Woman manager: in search of the elucive guru

Mentoring is first and foremost a teacher- student relationship. Mentor relationships have been identified as important for organisational success, career development and career satisfaction. The present study seeks to understand who are the people who mentor Indian women managers. Also we shall try to understand if there are any differences in the mentoring process at various levels of the organizations. Sector wise differences in the mentoring process will also be looked into. Also in order to benefit fully from the process of mentoring, it is important to assess the interpersonal climate of the organizations, that is are Indian organizations ready for mentoring relationships This was done through detailed unstructured interviews of 120 women managers at the senior and junior management levels from both public and private sector undertakings. The data obtained was later analyzed through content analysis and dialogue analysis. Thus women managers are generally mentored by parents, superiors or their teachers. This clearly indicates that the mentoring climate has yet to be established in the Indian workplace particularly as women managers look towards their family for support. It is clear that women would ideally require far more support from their workplace both in terms of career guidance and psychosocial support and are looking for some kind of father figure at the workplace because a mentoring relationships culminates into a familial relationship.