Mentorship-Driven Talent Management

The Asian Experience

Payal Kumar, Pawan Budhwar, Payal Kumar, Pawan Budhwar

• Publisher: Emerald Publishing Limited
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781789736939
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

Evidence suggests that research on mentorship has been dominated by the West, and little is known about the cultural variations of the mentoring phenomenon. While some research has begun in emerging economies such as China and India, there is obviously a need for more research in different country contexts on the practice of mentoring, as well as its antecedents, intervening variables and expected outcomes in order to move the field forward. There is a need to identify the core theories and methodologies of mentorship which can be utilized to examine the Asian cultural context and the nuances of its management practices. This book aims to provide a deeper understanding of the contextual interpretation of mentoring by focusing on the Asian experience in countries such as China, India, Korea, Taiwan, Japan and Bangladesh. Shining a light on the importance of cross-cultural awareness and demographic dynamics when applied to talent management, it questions the positivist trend of decontextualizing HRM from the social-historical context of the workplace. It will provide business leaders and scholars with a critical understanding of what makes development, training and competency initiatives thrive in particular cultural contexts under the influence of larger historical and social structures. Heeding the call for mentoring relationships to be studied across cultures, this book on mentoring experiences in Asia is the need of the hour.

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

Table of contents

• Cover
• Endorsement
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• About the Contributors
• Foreword
• Chapter 1 Contextualizing Mentoring in the Asian Contexts
• Theme 1: Country Reviews
• Theme 2: Perspectives
• Theme 3: Case Studies
• Index