Page 7 - Thesis

Implications for practitioners
This study offers valuable insights to practi-
tioners. First, practitioners are provided with
a measure of ethicsrelated mentoring validat-
ed in organisational settings. Through the use
of this scale, they can ensure that the focus of
mentors is being placed not only on the career
and psychosocial development but also on the
ethical and moral development of their
protégés. To inform mentors about their addi-
tional role, practitioners can use the items of
the new scale (see Appendix).
Also, practitioners can use this scale for evalu-
ation purposes. As a one-off measure, it can
assist organisations in identifying ethical men-
tors, for instance, during selection (or recruit-
ment) decisions. Similarly, the instrument can
assist in examining protégés’ perceptions of
ethics- related mentoring they receive, and in
assessing the influence of ethics-related men-
toring on important protégé outcomes. As a
repeated measure, it can help track the prog-
ress of mentors developing their ethical role
modelling and ethical guidance behaviour, for
example, measuring protégé perceptions of
ethics-related mentoring before and after
participation in a mentor training programme.
Second, practitioners are provided with
evidence that organisations can promote
ethical conduct in the workplace. Our findings
suggest that ethics-related mentoring, wheth-
er formal or informal, may be effective in
developing ethical leaders. Investment in
mentoring programmes, particularly for those
private and public organisations keen on
developing ethical leaders, may provide an
ethical return on this investment.
The information from Study 1 and Study 2
feed into mentor selection and matching. In
brief, concerning the selection process, practi-
tioners have to consider that being an ethical
mentor is not enough. In order to be effective
in developing protégés’ altruistic and ethical
leadership behaviour, ethical mentors also
need to be seen to be representative – or
prototypical – of the organisation. This finding
also has implications for the matching process,
meaning the protégés should be allowed to
choose among mentors, or at least, to have
input into the matching process. The draw-
back of not involving the protégé in this pro-
cess is that the assigned mentor may or may
not represent the organisation’s identity in the
eyes of the protégé, thus negating the poten-
tial benefits of the programme.
The current findings also draw some import-
ant implications for mentor training. Mentors
should be trained to understand the impor-
tance of their role of providing ethicsrelated
mentoring (e.g., developing protégé moral
character and ethical behaviour; institutional-
ising business ethics) and how they can
become ethical role models for their protégés.
It is important to note that, based on the
results of the interviews conducted in Study 1,
ethics training programmes for mentors
should be aligned with mentors’ needs and
expectations. The interviews revealed that it is
important to raise the awareness of being an
ethical mentor and its influence on protégé
development. As one of the mentoring
experts noted, “all mentors have a practiced
ethic that they use consciously and unconscious-
ly, and that is an integral part of this work”.