FRAMING THE MENTORING RELATIONSHIP AS AN INFORMATION EXCHANGE

Researchers have begun to examine the mentoring relationship and, alon g with practitioners, consider it an important, if not critical, assim ilation and/or development tool for employees (proteges), particularly for those new to the organization and/or in the early stages of their careers (e.g., Chao, Walz, & Gardner 1991; Dreher & Ash 1990; Fagenso n 1989). Yet we still know relatively little about mentoring. The focu s of mentoring research, thus far, has been largely on outcomes for pr oteges; the mentor's perspective has not received the same attention. This article aims to focus our attention on better defining the mentor ing relationship and suggests a model that considers outcomes for both the mentor and the protege and frames the mentorship as a two-way exc hange of information, bringing together the mentoring and information seeking literatures. Both literatures indicate that contextual variabl es and individual differences should be considered as antecedents in t he study of information seeking by mentors and proteges. This article suggests considering relationship characteristics as antecedents to in formation seeking by mentors and proteges as well. Future research dir ections for mentoring in this information-exchange framework are discu ssed.