Does Mentorship among Social Workers Make a Difference? An Empirical Investigation of Career Outcomes

Although the value of mentorship has been widely researched in other professions, little is known about mentorship among social workers. In addition, few studies have empirically addressed the relationship between mentorship and career outcomes. This study explores the difference in the career outcomes of 430 social workers who have been both a mentor and protege, a mentor but not a protege, a protege but not a mentor, or neither a protege nor a mentor. Career success, career satisfaction, and income level were used as outcome measures. The results indicate significant main effects for being a protege and for being a mentor on career success and career satisfaction, but mentorship was significant on income level only for the mentor. Overall, mentorship can be an important factor in facilitating the career development of both proteges and mentors. Empirical investigation ofgender and racial dynamics involved in mentorship is recommended. Key Words: career satisfaction; career success; income; mentor; protege For more than a decade there has been "muchado about mentors " (Roche, 1979, p. 20) inboth the popular media and the professional literature. Studies from the fields of business and education and organizational and developmental psychology currently predominate in the scholarly literature on mentorship (for example, Kanter,