The chosen research topic relates to the influence of mentoring on the performance of African-American females.  Research shows that females are dispirited from owning their businesses because they fear that they are not good (Collins et al., 2014).

  As more women make efforts to be successful in their work environment, male leaders discourage or instill fear in them that they are not competent enough to manage an organization.  The opportunities that could lead to career improvement, some of these women are not considered to be part of it (Norman, 2012).  This paper analyses articles and explains the key terms that appeared from the articles. Database Searched It is important that students use databases that would enable them to gather the information they need to complete their research project.  While there are many articles available in the Argosy University Library online, it is important to differentiate articles that are empirical and non-empirical.  By so doing, students would be able to find articles that are more credible and have valuable information about their research project. I searched the Academic Search Complete database that is affiliated with Ebsco. This database has different articles on African-American women business owners.

  To obtain the desired articles, I set the parameters for articles that are not more than five years old.  I also selected only articles that were full-text and peer-reviewed.  Another database that I searched was ProQuest.  ProQuest has different articles including a dissertation on mentoring and women business owners.  I chose the databases because they have information that is related to my research topic.

Boolean logic was implemented in my article search by connecting words in this manner: Mentoring and African-American women, Mentoring and business owners, and African American business owners not Caucasian women. I also used Boolean logic in this manner: Mentoring business owners (title) AND Jones and Jackson (author) AND 2016 (year). Research Question RQ 1.  Is there a statistically significant relationship between mentoring and the performance level of African-American female employees? Ho: There is no statistically significant relationship between mentoring and the performance level of African-American female employees. Ha: There is a statistically significant relationship between mentoring and the performance level of African-American female employees.

Articles Reviewed Laukhauf and Malone (2015) conducted a qualitative study to examine whether mentoring improve the lives of women in a business environment.  The total number of participants who were used in the study was twenty.  The participants were women entrepreneur of different businesses.  The results suggest that mentoring improve the lives of the participants who were involved in this study.  The results further show that women consider mentoring to be a useful tool during the early stage of their business. The participants noted that they receive mentoring from other professionals, families, friends, and other acquaintances.

Because women were able to learn by examples, they were able to assimilate information that enabled them to improve their work performance.  Through mentoring, women can gain a better understanding of networking opportunities, leadership skills, and self-confidence. Collins et al.

 (2014) conducted a qualitative study to investigate how mentoring improves academic women’s’ careers. Eight participants who work in academia were used for this study and the participants belong to the Women’s Group Meeting Program in the university they work for. The results suggest that women had some challenges balancing work and their personal life due to their research responsibilities they have with their employer.  Nevertheless, women show appreciation for working in a diverse work environment where most of them were natives of countries in Europe.  Because women were able to find challenges during their mentoring session that prevented them from moving forward, they were able to find solutions to the problems. The results also show that women were able to gain a better sense of themselves and what they could handle at work.  The peer group mentoring improves women work performance and open doors of opportunity that led to career advancement within their organization.

  Peer grouping mentoring become an effective tool in helping women with academic career progression. Norman (2012) conducted a qualitative study to explore effective mentoring strategies that could improve employees career development.  The participants used in the study were six female senior national coaches.  The result suggests that one of the strategies that were used to develop participants’ careers was ensuring that they understand that coaching in the national level also gives encouragement to women and those who were interested in becoming coaches.  The results also show that women who were interested in becoming coaches felt they needed to be provided with opportunities that would enable them to gain experiences and practice at a higher level in their work environment.  To advance and develop employees’ skills, management must be opening to mentoring from young and older employees. Blood et al. (2012) conducted a quantitative study to investigate the impact of mentoring on women in academics.

  The participants who were used in the study were one thousand one hundred and seventy-nine women, and they were from Harvard Medical School.  The results suggest that most faculty women do not have mentors and those who had mentors were not satisfied with the information they received from their mentoring sessions. The results also show that mentors do not discuss with their mentors the importance of setting career goals.

The results further show that mentees need mentoring who can educate them about publishing and other areas in their professional lives.  Leaders andmanagers of organizations should help and enhance mentoring efforts by discussing how mentoring can positively affect employees’ research focus, academic ranks, and their job performance. Dow (2014) conducted a qualitative study to examine the effect of mentoring on women careers.  The total number of participants in the study was eight.  The result suggests that women who serve as mentors noted that they would like to learn a new strategy that would enable them to be effective mentors to women.  The results also show that mentors are interested in learning socialization programs and networking that would teach them new strategies that would enable them to be effective as mentors.

