Patterns of Informal Mentorship in Policing: A Case Study

• In Event: Recruiting, Developing, and Retaining the Police Workforce

Abstract

Mentorship plays a vital role in many public and private organizational contexts by facilitating the occupational development of its members. Mentors can provide guidance and support to their protégés in performing their organizational roles, navigating bureaucratic labyrinths, balancing work and personal lives, encouraging them to advance in the organization and their careers and developing the skills needed to do so. In agencies without formal mentorship programs, mentorship is organic, emerging from the unstructured choices of mentors and protégés. We draw on survey and interview data in one large police agency to examine mentorship in a context of only informal mentoring. We analyze the forms of mentoring that its members receive, the types of mentoring relationships in which mentoring is provided, and the distribution of mentoring across officers by gender, race, ethnicity, rank, and length of service. We also examine the extent to which protégés believed that mentoring facilitated their careers, and we explore the implications of mentorship for protégés’ organizational commitment and judgments about organizational justice.

Authors

• Robert E. Worden, John F. Finn Institute & University at Albany

• Sarah J. McLean, John F. Finn Institute

• Sara Fiegl, John F. Finn Institute & University at Albany