Despite the increased rate of women in the workplace and more women acquiring advance degrees, there are still barriers in the workplace that hinders the advancement of women. The focus of this qualitative study was first to understand the perceptions and beliefs of six female managers\u27 experiences during the developmental process of an all-female mentoring program. The second focus was to provide information on the importance of mentoring in the development and advancement of women in the workplace. Utilizing a phenomenological methodology, a descriptive approach was employed to examine and describe the thought processes and subjective views of the participants\u27 role, understanding, and expectation of the program development.
The purpose of this applied dissertation was to examine and describe from the participants\u27 perspectives the factors that hindered the successful development of the mentoring program. Based on the analysis of the data collected from the semi-structured interviews, four themes emerged: (a) purpose for mentoring program development, (b) perception of barriers to mentoring program development, (c) perception of management role in program development, and (d) perception of program outcome.
The data collected as a result of this study revealed five findings: (a) mentoring programs are an important human resource intervention, (b) the lack of top management support and commitment adversely affected the successful development of the mentoring program, (c) the successful development of a mentoring program requires the clear establishment of the program goals and objectives, (d) research does not fully support the findings that women in senior positions will advocate for women in lower ranking positions, and (e) the top management role is an essential component in the continued success of mentoring programs. This study offers insight into female managers\u27 perceptions of the barriers that affect mentoring program development and insight into the development of successful mentoring program