WEB EXCLUSIVE: Pitt professor says race matters

‘ ‘ ‘ Sure, mentorships can help students get jobs. ‘ ‘ ‘ But they’re also much more than… ‘ ‘ ‘ Sure, mentorships can help students get jobs. ‘ ‘ ‘ But they’re also much more than that. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘Mentoring at its core is a relationship,’ said business school professor Audrey Murrell in a lecture in the Cathedral of Learning yesterday afternoon. ‘Your reputation doesn’t exist in you. It exists in your relationships.’ ‘ ‘ ‘ And a person’s ethnicity, Murrell said, can have a large impact on those relationships. ‘ ‘ ‘ Murrell presented research to support how one’s ethnicity affects the value of a mentorship, whether academic or corporate. Citing various studies and her own projects, Murrell explained the effects of ‘career functions’ and ‘psychosocial functions’ within mentorships. ‘ ‘ ‘ The classic perception of a mentor as all-knowing and powerful is a myth, said Murrell. In reality, a mentor is an ‘extraordinary tool’ who provides sponsorship, coaching and protection in the career sphere, as well as acceptance, confirmation and counseling in the social domain, she said. Specific values and characteristics, like race, affect a person’s likelihood to enter into the connection, though, said Murrell. One of the most significant ways race impacts a mentorship is by its effect on access. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘It’s about connecting with people of power and influence,’ she said. According to one study cited in her presentation, white males are more likely to be mentors than people of other races and genders. Murrell said this can have a large impact on a mentorship. She cited one survey that showed that black women had better career positions and advancement when paired with white male mentors. But the women with mentors of the same gender or race had higher job satisfaction. ‘So much of what race means ‘mdash; how behaviors and actions are interpreted ‘mdash; is embedded,’ said Murrell. She said being drawn to people within the same racial categories is both necessary and problematic. But, she added, it’s best to maintain both cross and same-race connections. ‘ ‘ ‘ ‘Self-interest affects willingness,’ she said, referring to the idea that there is a risk involved in any relationship, and when race is a factor it is more likely that a mentor will think about how a mentee reflects the mentor’s own position. Murrell said racial boundaries play a huge part in any type of organization, including universities. ‘The pesky thing about stereotypes is that they tend to operate below the level of awareness,’ she said, ‘and people of color are not immune to stereotyping.’ Not all mentorships are positive experiences, and Murrell said more research on the ethics of mentoring is needed to help people understand how to cope with negative experiences, including those involving exploitation and harassment because of race. Along those lines, Murrell said she hopes to continue research on the social exchange of mentorships with regard to race. ‘The climate sets the context and frame of the relationship,’ she said. ‘What happens when discrimination or harassment enters in? Does it make the person more wary of reciprocating the relationship?’ Murrell said she and her colleagues are still looking at pilot data to determine the answers to these questions. She said understanding race and mentoring in an organizational aspect could help her and other researchers examine broader diversity issues. Students, Murrell said, should continue to pursue mentorships regardless of race, because any positive mentor can be a valuable one. ‘There is absolutely a return on the investment as far as impacting a person’s career,’ said Murrell, especially for undergraduates. ‘It’s important that they have multiple mentors, develop a strong network of peers and keep in contact with people from before and during their undergrad studies.’