Power/knowledge and Psychosocial Dynamics in Mentoring

This article presents a case study of mentoring relations in a National Health Service Trust hospital. The hospital was undergoing a programme of change, which included a considerable investment in management development, supported by a mentoring programme. The research presented here included observations, interviews and research-focused discussions with managers and other participants in the mentoring programme, concentrating especially on the nature of the mentoring process and relationship. Contrasting interpretations and constructions of the meaning of the mentoring process are presented. It was found that the nature of mentoring relationships changed radically as mentees began to define themselves as being more competent and knowledgeable in management and that psychosocial functions in the mentoring relationships operated inversely to the direction of hierarchical authority present in these relationships.