Superior-Subordinate Developmental Relationships

Most developmental relationships tend to be dyadic and can therefore be classed as an interpersonal relationship. Since mentor-protege roles are products of an interpersonal relation- ship, Clawson (1979) argues that they cannot be legislated or structurally created. He however claims that although much can be done to foster their development from an organizational viewpoint, in the end protege-mentor relationships

For mentors it is rewarding to express their inner motivations to develop potential young individuals and for proteges it is an opportunity to have support, guidance, advice, and friendship as they develop and grow in professional competence. Clawson (1979) found that effective developmental relation- ships were characterized by the factors shown in Table 3.

As can be seen from Clawson's findings, the effective mentor-protege developmental relationships tend to be based on a high level of interaction, - that is, individuals meet frequently and the relationship tends to be informal. In order to fully understand why mentor-protege relationships are difficult to form and can take up to six months or more to become established or even break up, it is important to focus attention on the characteristics of an interpersonal relationship.

Table 3 Characteristics of effective developmental relationships

Psychological predispositions

The boss has a higher task orientation than the subordinate

The other person is interested in me

There is a lot of praise in our relationship

We have complementary roles

We meet almost twice a day.

We have more frequent 'perspective' discussions

Our relationship is informal