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Natalie Campbell

Professor Leonard

English 1201

20 March 2021

Literature Review

How does mentoring improve employee performance in the workplace? There are a

multitude of different career opportunities available in the working world, from the medical field

to sales and marketing, engineering or the military, and the list goes on. What is it that

contributes to one person’s ability to be happy and feel fulfilled at their job, while someone else

may find themselves unsatisfied and longing for something different? There are a number of

things that influence either situation, whether that be the work itself, the environment, upper

management, or available opportunities for advancement. Studies show that mentoring, “a formal

or informal relationship between an experienced, knowledgeable employee and an inexperienced

or new employee” (Heathfield) plays a big role in employee satisfaction and engagement.

Four key points that stand out across the cited sources include approaches to getting a

mentor, employee satisfaction, career development/advancement, and mentor demands and

benefits. There are multiple avenues that can be taken in developing a mentor/mentee

relationship. Some organizations supply a mentor to new employees as a part of the onboarding

process, while others are established over time through networking. In a commercial partnership

with Indeed, Jay Munro states that, “If you're interested in building a meaningful mentoring

relationship, it pays to be open-minded to all the people in your network who might be able

contribute to your development. But there are a few exceptions. For example, it may not be a

good idea to choose a family member or friend for a mentor, as the close personal relationship
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you have with them could get in the way of you getting the candid advice you need, and it could

increase the chances of conflict or friction” (Munro). The article was located in The Sydney

Morning Herald and intended for a general audience. This supports the normalization and of

mentorship, as it should be a common practice in all fields of work. In a 2018 survey done by

Olivet Nazarene University, 61% of the three thousand full-time employees interviewed who

claimed to have mentors stated that the relationship developed naturally, while 25% stated that

their mentor offered to be their mentor. The other 14% approached the mentor and initiated the

relationship. This sample taken was across twenty-one different industries, ages ranging from

twenty-one to sixty-eight.

On the other side of the mentoring relationship, Stephen Billett with Griffith University

in Australia explained in his article, Workplace Mentors: Demands and Benefits, that the

different “genres” of mentoring create different demands and in turn, different outcomes. Some

mentors approach the relationship with eager enthusiasm and see it as an obligation to assist

others in learning, as they were provided the same assistance when they were in the place of the

mentee. Other mentors may be fearful of the possibility of displacement by those that they are

mentoring. It’s important to be aware that being a mentor or mentee is not always seen as a

positive for every employee. “For some, the requirements of the role including being under-

prepared for the role made the role highly and unwelcomingly demanding. For others, the task

built upon what they had done previously and/or was seen as a welcomed opportunity to assist

others and enjoy acknowledgement of their capacities. So, the demands and benefits of

mentoring played out in different ways in these workplaces. So, it is important to learn more

about mentors’ workplace experiences and the benefits and demands of that role” (Billett).
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Regarding employee satisfaction, Lauren Bidwell with SAP highlights a meta-analysis

used to review the career benefits associated with mentoring in the Journal of applied

psychology. In the article, Why Mentors Matter: Summary of 30 Years of Research, she states

that compared to non-mentored employees, mentored employees feel more satisfied and

committed to their career (Bidwell). The satisfaction one feels with their career often coincides

with their career development, supported by a survey of 170 sales and marketing professionals

(Sange and Srivastava) which concluded that those who are mentored “felt more positively about

their organization as a place to work for” and “believed their organization provided opportunities

for career growth” (Bidwell). In the abstract for the study being referenced, Shalini Srivastava

states “The purpose of the study is to investigate the relationship between mentoring, managerial

effectiveness and employee engagement. The study was administered on 300 middle level

managers who were representatives of five different private sector banks in Delhi/NCR”

(Srivastava). Stephen Billett stated in conclusion of his study of a yearlong mentorship with eight

mentors and their experiences throughout it, that “the success or otherwise of the guided learning

approach was premised on the efforts and energies of workplace mentors. The provision of

additional affordances for workers may have eased their interest in participating and made that

participation more easy and more rewarding. Similarly, some support (even mentoring) and

acknowledgement might have made the task of mentoring easier, more focused and more

rewarding” (Billett). The satisfaction created is not just for the mentee, but for the mentor as

well.

