Public Management Mentoring

Abstract

Despite the abundance of literature discussing the individual and organizational outcomes of mentoring, this general literature remains virtually silent on the role of mentoring in the public sector. The authors review and critique the mentoring literature, indicating its limitations for understanding mentoring in a public management context. In particular, the authors highlight the interdependence of organizations, the opportunity structures of the public sector, and public service motivation that mediate the outcomes of mentoring in the public sector. The authors then present a three-tier model that focuses on public management mentoring outcomes. The three-tier model marries the unique context of public sector work to the extensive mentoring literature and lays the groundwork for a theory of public management mentoring. The authors employ the model to generate propositions about public management mentoring outcomes. These propositions should prove useful for theory development but also for application in public sector mentoring relationships and programs.