A Theory-based Mentoring Process Model for Career Success: Application of Super’s Career Development Theory

Mentoring is one of the prevailing strategies to support career development in organizations. Environmental change such as globalization and technology advancement has affected the ways careers are viewed. This trend reflects the increasing importance of mentoring in a company to prepare its members for changing work environments and occupational opportunities. Given the impact of employees’ career success on their organization’s viability, it is important to devise an effective vehicle to support career development in companies. The purpose of this article was to develop a theory-based process model that integrates mentoring strategies tailored to each career stage of employees, key elements of mentoring, and outcomes of the mentoring for career success. To that end, I used an integrative literature review method by which 23 peer-reviewed journal articles were reviewed to identify elements and outcomes of mentoring. Along with the current research trend in the relationship between mentoring and career success, the implications for future HRD research, theory building, and practice were discussed.