CUTTING THE APRON STRINGS: HOW PROTÉGÉS SEPARATE FROM THEIR MENTORS IN CREATIVE WORK

Research Seminar

Management & Human Resources

Speaker: Daphne Demetry  

McGill  University

Bernard Ramanantsoa room

Authors: Daphne Demetry, Rachel Doern

Abstract

A fundamentally important, yet poorly understood aspect of mentorship is the process whereby protégés separate from their mentors. We investigate this process in the setting of close dyadic mentoring relationships that characterize creative work. In an inductive study based on interviews with chef-owners who have left their mentors’ kitchens to start their own restaurants as well as archival data, we examine how protégés manage separation, unpacking the resource, discursive, and material practices of the separation process. We find that protégés describe managing separation differently based on their interpersonal experiences with mentors during their apprenticeship training. We identify two separation paths—continuous (taken by those who describe positive interpersonal experiences) and divergent (taken by those who describe negative interpersonal experiences)—characterized by different separation practices that shape relational and creative outcomes. Counter to theory, we find that protégés with self-described positive mentoring relationships do not redefine their relationships, but instead experience an extended separation phase. These protégés also produce less distinctive creative products than their mentors. In contrast, those with self-described negative mentoring relationships redefine their mentors as peers and produce more distinctive creative products than their mentors. Our findings contribute to mentoring theory and research on creative work by revealing a new framework that theorizes separation as a process in its own right, rather than just a phase protégés quickly pass through.