 284,000 529,000 Goyaz 18,000 1,577
Matto 554,400 274,100 Cuyabá 32,000 953
Grosso
Territory of 67,712 104,000
Acre
Federal 450 1,150,080 Rio de 1,150,080
District Janeiro

Population
The population, by the recent census 30,553,509, is of a more varied
character than that of Uruguay and Argentina at the south. Some figures
given are 52 per cent white, 26 mixed, 13 Indian, and 9 per cent negro.
The original settlers were Portuguese, and at first immigration was from
the mother country. In the early days many negroes were imported from
Africa as slaves, yet there was little color prejudice so that the number of
mulattoes and lighter as well as of negroes in some sections is very large.
During the last hundred years over 3,000,000 immigrants have arrived,
of whom the Italians formed the larger proportion; next in number were the
Portuguese, half as many Spaniards; those of other nationalities included
100,000 Germans, and a small colony from our Southern States, who left
in disgust in 1867. The negroes, freed in 1888 and endowed with suffrage,
were less qualified for it than in the United States. While some have made
good advancement others have relapsed into a worse condition, being
able in many parts of the country to exist on almost nothing. Indolence is a
failing among many of all complexions, as is natural in tropical regions; on
the other hand many Brazilians even in the warmer sections are
characterized by great activity and industry. In the large cities culture and
elegance are noticeable and aristocracy of birth is cherished. In some
regions the inhabitants are less pretentious, live more simply, and practise
the homely virtues; the most primitive section according to Oakenfull is
between the São Francisco River and Maranhão. Women in general are
more secluded than in some of the other Republics. The Brazilians have
much literary and artistic taste and as a rule are punctilious in courtesy,
though exceptions may be noted.

Education

Education is highly regarded in Brazil. Primary and secondary are free


and secular, generally provided by the States and Municipalities. The
Federal Government administers several Professional Schools as of
Medicine, Law, Engineering, etc., and many of Agriculture in various parts
of the country. With some of these, local schools are affiliated, as Schools
of Law, of Applied Science, at Rio of Social Science, at Recife
Engineering, etc. The different States spend 4-21 per cent of their revenue
on primary education, averaging above ten. The Federal District spends 28
per cent. There are also private schools in different cities, several English
or American; the American Mackenzie College at São Paulo is affiliated
with the University of the State of New York.
Press, Religion, etc.

The Press is influential and of high quality, the leading papers of Rio,
São Paulo, and other cities comparing well with those of cities of
corresponding size in other parts of the world.
Religion. In Brazil there is entire separation of Church and State and
absolute religious freedom. Civil marriage alone is recognized.
Post and Telegraph. Brazil has 3700 Post Offices.
Telegraph wires (over 26,000 miles) are in part national; other lines
belong to the railways; there are submarine cables, and one up the
Amazon. Wireless stations have been installed at many points on the
coast and in the interior, including the Amazon district, as at Manaos and
beyond. Telephones are to be found in all cities of any considerable size,
about 80 systems.
Money is more complicated and bothersome than in any of the other
countries, the unit being of 1000 instead of 100 parts, as is usual. Thus the
milreis, written 1$000, equals 1000 reis as the name indicates. The milreis
of gold is equal to 54.6 cents, but exchange varies, and the paper in
common use varies from its ordinary value, 33.3 cents, to half that or even
less in disturbed conditions. A conto of reis, a term often used, is 1000
milreis, and is written with a colon, thus: 5 contos, 20 milreis, and 300 reis
would be written 5:20$300.
The Metric System is legal and compulsory, but in some places, the old
Portuguese measures persist; these differ from the Spanish. A vara in
Peru is less than a yard, but in Brazil it is 1.111 metre, or 1.215 yard. A
libra is 4.695 kilos; an alquiere varies from 24 to 160 litres. Other variety
exists in the same or in different places.
CHAPTER XLVI
BRAZIL: PHYSICAL CHARACTERISTICS

Brazil presents in physical characteristics more variety than is


generally supposed. As the great Amazon Basin is in striking
contrast to the immense Andean Range, the entire country is thought
of as hot. Since it extends from 5° 10′ N. Lat. to 33° 45′ S. Lat. with
the widest part near the equator, the greater portion of the territory is
evidently in the torrid zone, 11° only in the temperate, with more than
twice that in the tropics. However, in this comparatively low country,
there is happily a variation in altitude sufficient to affect the climate
and to give rise to variety in productions; to which diversity the 11° in
the temperate zone also contribute. The territory may be considered
as in four general sections: the Amazon Basin, the Plata (the two
almost connected over low elevations), the Coastal Belt, and a mass
of mountains and highlands along the coastal states, extending also
at a lower level across to Bolivia. In addition there are the Guiana
Highlands at the north.

