Mentors as Friends 153greater inequality in the relationship, where one individual has greater status and
superiority relative to another person (Hofstede, 1983). In an autocratic mentor-
ing relationship, the mentor provides sponsorship and guidance that is possible
because of their greater status in the organization, in hopes of conferring this status
on their protégé. Friendship is possible only to the extent that the protégé increases
their status and power to be equal to their mentor.
Power distance explains why mentors are not friends in youth mentoring rela-
tionships with adult mentors, even though the young person may look to their men-
tor as a friend. Youth mentorships, with adult mentors, have greater power distance
than youth peer mentorships. Although the protégé may influence the mentor in
some ways, it is unlikely that he or she has great influence on the adult mentor’s
ideas and behaviors. Thus, if there is great power distance between the relational
partners, then they cannot be friends.
Protégés in youth mentoring programs often report that their mentor is a friend
because the young person is able to share confidences and feels close to their men-
tor. However, the mentor would not consider their young protégé to be a friend
because of the boundaries on what an adult should share about personal situations
with a vulnerable youth. Thus, the protégé may consider their mentor to be a friend,
while the mentor may feel he or she is in a mentorship, not a friendship.
Future Considerations
There is limited research on mentors as friends. However, an examination of the
extant scholarship suggests that there is a space where friends become mentors and
mentors become friends. This phenomenon is most likely to occur for adults, rather
than youth, because of the lesser power distance possible in adult mentorships ver-
sus youth– adult mentorships. The chapter presented a model to explain how the
three characteristics (instrumental support, psychosocial support, and power dis-
tance) may explain when mentors are friends. The model may be useful to organiza-
tions to consider how to support these important developmental relationships.
Two trends make it more likely that mentors who are also friends will become
an important relationship type in the mentoring landscape. The trends are: flatter
organizational hierarchies and advances in communication technology. First, the
increase in organizations with flatter hierarchies— which also come with more job
and career changes— suggests the role of friends as mentors may become increas-
ingly important. Processes, not hierarchy, will characterize the organizations of the
future (Aghina, 2014). In this case, processes refer to how people come together to
learn. An example would be an interdisciplinary team that is formed to learn about
a problem that needs to be solved. As teams form, dissolve, and reform there will
be more need and opportunities for peer mentorship. Thus, peer networks will
become increasingly important. As peers strengthen their peer relationships, they