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Introduction Research Aims
Due to the increasing number of corporate The purpose of this PhD thesis was to explore
scandals over the past decade, there is a grow- the effect that mentoring, more specifically
ing interest in the topic of ethical leadership. ethics-related mentoring,3 has on protégés’
Not only organisations want to know how to ethical leadership behaviour (the focal point in
develop ethical managers, but also business this study), altruistic behaviour and intentions
schools want to equip their students with the to stay in the organisation. It was further
skills, attitudes, and vision to become future predicted that mentor prototypicality – the
ethical leaders. To date, very little is still extent to which the mentor is perceived to be
known about what enables and enhances a typical and exemplary representative of the
ethical leadership behaviour. organisation – acts as a boundary condition on
the extent to which mentors provide
Where gaps in knowledge still pertain relates ethics-related mentoring to their protégés.
to the role of other key agents and the direct
intervention of organisations or Human Research Questions
Resources (HR) departments in deliberately
developing ethical leaders. Several scholars Two research questions were explored to
suggest that mentoring could be important in investigate the effect of ethics-related mento-
this respect. ring on important protégé outcomes:
Mentoring is defined as a “relationship 1. How do key informants (i.e., mentors,
between a younger adult and an older, more protégés, and experts for mentoring pro-
experienced adult [who] helps the younger grammes) perceive and understand ethics-re-
individual learn to navigate the adult world lated mentoring? 2. Is ethics-related mentor-
and the world of work” (Kram, 1985, p2). This ing important in developing ethical leaders?
one-to-one relationship is often characterised And if so, when and why?
as a supportive and trusting collaboration that
provides beneficial outcomes to both In order to answer these questions, two stud-
protégés and mentors. ies were carried out. The first research ques-
tion was addressed in study 1, whereas the
So far, researchers have studied three differ- second research question was addressed in
ent mentoring functions: career-related men- study 2.
toring, psychosocial mentoring, and role mod-
elling. All of these have been found to be an
important predictor of work-related out-
comes. However, research on mentoring has
yet to incorporate the idea of ethics-related
mentoring, and examine its effects of protégé,
mentor, and organisational outcomes.
Research
