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The significance of mentorship in supporting the career advancement of women in the public sector

Historically, patriarchy has manifested itself in the workplace and influenced career opportunities afforded to women in the public sector. The slow progress in the transformation of organisations indicates there is a need for a structural developmental approach for women's career advancement....

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Mcilongo, M., Strydom, K.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Elsevier 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8220325/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34189329
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e07321
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author Mcilongo, M.
Strydom, K.
author_facet Mcilongo, M.
Strydom, K.
author_sort Mcilongo, M.
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description Historically, patriarchy has manifested itself in the workplace and influenced career opportunities afforded to women in the public sector. The slow progress in the transformation of organisations indicates there is a need for a structural developmental approach for women's career advancement. Mentoring has been recognised as a valuable development strategy and an affirmative action tool that can be used to support and promote women and groups that have been viewed as previously disadvantaged. The aim of the study was to highlight the significance of mentorship as a career advancement mechanism for women in the South African public sector. The study identified dimensions of mentorship (female mentors, career support, mentoring policy and leadership development) and tested the proposed hypotheses to determine whether a statistically significant relationship existed between mentorship and career advancement. A quantitative approach was followed to collect data from a sample of 200 women employed in the public sector in the different provinces of South Africa. Statistical methods used to conduct the data analysis included descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. The results indicate that women employees in the public sector view mentorship as an important factor for development; however, the gender of the mentor does not necessarily influence career advancement. Mechanisms to support mentoring have not been established in the public sector, highlighting the urgency for managers in the public sector to ensure that mentorship policies are put in place.
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spelling pubmed-82203252021-06-28 The significance of mentorship in supporting the career advancement of women in the public sector Mcilongo, M. Strydom, K. Heliyon Research Article Historically, patriarchy has manifested itself in the workplace and influenced career opportunities afforded to women in the public sector. The slow progress in the transformation of organisations indicates there is a need for a structural developmental approach for women's career advancement. Mentoring has been recognised as a valuable development strategy and an affirmative action tool that can be used to support and promote women and groups that have been viewed as previously disadvantaged. The aim of the study was to highlight the significance of mentorship as a career advancement mechanism for women in the South African public sector. The study identified dimensions of mentorship (female mentors, career support, mentoring policy and leadership development) and tested the proposed hypotheses to determine whether a statistically significant relationship existed between mentorship and career advancement. A quantitative approach was followed to collect data from a sample of 200 women employed in the public sector in the different provinces of South Africa. Statistical methods used to conduct the data analysis included descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. The results indicate that women employees in the public sector view mentorship as an important factor for development; however, the gender of the mentor does not necessarily influence career advancement. Mechanisms to support mentoring have not been established in the public sector, highlighting the urgency for managers in the public sector to ensure that mentorship policies are put in place. Elsevier 2021-06-16 /pmc/articles/PMC8220325/ /pubmed/34189329 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e07321 Text en © 2021 The Author(s) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Research Article
Mcilongo, M.
Strydom, K.
The significance of mentorship in supporting the career advancement of women in the public sector
title The significance of mentorship in supporting the career advancement of women in the public sector
title_full The significance of mentorship in supporting the career advancement of women in the public sector
title_fullStr The significance of mentorship in supporting the career advancement of women in the public sector
title_full_unstemmed The significance of mentorship in supporting the career advancement of women in the public sector
title_short The significance of mentorship in supporting the career advancement of women in the public sector
title_sort significance of mentorship in supporting the career advancement of women in the public sector
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8220325/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34189329
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e07321
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