Male executives' experiences of mentoring Black African women in South Africa

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-11-2021-0285
• Published date: 08 September 2022
• Date: 08 September 2022
• Pages: 47-69
• Subject Matter: HR & organizational behaviour,Employment law,Diversity,equality,inclusion
• Author: Caren Brenda Scheepers,Rebone Mahlangu

Male executives’experiences of

mentoring Black African women

in South Africa

Caren Brenda Scheepers and Rebone Mahlangu

University of Pretoria Gordon Institute of Business Science,

Johannesburg, South Africa

Abstract

Purpose –This study explored the motives, relationship dynamics and outcomes of male executives in

mentoring Black African women within the context of South Africa. The authors investigated the experiences

of White, Black African, coloured, and Indian male mentors conducting cross-gender and cross-race mentoring

in South Africa.

Design/methodology/approach –A qualitative study was conducted with 21 male executives within South

Africa’s male-dominated financial services industry. Data were collected via semi-structured, one-on-one

virtual video interviews. The study endeavoured to deeper understand the mentors’experiences during their

interactions with the intersecting marginalised identities of Black African women as prot

eg

es.

Findings –The authors found that the mentoring relationship is central to mentoring Black

African women. This relationship is often influenced by the mentors’parental approach to mentoring,

with resultant negative consequences, including the prot

eg

e not taking accountability for driving the

relationship. Mentors’stereotypical expectations of women as homemakers and carers also influenced

mentoring experiences. Mentors’motives included growing next generation leaders, which led to

mentors’job satisfaction.

Originality/value –This study contributes an account of male executives’motivations for mentoring Black

African women, the relationship dynamics as well as negative mentoring experiences, and the mentoring

outcomes for prot

eg

es and mentors. Intersectionality theory was used to highlight the mentors’lack of insight

into the intersecting marginalised identities of Black African women in the unique South African context,

where inequalities in terms of class, race, and gender are amplified.

Keywords Black African women, Mentoring relationship, Intersectionality, Apartheid, Unconscious bias,

Stereotyping

Paper type Research paper

Introduction

Mentoring is a widely recognised way to promote gender equality. It is a powerful tool to

develop potential leaders’skills, help them build networks, increase career satisfaction,

and expose them to opportunities (Ivey and Dupr

e, 2022;Scandura, 1992). Mentoring has

great potential to contribute to social inclusion (Colley, 2003). This study aims to

contribute an account of male executives’experiences of mentoring Black African

women. These women previously had the fewest rights of all groups in South Africa and

suffered the greatest oppression (Donald and Mahlatji, 2006) because of the country’s

historical context, which includes colonialism, slavery and the atrocities of the apartheid

system.

The mentor role theory of Kram (1985) offers a classic definition of mentoring as a

relationship between a senior, more experienced person and a junior, less experienced person.

Mentoring

Black African

women

47

© Caren Brenda Scheepers and Rebone Mahlangu. Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This

article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may

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The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

https://www.emerald.com/insight/2040-7149.htm

Received 3 November 2021

Revised 14 February 2022

12 May 2022

14 July 2022

Accepted 10 August 2022

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

An International Journal

Vol. 41 No. 9, 2022

pp. 47-69

Emerald Publishing Limited

2040-7149

DOI 10.1108/EDI-11-2021-0285

Most existing studies focus on the perspective of the prot

eg

e(Burk and Eby, 2010;Eby et al.,

2013;Eby and McManus, 2004), while limited research emphasises the mentor’s experience

(Allen, 2007;Allen and Eby, 2003). Therefore, the current study contributes to the

conversation in academic literature on the role of the mentor in an effective mentoring

process. Moreover, this stu dy addresses a relevant busin ess issue, as the current

demographic composition of mostly White males in executive positions (Eby et al., 2013)

results in White males frequently being assigned as mentors. South African legislation

requires companies to adhere to the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE)

Act 53 of 2003 (Republic of South Africa, 2003) and the Employment Equity (EE) Act 55 of

1998 (Republic of South Africa, 1998), as well as to appoint and develop under-represented

groups, of which Black African females are the least represented. Despite the legislation,

South African women accounted for only 22% of the executives in the Top 40 Johannesburg

Stock Exchange-listed companies in 2018, and there were no women chief executive officers

(CEOs; PwC, 2019). It is important to address this business issue, as the top 100 South African

companies with significant women representation on their boards of directors showed a 5.4%

higher growth on market returns than other listed companies with lower women

representation (Scholtz and Kieviet, 2018).

Several organisations in South Africa initiated formal mentoring programmes in service

of B-BBEE and EE (Abbott et al., 2010). Thus, formal mentorship programmes in this context

regularly involve cross-race and cross-gender mentoring, offering a unique opportunity to

conduct research on mentoring under these conditions. The current study refers to Black

African males and females to differentiate them from the broader previously disadvantaged

groups in South Africa during apartheid, which include Indian and coloured males and

females.

Extant mentoring studies pay ample attention to gender issues in mentoring (Noe, 1988;

Ragins and Cotton, 1999), less to race dynamics (Allen, 2007;Colley, 2003;Thomas, 1990),

and even less to gender and race issues simultaneously (Cox and Nkomo, 1990;Nickerson,

2020). Consequently, another contribution of our study is that it aims to fill that gap by

exploring male mentors’experiences when the gender and race of the prot

eg

e intersect

(Bell and Nkomo, 2001). Men remain at the helm of power and authority (McKinsey and

Company, 2018) and have a significant influence on gender equality. Valerio and Sawyer

(2016) noted that men use their authority to promote gender equality when they genuinely

believe in fairness and the development of talent, whether male or female. Unfortunately,

male leaders are less likely than their female counterparts to act as active conduits

to advance gender equality (Szymanska and Rubin, 2018). Hence, a deeper understanding

of the motives and deterrents to mentoring from the male mentor perspective is

imperative.

According to Bell and Nkomo (2001), Black women experience racist sexism, namely

sexism intertwined with racism. In their later work, Smith and Nkomo (2021) confirmed that

systemic racism and bias still exist in organisations. Liu et al. (2021, p. 105) observed that:

People who were once bystanders to the ways in which White supremacy manifests increasingly felt

compelled to challenge the racial injustice they saw in their neighbourhoods, their governments, and

their everyday lives.

Therefore, this study focuses on the motives, relationship dynamics, and mentoring outcomes

of Black African women with their unique needs at the intersection of race and gender. As a

result, the research question is:

RQ1. What are the motives, relationship dynamics, and outcomes of the mentoring experiences of

male executive mentors while mentoring Black African women within the context of South

Africa?

EDI

41,9

48