The Baby Boomers' perception of mentoring: A phenomenonlogical study

The mass exodus of Baby Boomers from the labor market will cause serious brain drain within organizations and will lead to a considerable gap in the quality of workplace leadership. Some organizations desiring to address these issues use mentoring as a way of transferring the knowledge these older workers have acquired to other workers. This dissertation focuses on gaining a deeper understanding of Baby Boomers' perspectives about their role as mentors to junior organizational members, along with the factors deemed imperative for effective mentorship. This dissertation sought to meet those aims through an extensive review of pertinent literature and practical research. The latter was obtained through a transcendental phenomenological study with senior executives from three organizations and two independent senior executives using semi-structured interviews. The use of Moustakas's 4-step abbreviated phenomenological analysis aided in the extraction of rich thick data. The findings from this study produced evidence of the following: mentoring acts as a type of role model within itself that draws those that may not have experienced mentoring personally; mentors prefer not to elevate their power over their mentees; and Baby Boomers are not necessarily empty nesters. They may be raising their children and grandchildren. The primary conclusion drawn from this transcendental phenomenological study is that that middle age Baby Boomers receive personal satisfaction from a mentoring dyad that is mutually beneficial. The study also revealed that that organizational encouragement aids the mentoring dyad tremendously. Implications of this study suggests that practitioners can use these findings to enhance or start a mentoring program that transitions with their workers, specifically Baby Boomers. This dissertation recommends leveraging knowledge transference from the Baby Boomer to the junior organizational member as a competitive advantage.