As Shalini Srivastava investigates the role of mentoring in managerial effectiveness and

employee engagements, she explains that “Mentoring is used to engage and coach employees so

as to endow them with prospects for development; also, it facilitates organizations accomplish
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better retention and engaged employees. Mentoring helps recognize and focus on exact needs for

employee advancement and pair’s employees with others who are dedicated to sprouting in a

safe, one-on-one and honest work relationship” (Srivastava). She continues to elaborate how

mentoring reduces training time, which allows for quicker advancement. Jay Munro, Head of

Career Insights at Indeed, states that, “finding a mentor could be a game-changer for your

professional development.” He goes on to say, “having the opportunity to learn from other

people’s real-life experiences and knowledge can teach you new ways to do things, inspire

alternative ways of thinking and give you motivation around your career path” (Munro). This is a

reoccurring idea throughout the cited sources, as Susan M. Heathfield with The Balance Careers

states in her article, Use Mentoring to Develop Employees, “An overall career mentor can help

an employee develop skills, take on more challenging roles and responsibilities, and generally,

guide the progress of an employee's career” (Heathfield). She then goes on to quote, “A recent

Harvard Business Review article reports, ‘Research on junior to mid-level professionals shows

that [mentorship] programs enable them to advance more quickly, earn higher salaries, and gain

more satisfaction in their jobs and lives than people without mentors do. For employers, the

benefits are not only higher performance but also greater success in attracting, developing, and

retaining talent.’” (deJanasz and Peiperl 101).

There is obviously a plethora of studies done around the benefits of mentoring for the

mentee, but the toll is may take on the mentor is less discussed. Stephen Billett wrote an article

for the Journal of Workplace Learning where “data from eight mentors who participated in a

year-long trial of guided learning in a workplace are used to illuminate the demands upon and

benefits for workplace mentors” (Billett). During an interview with the mentor six months in,

Billett found that practice, support, experience, and understanding the requirements of the
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mentee assisted in the relationship, while production demands, irregularities, time constraints,

and attitude of both mentor and mentee inhibited the relationship. The article also noted that the

cross-gender mentoring could create difficulty.

The possible answers to the question, “How does mentoring improve employee

performance in the workplace?” are complex and detailed. There are multiple different aspects in

which mentoring improves employee performance, but a better question may be “How does

mentoring impact the employee’s experience” or “How does mentoring impact career

development?” As, mentoring has a high likelihood of positive impacts on employee satisfaction

and career development/advancement for both the mentor and mentee, but it can create difficult

demands for the mentor and mentee in some cases.

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Works Cited

Bidwell, Lauren. “Why Mentors Matter: A Summary of 30 Years of Research.” SAP,

www.sap.com/insights/hr/why-mentors-matter.html.

Billett, S. (2003), "Workplace mentors: demands and benefits", Journal of Workplace Learning,

Vol. 15 No. 3, pp. 105-113. https://doi.org/10.1108/13665620310468441.

Heathfield, Susan M. “What Is a Mentor and What Does a Mentor Do to Develop Your

Employees?” The Balance Careers, www.thebalancecareers.com/use-mentoring-to-

develop-employees-1918189.

"Looking for career guidance? How to ask someone to be your mentor." Sydney Morning

Herald [Sydney, Australia], 7 Mar. 2020, p. 12. Gale In Context: Opposing

Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A616447594/OVIC?

u=dayt30401&sid=OVIC&xid=5115eb8c. Accessed 20 Mar. 2021.

Madan, Poornima & Srivastava, Shalini. (2017). “Investigating the role of mentoring in

managerial effectiveness-employee engagement relationship: an empirical study of Indian

private sector bank managers.” European J. of Cross-Cultural Competence and

Management. 4. 146. 10.1504/EJCCM.2017.083809.

“Study Explores Professional Mentor-Mentee Relationships in 2019.” Olivet Nazarene

University, online.olivet.edu/research-statistics-on-professional-mentors.
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