**2. Background**

### **2.1 Definition of mentoring**

At its heart, mentoring is a relationship between a mentor and protégé designed to foster career and personal development [2]. Within the body of mentoring research, a mentor is described as a coach, a teacher, and a confidant, while most research focuses on how these caring relationships facilitate growth through reflection, critical thinking, and skill development [3]. For the purpose of this chapter, mentoring is a mutually beneficial relationship between a mentor and protégé that promotes development through transformative learning. This study focuses on the ever-evolving concept of mentoring in academe. Mentors within academia can be academic advisors, division chairs, or experienced faculty, while others find mentors in other disciplines or

departments. Mentors across higher education help grow the development of individuals and institutions. Similar to management, coaching is a term not applicable to the higher education context and so will not be addressed in this chapter.

## **2.2 Benefits of mentoring**

There are an overwhelming number of personal and career benefits to mentoring as mentoring provides both intrinsic and extrinsic benefits for both mentors and protégés [2, 4]. To begin, mentors provide much emotional support that helps their protégés. Psychosocial benefits to mentoring include increased self-confidence and self-efficacy [4]. Having a mentor and receiving positive psychosocial support from a mentor increases a protégés work satisfaction [5–7]. Also, positive psychosocial support positively relates to the protégé's outcomes, optimism, flexibility, and adaptability [5, 6]. Reduced stress, anxiety, and depression are also key benefits for protégés [4]. The positive effect on optimism carries later into the protégé's career [5]. Furthermore, multiple mentors intensify the effects. Research has shown a diversity of mentors and the interplay between these developmental relationships affect protégés positively [6]. Mentors themselves receive intrinsic benefits, such as a sense of personal accomplishment and greater job satisfaction [4].

In addition to the personal benefits of mentoring, career functions of mentoring focus on organizational culture and knowledge [2]. Mentors share knowledge and provide crucial feedback to protégés, which enhances their performance while building their competence. This learning of valuable skills is essential for career advancement [4]. Extrinsic benefits related to the career function of mentoring include faster advancement and greater pay [4]. Mentoring also leads to increased organizational commitment and less turnover [4, 6, 8], which is why organizations are attracted to formalizing the practice through structured mentoring programs.

Additionally, a more recently developed concept, called "reverse mentoring" is a new take on mentoring that allows a young mentor to guide someone older. The idea is "(r)everse mentoring in a multigenerational workforce will break down stereotypes, reduce conflicts, and lead to greater interaction among team members" ([7], p. 21). Through reverse mentoring, older protégés learn vital skills to enhance their leadership abilities while young mentors realize their own leadership potential, encouraging them to continue to advance those skills.
