Abstract:

The concept of mentoring in academic settings is considered as one of the fundamental tools in order to pave the way for students’ individual future career paths. Establishing a mentoring relationship between young bright minds and already more experienced professionals can foster a student’s reflection concerning personal and professional development, upcoming challenges, and work-life balance, just to name a few. In order to establish a sustainable relationship that both parties benefit from, it is crucial to find the right mentoring partner in order to overcome challenging task. Aligning mentors’ and mentees’ expectations beforehand, and furthermore matching the pairs based on a marginal expectation gap could minimize and prevent failing mentoring relationships. After identifying the overall expectation gap between mentors and mentees in a study performed in 2021 by the authors, this study will focus on differences in the expectation gaps based on the gender composition of mentoring relationships. In order to do so, the expectations are recorded using a dual-purpose questionnaire and compared within different gender constellations to identify and quantify the expectation gaps. The overall sample consists of 74 participants who chose the mentors’ perspective and 90 participants who chose the mentees’ perspective.

Keywords:

Mentoring, Expectation Management, Mentor and Mentee Relationship, Gender Constellations in Mentoring.