The impact and prevalence of mentoring in the field of public relations: A study of the Public Relations Society of America membership

The impact and prevalence of mentoring in the field of public relations were investigated. A mail survey was sent to 476 randomly selected members of the Public Relations Society of America. Forty-five percent of the surveys were returned. Mentoring was prevalent among these public relations practitioners, as 68 percent had been mentored at some point in their careers and 64.2 percent had served as mentors. Mentoring also had a positive impact on their careers. Formal mentoring programs were not as prevalent among practitioners as informal mentoring relationships, and those who had experienced both formal and informal relationships cited informal as being more valuable. Findings showed that mentoring was important to career success and satisfaction, and respondents who had been mentored reported greater career success and satisfaction than those who had not.