The Coastal Belt

The coastal section is largely a low-lying sandy tract, varied by


swamp lands overgrown with palms or other verdure, and slopes
covered with dense tropical vegetation. Without deep indentations in
the form of gulfs and bays there is a considerable number of good
harbors. In the far south two large lakes have been created which
are connected with the ocean. The coastal strip varies in width from
one to 100 miles.

The Guiana Highlands

Of the mountainous regions, the range forming the boundary line


with Venezuela and Guiana on the north with its offshoots and the
country between has attracted little interest and been but slightly
explored. From Mt. Roraima, 8500 feet, at the corner of Venezuela
and British Guiana, the range lowers toward the East, the highest
point on the French frontier being about 2600 feet. South of this are
broken ranges and deep river courses on the Brazilian plateau,
which with an altitude of 2000 feet slopes south and east. Excepting
the part near the coast, this section called Brazilian Guiana is semi-
arid, on account of the mountains extracting the moisture from the
northeast trade winds. Inhabited by a few roving bands of Indians
and in the east visited by white mining adventurers, it has been
deemed one of the least attractive parts of the Republic. Recent
exploration, however, has reported an extent of valuable forest lands
and immense areas of open country suited to cattle ranges. A
railway from British Guiana is talked of to render this district
accessible to the outside world.

The Plateau and Mountain Region

An important part of Brazil is the plateau region (altitude 1000-


3000 feet) south of the Amazon, especially that portion extending
along the coastal states. The greater part of the central section was
once covered with a thick sandstone sheet, now deeply eroded by
numerous rivers which have left high flat ridges between the lower
basins. The true mountain systems which rise from the plateau are
parallel ranges following the coast, and the Central or Goyana
system. An almost continuous range, the Serra do Mar, stretches
from Rio Grande do Sul to Cape Frio, just east of Rio de Janeiro;
beyond this, farther from the coast, broken sections extend well
towards Cape St. Roque in Rio Grande do Norte. The highest point
in the Serra do Mar or Coast Range is 7223 feet in the Organ
Mountains near Rio, as the capital city is often called for short and
may be so understood when here used.
A second parallel range runs from Eastern São Paulo northeast
and north to the point where the São Francisco River turns east in
Bahia; Itatiaiá, 9823 feet, in Rio de Janeiro State, is its culminating
point in Brazil. West of the São Francisco River is the Central or
Goyaz Range, also in two branches, running from the southern part
of Goyaz northeast, one branch across western Minas Geraes, the
other in Goyaz with highlands extending far north separating the
Tocantins Basin from the São Francisco, and in the south separating
it from the Paraná. The highest point is near the city of Goyaz, Mt.
Pyraneus, 7750 feet. How the great table-land has been broken
down by rivers is shown by the Tocantins-Araguaya Basin excavated
northward for 700 miles. From 100 to 500 miles wide, it is from 10 to
1500 feet deep.
The eastern margin of the plateau is near the Atlantic where it
breaks off suddenly with an average height of 2600-3200 feet. This
plateau is the best part of the country, the Atlantic slope heavily
wooded, the more gradual west slope with many grass covered
plains. A fertile soil, rich forests, and regular rainfall make this a
favored region. Farther north than Minas Geraes, the section has
less rain, is thinly wooded in places, with large areas suited to
grazing but subject to drought. The plateau extends across Brazil
north of Paraguay abruptly breaking down from a height of 2600-
3000 feet towards the Paraná and Paraguay Basins. It has a gradual
slope towards the Amazon, the parts excavated by the rivers having
lowland characteristics.

