Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Availability

Open Access Dissertation

Keywords

Mentoring -- Iowa -- Case studies; Counseling;

Abstract

After reviewing data from over 600 case studies of mentoring, Stanley and Clinton (1993) concluded many people long for intensive mentoring relationships yet miss out on opportunities because they simply do not understand the true nature of mentoring. The stories of my intensive mentors and their mentors will bring greater clarity, depth, breadth, and an applied perspective to intensive mentors on Stanley and Clinton's mentorship continuum. The goal of my qualitative research was to provide an opportunity for the reader to connect to my story and the stories of my mentors to draw conclusions for themselves concerning pieces of the research that will apply to his or her life. I learned that each mentoring relationship has a unique set of needs, a different level of interest in being a mentoree, a different scope of qualities he or she is attracted to and a different amount of time to invest in being a mentoree. This study provides evidence that it would be incredibly difficult to create a formal mentoring program for the nine relationships in this study, let alone multiple mentoring relationships in organizations from year to year. A human aspect is necessary to make mentoring relationships successful. Attraction, time and love are the only three common stimulators in intensive mentoring relationships based on the literature and the nine interviews in this study. I recommend that anyone who serves in an organization with a mentoring program ask themselves the following questions: Does our organization have an effective mentoring program? How can organizations learn what aspects mentorees are attracted to in a mentor? How can organizations allow mentorees and mentors to spend quality time together? How can organizations learn about situations where mentors and mentorees traverse through difficult situations and then allow for mentors and for mentorees to spend more time together? Even though each mentoring relationship has a unique set of circumstances, knowing the basics of mentoring relationships can stimulate these mentoring relationships to deepen. This research will be important because it will have implications for anyone who serves as a mentor or is a mentee of another person.

Year of Submission

2012

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Department

Department of Educational Leadership and Postsecondary Education

First Advisor

David K. Else

Comments

If you are the rightful copyright holder of this dissertation or thesis and wish have it removed from the Open Access Collection, please submit a request to scholarworks@uni.edu and include clear identification of the work, preferably with URL.

Date Original

2012

Object Description

1 PDF file (vii, 250 pages)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

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