The Effect of Mentoring on Career Success: What Are the Differences between Men and Women?

Many research studies have examined the impact of mentoring on career success. However, additional studies are needed to understand this relationship, because it is clear that the majority of research conducted so far has obscured the bi-dimensionality of each of these two constructs. In addition, given the specificities of women, we believe that understanding the impact of mentorship on career success would be enhanced by gender mainstreaming. The purpose of this work is to demonstrate that gender plays a moderating role between the received mentorship-valued by its two instrumental and psychosocial functions-and both objective and subjective career success. Structural equations, including multi-group analyses, were conducted using data collected in the Tunisian banking sector from 237 middle and senior managers. Our results show that women get fewer promotions and seem less satisfied with their careers. In addition, women perceive they receive less support from their mentor, especially psychosocial. While this research demonstrates that for men, as for women, mentor support is associated with objective career success, this is not the case for the type of mentorship that led to this success. Thus, only the instrumental function favors the advancement of women, unlike men, whose advancement is related solely to the psychosocial function of mentoring. Finally, this study indicates the lack of a direct link between the roles of mentorship and subjective success for both men and women. However, our results reveal an indirect effect of psychosocial mentoring on men's subjective success through their objective success.