A talk of interest to COR members….

Brokering Access through the Glass Ceiling: Sponsorship of Women and Minorities via an Identity Lens

SPEAKER:        Amy Randel

UNIVERSITY:        San Diego State University

TIME:        10:30 am~ 12:00pm

WHERE:        SB1 5200 Porter Colloquia Room

ABSTRACT: The need for increasing access to high-level positions for women and minorities and eliminating discriminatory practices in organizations has been identified by scholars and practitioners alike for many years (e.g., Dipboye & Colella, 2005; Haberfeld, 1992). One of the practices that organizations have turned to in order to improve the organizational experiences and career outcomes of women and minorities is mentoring. However, even well-intentioned mentoring of women and minorities has not consistently yielded desired benefits and may not be as efficacious as once hoped. Despite being mentored in higher proportions than men, women graduates of top MBA programs worldwide are paid less, hold lower-level positions, and experience lower career satisfaction than men according to a 2008 Catalyst survey (Ibarra, Carter, & Silva, 2010). While mentoring often contributes to psychosocial benefits for protégés (Kram, 1985; Ragins, 2012), mentoring does not appear to consistently result in the brokering of relationships that result in the placement of women and minority protégés in positions that accelerate their career development.