The Amazon Basin

The section of the Amazon Basin is indeed immense. The whole


drainage area with that of the Tocantins, generally included though
not strictly a component part, spreads over 2,700,000 square miles,
much of it as we have already seen outside of Brazil, and occupying
two-fifths of South America. This area is greater than the basins of
the Mississippi, Missouri, Danube, and Nile, all combined. The
course of one tributary to the sea is 3200 miles. Of the 55 largest
rivers in the world, it is said that 33 are mainly if not wholly in Brazil.
Twenty-seven thousand miles of navigable rivers are found in the
country, the greater part connected with the Amazon, which is itself
navigable for ocean steamers to Iquitos, Peru, a distance of 2300
miles, and 486 miles farther for vessels of 14 feet draft. The true
mouth of the Amazon is west and north of the Marajos Island which
is greater in area than Holland or Belgium, while the Pará River at
the south and east is the mouth of the Tocantins. This, however, is
the usual entrance for Amazon steamers even when they do not
wish to call at Pará, for this river is connected by natural channels
among islands with the greater stream, and the northern entrance
has too strong a current to be desirable for navigation. As a matter of
convenience the Tocantins is generally included with the Amazon in
descriptions. The depth of the estuary is 90-900 feet, averaging 150.
The Tocantins River is a great artery of Brazil flowing from south
to north a distance of 1600 miles, with a west affluent, the Araguaya,
almost its equal in size and 1000 miles long above the union. Both
rivers receive many tributaries. The flat broad valleys are overlooked
by steep bluffs. The cataracts and rapids which occur on nearly all of
the rivers as they come down from the plateau greatly interfere with
navigation, but in their lower courses many are navigable for
hundreds of miles, the Tocantins for 130.
The Xingú, the next river, with a length of 1260 miles is the first
true tributary of the Amazon on the south. This also flows nearly
north with many rapids and at last a fall, Itamaracá, at the head of
navigation, 105 miles from its mouth. Near this the river expands into
a great lake which communicates with the Amazon by many natural
channels.
The Tapajós, 1158 miles long, entering the Amazon about 500
miles above Pará, rises near Diamantino on the plateau, and flows
through a long, hot, unhealthful valley. One hundred and eighty-eight
miles are navigable, the lower 100 of these being 4-9 miles wide and
throughout much of its course very deep. Along the lower river valley
are bluffs 300-400 feet high.
The Madeira, entering 870 miles above Pará, almost rivals the
Amazon in volume. In the rainy season, during which it rises 50 feet,
the largest ocean steamers may ascend 665 miles to the falls of
Santo Antonio and the Madeira-Mamoré Railway; from June to
December it is navigable for vessels of 5-6 foot draft only. Tributary
to the Madeira on the east is the river formerly called the Duvida, first
completely traversed by Colonel Roosevelt and his party and now
named in his honor Rio Roosevelt. The Madeira which has 90
tributaries and a basin of over 600,000 square miles is formed a little
higher up by the junction of the Beni and Mamoré, both of which
streams rise close to the head waters of the Paraguay. From Santo
Antonio south, the Madeira-Mamoré is obstructed for 263 miles by a
series of rapids and cataracts, the Madeira Falls, where the Beni
comes in, presenting a vast display of whirlpool and boiling torrents.
Above Santo Antonio the drainage is received of the southwest slope
of the State of Matto Grosso, the north slope of the Chiquitos
Sierras, and the northeast slope of the Andes from Santa Cruz de la
Sierra in Bolivia to Cuzco in Peru. The most important of the
affluents are the Guaporé, Baurés, Itonamas, Mamoré, Beni, and
Madre de Dios. The almost level Mojos and Beni plains are said to
rival if not to exceed in fertility the Nile Valley; they are the most
healthful and most inviting grazing and agricultural regions in the
Amazon Basin, which has an area about equal to that of France and
Spain. However, 35,000 square miles are flooded 2-3 feet, three or
four months every year.
The Purús, over 2000 miles in length, is a very sluggish stream
parallel to the Madeira, in the great depression between the Brazilian
plateau and the Andes. A peculiar feature is five parallel canals
coming into it from the Amazon northwest at almost regular intervals,
making five low islands; and nearer to the great river are three more.
The Purús is navigable for light steamers 1648 miles five months in
the year; for 800 miles its depth is not less than 45 feet. The lands
are subject to inundation, the river at times rising 50 feet.
The Juruá is a similar river, navigable for 1133 miles.
The Javary, the boundary line between Brazil and Peru, is
navigable for craft 260 miles. The region is occupied by savages.
The Trombetes. On the north side of the Amazon there are fewer
important rivers, the Trombetes, the first from the east, which is
navigable 135 miles, comes from the Guiana Highlands.
The Negro, 900 miles from Pará, 1500 miles long, is navigable for
450 miles forming midway a succession of lagoons, and overflowing
its banks, often for a width of 20 miles. The rivers farther west have
been sufficiently described.
The average depth of the Amazon is 50 feet, the current is three
miles an hour. Beginning to rise in November the river is fullest in
June, then falling to November. The Madeira, which rises and falls
two months earlier, is in places 4-6 miles wide. The width of the
Amazon is 20-60 miles, while in periods of inundation the forest is
partly submerged for a width of 400 miles.

