Meeting Your Match

In 2014, the Haskayne Professional Mentorship Program began working with a team of researchers under Prof. Irene Herremans to focus on program improvements based on sound empirical research methods.

The research team set out to understand which characteristics of mentoring relationships help to ensure that the objectives of both mentors and mentees are met.  Using the theory of planned behaviour, the researchers work primarily with data collected from pre-program, midpoint and end-program surveys completed by both mentees and mentors but also conduct focus groups with program participants.

Planned behavior theory suggests that attitudes, norms, and behavioural controls predict intentions, which in turn predict behaviour.

Role clarification and a mutual understanding of responsibilities is a contributing factor to successful matches. Mentee orientations now include an emphasis on clarification of mentor and mentee roles to ensure a better understanding of all responsibilities. The research team also developed an objectives survey to help mentees identify and narrow their objectives for the program and to help with matching them with a mentor who is prepared to assist with their chosen objectives. “Those mentees who clearly communicated their objectives to their mentor were found to more likely to have their expectations met,” states Frances Donohue, program lead and member of the research team.

Through the analysis of survey data, the research team has discovered that mentees place high levels of importance on career objectives but are pleasantly surprised when they discover that they also develop psychological and social attributes such as confidence, trustworthiness and professionalism through the program.  These attributes are important unexpected side benefits for them.

Additionally, success in the program depends not only on the mentee’s attitude that the program is important but also on the perception that the mentee has of the mentor’s attitude. It is imperative that both parties communicate their commitment to and the importance of the program to each other, which fosters open and trusting relationships.  Personal characteristics of the mentor are important for mentees to learn from role modeling.

So what is the key to a successful match? A good attitude towards establishing clear objectives for the program and committing to achieving them.

“Since CCAL took over the Haskayne Professional Mentorship Program in 2013, we have seen an increase in the number of participants from 89 in 2011 to 276 in this past year,” continues Donohue. Many of the improvements made on research findings have led to increased participant retention, longevity of mentoring relationships and overall satisfaction with the program.

Beyond program improvement, the research on the Haskayne Mentorship Program is contributing to the wider dialogue around effective mentorship.  This fall, the research team will present two papers at the Mentoring Institute’s annual mentoring conference at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.  The research focuses on mentor benefits from participating in the Haskayne Professional Mentorship Program and meeting mentee expectations.

The research team shared their findings with the greater business community in Calgary at a Mentor Connection event earlier this year.   The event combined networking, focused discussion around mentorship, and open dialogue surrounding research in an energizing social setting.  The presentation centered on the relationship between program objectives and approach as well as the research methodology – particularly, the importance of the surveys for the project’s success.   

“Our goal with the Mentor Connection was to share the research insights and how it is driving program enhancement,” shares Dr. Jenny Krahn, Director of CCAL. “We look forward to having more events in the future that combine academia with industry.”

What’s next for the research team?

In the short-term, the team will present at the annual conference of the Academy of Management this summer, a well-recognized and important conference for business researchers.

Longer-term, the team has ambitious plans. “There is so much emphasis on leadership. The word is tossed out to describe everything,” states Irene Herremans, principal investigator, “we want to nail down exactly how the Mentorship Program is building leaders for Haskayne.”

This upcoming academic year, the research team will focus the research on the development of personal leadership characteristics through mentorship relationships. This research will include those leadership characteristics that employers believe to be important for new employees just entering the job market and those that are necessary later in their career.