Abstract
D.Phil. (Engineering Management)
The primary aim of this study was to examine mentor and mentee relations, challenges and factors contributing to mentoring of young graduate employees within companies in the construction industry. The three major objectives were to (i) determine factors that influenced effective mentoring of graduate employees, (ii) determine whether expected mentoring outcomes were achieved from the mentoring of the graduate employee workers in the construction industry, and (iii) determine whether the mentoring of graduate employee workers in the construction industry was effective in achieving the expected mentoring outcomes. A Delphi (two rounds) of study was conducted to compile data regarding the ratings on the impact of factors that determine the effective mentoring of graduates. The information was obtained from a panel of experts. Concomitantly, data relating to ongoing construction projects was obtained from construction professionals, either working for construction clients, designers or contracting organisations. The data set obtained from the Delphi round was analysed using Microsoft Excel to compute descriptive statistics which include arithmetic means, medians. And standard deviations. The survey data pertaining to the study’s main research objectives was collected using a selfadministered, structured questionnaire. The research instrument consisted of three constructs of factors influencing the mentoring of graduate employees, namely mentor’s commitment (MC), multiple mentoring (MM) and succession planning (SP). Purposive and convenience sampling methods were used in the collection of primary data from a sample of two hundred and thirteen (n = 213) respondents. Data analysis was conducted using the Statistical Package of Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26 and STATA version 14 statistical programmes. SPSS was used to conduct frequencies analysis, scale reliability analysis based on Cronbach’s alpha criterion and factor analysis (FA) ensuing analysis of construct validity based on the Kaiser- Meyer-Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy criterion. The structural equation model (SEM) method was applied using STATA for the simultaneous measurement of interrelations, and direct and indirect effects of specified variables on effective mentoring of graduate employees. Results show that minimum conditions of scale reliability and construct validity were satisfied, after which items with high factor loadings from the factor analysis were retained. Estimates i from SEM that measure the effects of a mentor’s commitment, multiple mentoring and succession planning on mentoring of graduates show that all three dimensions had positive and significant influence on the mentoring of graduate employees. Multiple mentoring had the highest positive and significant effect, followed by succession planning, and then mentor’s commitment. Results relating to whether the mentoring of graduate employee workers was effective in achieving expected mentoring outcomes show that mentoring effectiveness achieved all expected outcomes. Total effects model estimates show that mentoring effectiveness had positive and significant effects on effectively influencing the achievement of expected mentoring outcomes relating to knowledge development, psychological development, education problem-solving, human resource development, coaching, social interaction, collaboration, psychological development role and bahavioral action. Multiple mentoring had the highest positive and significant indirect effects on the achievement of all expected outcomes. The indirect influence of multiple mentoring on achievement of expected mentoring outcomes was effectively highest on social interaction, psychological development role model and collaboration.