Abstract:
Many American companies strive to achieve racial diversity. Often, they seek to accomplish this through the recruitment of racial minorities. While this effort is commendable, many organizations soon encounter difficulties when trying to retain their minority talent. Once the recruitment process results in a more diverse working environment, companies sometimes struggle to find the best way to instill a sense of organizational commitment in their new minority incumbents. Organizational mentoring is an important aspect of an employee's socialization process, and is one way to increase job satisfaction, sustain quality, and progress the careers of individuals employed in corporate America. However, despite the rapid growth of Blacks in the workforce, many are excluded from involvement in such practices. Still, few studies have addressed the direct effect of minimal exposure to organizational mentoring on this racial group.
Therefore, the purpose of this study was to supplement the existing literature on organizational mentoring in a way that directly applies to the Black employee. Specifically, three main hypotheses were made. First, it was hypothesized that Black employees involved in the mentoring process would experience more job satisfaction, organizational commitment, career development, and less job-related stress in comparison to Black employees not exposed to the process at all. Secondly, Black
employees with Black mentors were compared to mentored White employees and non-mentored
individuals regarding their feelings of job satisfaction, organizational
commitment, career development, and job-related stress. The third set of hypotheses
collectively investigated the relationship among job satisfaction, organizational
commitment, career development, and job-related stress.
Seventy-six participants completed an informed consent document, a demographic profile, and a questionnaire composed of four scales measuring career development, organizational commitment, job-related stress and job satisfaction. An
independent sample !-test was conducted to test the first set of hypotheses. One
significant difference was found between Black employees with mentors and Blacks
without. An analysis of variance was computed to test the second set of hypotheses. One
significant difference was found among Black employees with Black mentors, mentored Whites and non-mentored employees. Correlations among the four administered tests did not reveal any significant findings. Limitations of the study as well as directions for future research were discussed.