The Plata Basin

A much smaller portion of Brazil lies in the basin of La Plata; this,


at least for the moment, is the best and richest part of the entire
country, containing the greatest population outside of the coastal
fringe.
The Uruguay. At the south the several rivers forming the Uruguay,
which rise in the Serra do Mar, drain Rio Grande do Sul and part of
Santa Catharina, while from there up to the north end of São Paulo
and into Goyaz only a narrow coast region is outside the Paraná
Basin.
The Paraná. The most remote source of the Paraná, that of the
branch Paranahyba, is in the Serra Pyreneos in Goyaz, while the Rio
Grande branch rises in the Serra da Mantiqueira near the peak
Itatiaiá, so to say, in sight of Rio. Many affluents are received from
the States of São Paulo and Paraná, these generally flowing
northwest or west; the Paraná itself flows southwest forming the
western boundary of those States. A branch, the Tiété, in São Paulo,
700 miles long, is broken by 54 rapids and two falls. The
Paranapanema in Paraná, 600 miles long, is navigable for 30 miles.
The Iguassú, rising in the Serra do Mar in Santa Catharina and
flowing west is hardly navigable for canoes.
Twenty-eight miles above the mouth of the Tiété the course of the
Paraná is interrupted by the Falls of Urubupungá. From here to the
Guaira or Sete Quedas Falls, 400 miles, there is unobstructed
navigation. At this point the river forms a lake 4¹⁄₂ miles long and 2¹⁄₂
wide before cutting through the Serra de Maracajú. Then after
rushing through a deep and narrow gorge for two miles, it plunges
down a long cañon hardly 200 feet wide in a series of rapids or falls
called the Sete Quedas, Seven Falls. It is reported as able to supply
over a million horse power, probably the most of any cataract in the
world. Again the river is navigable from a little below the falls, and
with regular service it forms an outlet for the State of Paraná to the
ocean.
The Paraguay. The River Paraguay rises near Diamantino in
Matto Grosso receiving a number of tributaries from that State, one
of which, the Cuyabá, called the São Lourenço lower down, has its
source close to that of the Tapajós branch of the Amazon.

