The Maven of Mentoring Speaks: Kathy E. Kram Reflects on Her Career and the Field

Mentoring has received significant attention in the management literature for nearly 30 years and has been a practice pervasive in organizational lifelong before its introduction as a phenomenon of study. This interview with Kathy E. Kram assesses her seminal and continued influence on the field. Arguably, no other mentoring scholar has made such indelible marks on the field; Kram laid the foundation with her research in the early 1980s and has since made lasting contributions in the areas of diversity, developmental networks, and alternative relational vehicles. Throughout her career, Kram’s approach to scientific inquiry has been guided by her numerous consulting experiences, which have allowed her to ask questions and provide insights that are relevant to formal mentoring programs and the cultivation of informal relationships. The interview involves a discussion of influences on Kram’s career, the field’s evolution and future, mentoring as a practice, and her current research pursuits.