The current study investigated the role of relational challenges as reported by 309 protégés in various stages and types of mentoring relationships. The Mentoring Relationship Challenges Scale (MRCS) was newly constructed using the results of an earlier qualitative study (Ensher & Murphy, 2005). The scale measured three factors of relational challenges which were: Demonstrating Commitment and Resilience, Measuring Up to a Mentor's Standards, and Career Goal and Risk Orientation. The results demonstrated that with respect to mentoring stages, those protégés in the beginning stages of their relationships reported experiencing significantly fewer challenges related to Demonstrating Commitment and Resilience than those in the mature or ending stages of the relationship. Also, it was found that the type of mentoring relationship (traditional, step-ahead, or peer) affected the prevalence of the three types of challenges. Protégés in peer relationships reported significantly fewer of all three types of challenges than those in step-ahead or traditional relationships. However, contrary to predictions, there were no significant differences found between those in informal versus those in formal mentoring relationships. As expected, protégé and mentor gender interacted significantly. Female protégés reported experiencing significantly fewer challenges related to the factor of Measuring Up to a Mentor's Standards, than did male protégés. Also, female protégés reported experiencing a significantly higher degree of relational challenges related to Career Goal and Risk Orientation from their male mentors than from their female mentors. Finally, after controlling for perceptions of career and psychosocial support for protégés in traditional mentoring relationships, two of the three relational challenges factors remained significant and explained a significant amount of variance in overall satisfaction with the mentoring relationship. This suggests that relational challenges, at least for traditional mentoring relationships, serve as an important mechanism to impact overall relationship satisfaction.
“Hilda began by asking me: “What's your budget? She said, “I need you to raise this much money by this date.” That was my test. She said, “You come back, and when you tell me you have raised $10,000 then we'll talk again.” And she told me exactly how you do it. She said, “You call all your friends. You make a list of 100 people who may give you $100. You make another list of another 50 people who may give you $200. And come back, and when you've done that and you've got your $10,000, then let's talk again” (as cited in Ensher & Murphy, 2005, pg. 129).
The above quote depicts a mentoring relational challenge given by Hilda Solis, the current United States Secretary of Labor to her protégé, Sharon Martinez, (formerly Mayor of Monterey Park in Southern California). At the time of the interview in 2005, Solis (D-CA) was serving as a member of the United States House of Representatives and Sharon Martinez was an up and coming politician. Past research has found that relational challenges are common in interpersonal relationships such as those between intimate partners (Gottman, 1993 and Tannen, 1995), friends (Gains, 1994), and even coworkers (Fletcher, 1999). However, more recently, researchers have begun to examine the impact of relational challenges on mentoring relationships as well (Eby, 2007, Ensher and Murphy, 2005, Fletcher and Ragins, 2007 and Kalbfleisch, 2007). A mentoring relational challenge can be defined as a unique test or a series of challenges posed to assess a mentoring partner, and can be used as a means to determine further investment into the relationship (Ensher & Murphy, 2005). This study provides a unique empirical examination of mentoring relational challenges leading to a better understanding of mentoring processes and practices.
A mentor is defined as one of a network of helping relationships who provides emotional and career support and can serve as a role model (Ensher & Murphy, 2005). There has been an increased wealth of research from academics (Noe et al., 2002, Ragins and Kram, 2007 and Wanberg et al., 2003) and a great deal of attention paid to mentoring in the popular press (Higgins & Kram, 2008). Mentoring as a practice and program has increased in popularity not only in the United States but also globally (Clutterbuck, 2007). Moreover, formal mentoring programs have become an integral part of many organizations's approach to human resource development (Baugh & Fagenson-Eland, 2007).
The results of this study indicate that relational challenges provide an important and innovative new lens to understanding mentoring relationship dynamics and satisfaction. The findings suggest practical ideas for individuals involved in mentoring and for the many organizations that value mentoring and devote significant resources to successful mentoring relationships. This newly constructed Mentoring Relational Challenges Scale (MRCS) makes an important contribution to the field of mentoring by providing a tool to pursue a new stream of research and program evaluation in mentoring
