Mentors as Friends 145Overlapping Scholarly Constructs
The shared constructs in the definitions of mentoring and friendship provide guide-
posts to explore when mentors are friends. This section reviews more closely the
functions of instrumental and psychosocial support as they relate to peer mentors,
developmental networks, and natural mentors.
Instrumental and Psychosocial SupportAs described earlier, psychosocial support is an important element in both friend-
ship and mentorship. Providing emotional support and listening are important
characteristics of friendships. There also must be a certain amount of trust before
protégés will interact and ask for or act on advice from a mentor. Thus, friendships
appear to be characterized by strong ties and exchange of psychosocial support,
whereas mentorships rely on certain elements of psychosocial support. For exam-
ple, protégés need to trust their mentors’ professional competence, but they may
not disclose deeply personal information with their mentors.
Instrumental support differentiates mentorships from friendships. Friends
may provide general advice about career challenges, but these conversations are
a small part of the intercourse in friendships. Professional guidance is the raison
d’être for mentorships. The question is when does providing psychosocial support
lead to the provision of instrumental support, that is friends also become mentors,
and when does an increase in psychosocial support lead mentorships to become
friendships?
Peer MentorsIndividuals who have similar status or hierarchy are said to be peers (Ensher &
Murphy, 2011; McManus & Russell, 2007). Thus, in organizations, employees who
have similar job titles or salaries would be peers. In educational institutions, indi-
viduals at the same grade level or degree status would be peers. Peer mentoring rela-
tionships evolve when they are characterized by “increasing amounts of intimacy,
vulnerability, and authenticity that span[ned] both work and personal domains”
(McManus & Russell, 2007, p. 280). Scholars suggest that there is a continuum of
peer relationships characterized by distant or close ties. Information peers anchor
one end of this continuum with distant ties, while special peers, at the other end
of the continuum, would have close ties. Collegial peers would be in the middle
of the continuum (McManus & Russell, 2007). Informational peers share infor-
mation about their organization. Collegial peers swap career advice and provide
one another job- related feedback and friendship. Special peers engage in more
friendship- like behaviors such as confirmation, emotional support, and feedback.
McManus and Russell (2007) assert that peer relationships become “broader and
deeper” as they move from informational to special peers.