New Frontiers in Mentorship Research: Communicating Feedback and Advice

Abstract

Mentoring is an important organizational process that contributes to career development and personal growth. Mentors are uniquely positioned to provide opportunities for learning by sharing important feedback with their mentees, and research on mentoring has demonstrated its ability to help mentees cope with major organizational shocks. The goals of this symposium are to explore new insights and identify communication behaviors that can enable the creation of more positive workplace mentorship relationships. In pursuit of these two missions, in the proposed symposium we bring together four papers to reveal novel theoretical directions and important empirical insights about factors that may aid or hamper beneficial work mentoring relationships. Our discussant, Taya Cohen, will help integrate these papers and facilitate discussion. We hope the findings presented will reveal novel and important empirical insights, and aid business organizations and managers of the future in creating beneficial work mentoring relationships. The Detrimental Effects of High-Status Mentors for Low Performers Presenter: Jennifer Abel; Harvard Business School Presenter: Paul Isaac Green; U. of Texas at Austin Presenter: Ting Zhang; Harvard Business School Presenter: Francesca Gino; Harvard Business School Tips from the Top: Do the Best Performers Really Give the Best Advice? Presenter: David Levari; Harvard Business School Presenter: Daniel Gilbert; Harvard U. Presenter: Timothy Wilson; U. of Virginia The Importance of Honest and Benevolent Feedback in the Workplace Presenter: Kori Krueger; Carnegie Mellon U. - Tepper School of Business Presenter: Binyamin Cooper; Carnegie Mellon U. Presenter: Emma Levine; U. Of Chicago Presenter: Taya R. Cohen; Carnegie Mellon U. - Tepper School of Business Overcoming Interpersonal Hesitance to Give Honest Feedback Through Benevolent Candor Presenter: Ariella Kristal; Harvard Business School Presenter: Michael Yeomans; Imperial College Business School