How could a formal same gender dyad mentoring programme for women be adjusted to be a better tool to combat skill shortages in management, from the case study participants' perception?

A shortage of skilled workers seems to turn into a shortage of managers, a trend that is already
visible in the region of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, and is expected to worsen in the next
few years. Utilising the untapped potential of women in the job market would help to
sustainably negate predicted long-term skill shortages. Therefore, a women-only mentoring
programme for the advancement of women in the region of East Westphalia-Lippe (OWL) was
initiated in 2015. At present, there is only limited research exploring the effectiveness of female
same-gender dyad cross mentoring in counteracting skill shortages in management. Through a
qualitative constructivist grounded theory approach, this study aims to address this knowledge
gap. The research participants agreed that the programme successfully manages to make a
contribution to combating skills shortages in management in the region of East-Westphalia
Lippe. It manages to help recognizing and developing the potential and competencies of high�potential females. The programme counteracts the lack of role models by gathering experienced
female managers with high-potential females. The programme thus inevitably gives participants
access to a network of like-minded people. By participating in the mentoring programme, these
women’s visibility is greatly increased, and this helps change the traditional image of their role.
The participants reported increased visibility within their companies as a result of participation
in the programme. This could lead to a woman being considered for a corresponding vacancy
for which she otherwise would not have been considered. In addition, the programme succeeds
in giving women more self-confidence through tandem relationships with successful managers.
Moreover, it provides them tools for strengthening their own self-confidence. The women can
exchange experiences, fears, and problems in a protected area and thus utilise an enormous
wealth of experience.
However, the programme fails to help companies increase their levels of diversity within their
management teams. In order to further strengthen the programme, the research participants
believed that it would be of advantage having a male mentor in the programme. This would be
someone sufficiently influential to convince other men to support the programme.
Several strategies were developed on how the women-only mentoring programme “Cross�Mentoring OWL” in East Westphalia-Lippe could be strengthened to become a better tool to
combat skill shortages in management. Concluding, this study aims to broaden our
understanding of the possible effects of women only mentoring programmes in order to combat
skill shortages in management.