BUS603: Managing People

Researchers are of the opinion that mentor-protege relationships advance through various stages. Their arguments arc advanced by drawing on the work of McClelland (1975) regarding individual power needs and Erikson's eight ages of man. McClelland (1975) claims that power is the great motivator and suggests that there are four stages in an individual's need for power:

(a) the situation in which aspiring young subordinates with potential (potential proteges) seek more powerful individuals (mentors) within their organization (i.e., incorporation of power from others);

(b) the development of independent power as one grows;

(c) exercising and experiencing power as an impact on others whilst helping them, and

(d) deriving power from a higher authority.

For mentor-protege relationships to function effectively it is important that parties in the dyadic relationship have specific attitudes about their relationship, that they define their role expectations, that they develop trust and openness towards one another, that they have frequent communication, and that proteges accept their mentors' power and influence over them. MacGregor noted that...  'Every encounter between a superior and a subordinate involves learning of some kind for the subordinate'.

Researching superior-subordinate relationships in managerial development Clawson (1979) found the characteristics of effective superiors from whom subordinates learned alot to be as follows: (Table 1).

Table 1 Characteristics of effective superiors

Psychological predispositions

Equally it was found that the perceptions of subordinates who had claimed that they had learned a lot from their superior were as follows: (Table 2).

Table 2 Characteristics of subordinates who learned more

Psychological Predispositions

When examining Clawson's findings it would appear that superiors and subordinates can be differentiated into two groups and that only those who displayed the above characteristics could be classified as effective mentors and proteges. These research findings clearly indicate that not everyone can be a mentor nor is every subordinate necessarily a potential protege. This now poses a dilemma for top management of organizations who as a general policy would like to encourage more of their managers down the line to grow and to develop the organization's young men and women with potential. If every superior cannot be an effective mentor, what then can organizations do to accelerate the management development process? Examining the mentor role it would appear that a common skill that could be taught to all managers would be how to effectively coach subordinates. In order to be an effective coach managers would have to learn coaching skills and also how people learn, and then effectively apply these skills and principles of learning in their mentor-protege relationship with their subordinates. Even this could pose problems and more research would be required to examine the effects of such a process more closely. Apart from the different psychological predispositions, perceptions and behaviour that exist amongst effective and ineffective superiors and subordinates, there also appears to be the problem of organization culture that does not provide impetus to accelerating or encouraging the pro- motion and cultivation of effective mentor-protege relationships as a vital process ensuring that organization leadership needs of the future are being adequately met.