Coast Rivers and Lakes

Other rivers flow directly into the Atlantic, several of some


importance. North of the Amazon a few small rivers are called
auriferous, the Araguary of considerable length. South of the
Amazon Delta, some rivers flow north and northeast among the
mountain ridges, others directly to the ocean. Of the former the most
important are the Parnahyba, 900 miles long, navigable in sections,
and farther south the São Francisco, the largest river of the coastal
region, navigable 192 miles from the coast to the fine Paulo Affonso
Falls, and above these for a much greater distance. The
Jequitinhonha, 500 miles long, has 84 miles navigable. The most
important river south of the São Francisco is the Parahyba do Sul,
658 miles long, rising in the State of São Paulo and flowing across
Rio. It is navigable from its mouth a distance of 57 miles and 90 in its
upper course.
The Ribeira de Iguapé. The only coast river of economic
importance south of Cape Frio is the Ribeira de Iguapé which rises
on the table-land of Paraná and after receiving several affluents
breaks through the mountains near the boundary of São Paulo.
Besides a navigable channel of 118 miles it communicates with an
inland waterway called the Iguapé or Mar Pequeno, extending many
miles along the coast. In Rio Grande do Sul, where the coastal plain
extends half across the State, several rivers partly navigable flow
into the important Lagôa dos Patos, with which is connected by a
navigable channel, 61 miles long, the Lagôa Mirím.
Lakes. The Lakes of Brazil are few in comparison with the rivers.
Those in the Amazon Basin are reservoirs from the overflow of the
rivers and rise and fall with these. The coastal section has lagoons
and inland channels formed by uplifted beaches; they are usually
shallow and some, as in Bahia, are associated with swamps; but on
the Alagôas coast the lakes are long, narrow, and deep. The largest
coastal lakes are the two in Rio Grande do Sul already mentioned,
separated by broad sand beaches from the ocean, with which they
communicate by a channel 42 miles long at the south end of the
Lagôa dos Patos. This lake is 140 miles long and 30 wide; the Mirím
is 78 miles long and at the most 25 wide. Both are navigable, though
shallow and with many sand bars.

Climate

This great country of Brazil presents considerable diversity of


climate, as already observed. The forest covered Amazon Basin is
hot, with slight variation throughout the year, and with heavy rainfalls;
but while the average temperature is over 80°, ranging from 65° to
95°, some locations are decidedly preferable to others. The regular
rainy season is from November to March, a second of less degree
from August to October; also the rainy season is said to last nine
months. On the upper Amazon there is a short dry season in
January and February. There is a flood time November, December,
and higher water from March to June. The average rainfall is about
78 inches, the rise of the river 45 feet. There are east winds, warm
and moisture laden, the deflected trades, and colder winds from the
west and southwest.
The coast region as far south as Santos is generally warm and
humid (except for a stretch at the northeast), with a wet and dry
season, though it rains also in the latter, except on the arid northeast
coast. A variation occurs in Pernambuco where it rains from March
to August, the dry and cooler season in Rio. Here on the edge of the
tropics the annual temperature is 5° lower than on the Amazon. At
Santos rainfall is heavy and the place is hot, but farther south it is
cooler with a wider range of temperature and a more even
distribution of rain. In Rio Grande do Sul the mercury ranges from
20° to 80°. Cold southwest storms from the Argentine pampa,
occasionally as far as Rio, create discomfort for two or three days at
a time. The highest temperature in Rio is 98.7°.
The Brazilian plateau is very different. As a rule the days are
hotter and the nights cooler, the air drier, than on the coast at the
same latitude. With mean temperature 68° there is occasional frost.
Brazilian Guiana is hot and arid, though with more rain at the east
and west than in the centre. South of the Amazon from Piauhy to
southern Bahia is another semi-arid section with a rainless season
from June to December, when streams are dry and fields are burned
bare. With heavy rains from January to May, the country is covered
with verdure; when these fail, sometimes for successive years, the
droughts are destructive to agriculture and cattle. The plateaus of
Minas, São Paulo, and Rio have a climate which is modified by
luxuriant vegetation, south winds, and their altitude; though Minas
Geraes, having forests only along the rivers and at the south, is
hotter by day, but with always cool nights. The open lands of São
Paulo also have higher daily temperature; the annual mean is
68°-77°. In south Minas and São Paulo frosts occasionally occur. In
the State of Rio there is a delightful climate in the high valleys of the
Serra do Mar, temperature 45°-90°. The table-lands farther south,
Paraná, Santa Catharina, and Rio Grande do Sul enjoy a temperate
climate with abundant rain, occasional frost, but no snow. The
northern valleys of the Paraná River are sub-tropical, the mean
annual temperature of Goyaz City being 77°.
The country over a large extent may be considered healthful; the
yellow fever which once afflicted Rio and some other cities has been
exterminated by rigid sanitary measures, and the conditions of life on
the eastern plateau and in the temperate south are agreeable. The
Amazon Valley is of course malarial, though some sections are far
better than others. It would seem that the lower parts which are
subject to inundation can hardly be made suitable for residence
whatever precautions are taken; but the higher lands may be to

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