The changing demographics of our workforce over the past few decades have presented new concerns for organizations, and in particular the managers of
those organizations. Organizations are spending billions of dollars on training each year, with a disproportionately large amount spent on the training of
managers. There is a growing interest in mentoring in organizations today as a training method for managers. However, there is an absence in the literature of an evaluation of a formal mentoring program that assesses the transfer of training and/or increase in skills of the protégés.

This dissertation research study sought to fill that void, and examined the effectiveness of mentoring as a training method for managers. The purpose of the study was to:

Methodology

The sample for this study was 42 pairs in the mentoring program at Sandia National Laboratories. The mentors were upper level managers, directors, and vice presidents. The protégés were middle level managers.

Both quantitative and qualitative data collection methods were used.

1. Versions of the Leader Behavior Analysis II (LBAII) instruments were used for the pre-test and posttest of the protégés, and for the test given to the mentors.

2. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® was administered to both the mentor and protégé to test personality types of the pairs, and the participants completed a demographics instrument.

3. A mentoring functions scale consisting of 30 questions was given to the protégés to assess their overall satisfaction. Interviews were conducted with a random sample of the pairs.

Findings
The data revealed that that the results of mentoring can be assessed in a short period of time, when establishing a baseline of skills, conducting a treatment,and testing after the treatment.

The protégés showed significant improvement on their leadership effectiveness and flexibility scores from the pre-test to the posttest.

Other variables tested were number of meetings between the pairs, quality of projects participated in, availability of the mentor to the protégé,
number of phone calls and outside meetings, personality, gender, age, and psychosocial benefits received as well as overall satisfaction with the program.

The findings of this study were used to propose a conceptual model for a formal mentoring program, AMIGOSô, that includes instructions for facilitating the initial pairing, as well as for evaluating the transfer of skills.