Establishing effective mentoring relationships for individual and organizational success

The purpose of this article is to report findings from a study conducted to explore and describe mentoring relationships in Pennsylvania State Cooperative Extension's planned mentoring program based on the perceptions and experiences of proteges and mentors in Cooperative Extension. Factors that facilitate or hinder the mentoring relationship were explored and described by the participants. Also, proteges were asked to describe from their perspectives the qualities of an effective mentoring relationship. Data were collected from a series of in-depth qualitative interviews with mentor/protege pairs.