Public Management Mentoring: A Three Tier Model

Despite the abundance of literature discussing the individual and organizational outcomes of mentoring, this ‘generic’ literature remains virtually silent on the role of mentoring in the public sector. We review and critique the generic mentoring literature, indicating its limitations for understanding mentoring in a public management context. In particular, we highlight the interdependence of organizations, the opportunity structures of the public sector, and public service motivation, which mediate the outcomes of mentoring in the public sector. We then present a three tier model which focuses on public management mentoring outcomes. Our three tier model marries the unique context of public sector work to the extensive mentoring literature and lays the ground work for a theory of public management mentoring. We employ the model to generate propositions about public management mentoring outcomes. These propositions should prove useful for theory development but also for application in public sector mentoring relationships and programs.