Career Outcome of Job Experience and Gender Occurrence of Mentoring

Abstract

The study examined the career success outcome of job experience and gender occurrence of mentoring in the Nigerian work environment. It utilized a factorial design in a survey of five hundred and ten managers from three international and seven local banks located in Lagos State, Nigeria. All the participants were involved in informal mentoring relationships. The results of the analysis of variance showed that there was no difference in career success between employees with high levels of job experience and those with low levels. In addition, job experience and gender did not combine to determine career success. Male protégés had better career success compared to their female counterparts, but the level of career success reported under male and female mentors was comparable. The gender of the protégé and that of the mentor interacted to yield four gender combinations that affected career success differently. Results showed that cross-sex combinations produced higher levels of career success compared to same-sex combinations. The findings imply that gender occurrence of mentoring is more relevant for career success among Nigerian employees. The paper recommends that training and mentoring intervention should be structured in ways that take cognizance of the gender factor.