Increasing Career Advancement Opportunities Through Sponsorship: An Identity-Based Model With Illustrative Application to Cross-Race Mentorship of African Americans

The sponsorship function of mentoring has vast potential to increase career advancement for African American proteges in cross-race mentoring relationships but is not well understood. We conceptualize the processes, practices, and challenges involved in cross-race sponsorship of African American proteges through an identity perspective. We provide a theory regarding how identity processes are involved at different stages of cross-race sponsorship involving African American proteges, as well as for their mentors, by drawing on identity, diversity, and mentoring research. This work is suggestive of opportunities for improvement in the sponsorship function of mentoring in order to increase career advancement for African American proteges and provides theoretical contributions to research on identity, diversity, and career advancement.

Automated summary

This study examines the role and challenges of cross-race sponsorship in the career advancement of African American protégés from an identity perspective, providing opportunities for improvement in mentoring to enhance career advancement for African American protégés and making theoretical contributions to research on identity, diversity, and career advancement.