The reviewed article, titled “The role of mentorship in protégé performance,” was written by R. Dean Malmgren, Julio M. Ottino, and Luis A. Nunes Amaral, and published in Nature on June 3, 2010. The article seeks to examine the validity of the hypothesis that proteges tend to emulate their mentors to a degree that allows estimating and quantifying the degree to which mentor fecundity determines protégé fecundity. The major argument framing the entire paper is that the extent to which proteges mimic their mentors is not certain, since there is no way of systemically tracking membership success throughout the entire career of the mentor. The research, thus, explores the conflict between the mentor-protégé theory and the rising star theory. Malmgren et al. (2010) see their proposed method as advantageous, as it seeks to compare the success of protégé’s careers as mathematicians with the quality of the mentorship.
The research discovered that fecundity of mentors remains stable for the researched period of time (60 years), and that there are three significant correlations to mentorship fecundities. They found that proteges tutored by mentors with low fecundities have a 37% higher-than-expected fecundity, whereas teachers with high fecundities that are at the ends of their careers tend to have a worse effect on their proteges. The most productive part of their careers seems to be the first third (Malmgren et al., 2010). The research implies that older teachers have a lesser stimulating effect compared to the younger ones, to a point that even mentors with low fecundity rates produce better results than expected.
Some of the criticism to the methodology and conclusions of the research include the fact that a relatively narrow field of study was chosen to collect samples from (mathematicians), and that the correlations do not take account of outside factors, such as reputations and referrals. Individuals with high fecundity rates could have talented students referred to them, thus achieving better results, whereas those with low fecundity get the rest.
Quotes that could be used towards mentorship and business:
- “Organizations benefit from the mentor-protégé relationships, because proteges are more likely to be committed to their organization and to exhibit organizational citizenship behavior” (Malmgren et al., 2010, p. 622).
- “Proteges with high mentorship fecundity aspirations might court prolific mentors early in their mentors’ careers whereas proteges with low fecundity aspirations might court prolific mentors later in their mentors’ careers” (Malmgren et al., 2010, p. 624).
Reference
Malmgren, R. D., Ottino, J. M., & Amaral, L. A. N. (2010). The role of mentorship in protégé performance. Nature, 465(7298), 622-626.