  Managerial leaders should carefully assess how well the present socialization programs give not only technical training but also how feedback is given to newcomers.  The results also show that generational differences can have a negative influence on mentoring.  The race for mentors and mentees were also noted as a factor that can help develop eh mentoring relationship between two both parties.  Lim et al.

(2015) studied the role of mentoring with African-American accountants to contribute to the body of knowledge on mentoring as apotential tool that can be used in the accounting profession.  The researchers tested whether African-American women have few mentoring benefits than their male counterparts.  The researchers tested the impact of the quantity of benefits mentors provided on job positions.  The results from this study suggest that African-American women are less likely to have beneficial mentors than their male counterparts. The results also show that having a formal mentor and having a greater number of beneficial mentors have a positive impact on women job positions. Newkirk and Cooper (2013) noted that effective leadership is important in all organizations, and the Baptist Church is not exempted. Strong spiritualism can make a difference in the life of women leaders and members.  A growing number of African-American women are showing interest in the Baptist Church Ministry, but the preparation, training, and mentoring are often insufficient.

  Ten African-American women were interviewed to capture their background, educations, supports and roles as Baptist minister preacher, counselor, andleaders in the church. The result suggests that few ministers were willing to serve as mentors.  Women ministers were found to be self-motivated and personally inspired.  The results of the study also include role analysis of women ministers as teachers, preachers, counselors,and as mentors themselves.

  The study also shows that in some cases, women were not supporting other women in the Baptist church.    Hence, it is difficult to be a woman minister, and it is complicated even more when the minister is an African-American woman. Gardner, Barrett, and Pearson (2014) explored the lived experiences of successful African-American student affairs administrators at predominantly white institutions and factors that served as enablers and barriers to their careers success.  The researchers found three constructs: adjustment issues, institutional factors, and care dynamics.  A total of 14 participants were used for the study.  The participants were African-American student affairs administrator who were males and females.  The result shows the importance of a mentoring relationship, healthy self-image and motivation and social network and family support.

  Adjustment issues/barriers included the feeling of prejudice and feeling of separateness and compensation /work conditions and resources. The institutional factor barrier was discrimination. Jones and Osborn-Lumpkin (2013) noted that many Black female junior scholars have private and early career development program designed to address socialization issues through individual and all grouped mentoring.  This descriptive qualitative study investigates the importance and effectiveness of a research boot camp-like experiences in the form of an early career professional development program.  The results suggest that while traditional socialization activity fail to include knowledge about writing and publishing as well as provision for development, a professional and personal network of Black female faculty identity as crucial for success. Furthermore, Genoa (2016) studied the experiences and reflections of six educators’ leadership mentoring conditions.  The participants in the study were Black women who were selected by faculty based on academic performance.  The research enabled educational leadership candidates to serve as the researcher and took part actively in searching for better and different route to culturally lead and teach effectively in inner city school taught and lead by white teachers and principals.

The educational leadership participants and the candidates engaged in lively discourse about pedagogy, practice, and support that promoted cultural responsibility.  The data include conservation, informal interview, and reflective analysis. Copeland and Calhoun (2014) conducted a study to investigate the mentoring experiences of women superintendents in southeastern states.  The participants included in the study were thirty-nine women superintendents and eight females’ superintendents whowere purposefully selected.  The findings of the study suggest that women had positive mentoring experiences that included the importance of having a female mentor and setting up a support system.  The findings also suggest that social-emotional based elements for effective mentoring were related to challenging, support, and encouragement of other female educational leaders through both formal and informal mentoring. Oszua and Agbalajobi (2016) explored opportunities and challenges of young academia in a male dominant university system.

  From an exploratory qualitative design, the article shows empirical evidence through structured face to face interview with purposeful selected thirty-six females in academia.  The participants were recruited from the Obafemi Awolowo University, which is public owned first-generation university in Nigeria.   A thematic data analysis reveals familiar challenges as inadequate and non-availability of older female role models for upcoming females in   academia. Other factors included fear of being label by other colleagues when a female has a male as a role model, unfriendly gender policies, and work environment that does not cater for women’s needs.

  Based on these findings, the researchers call for formal mentoring relationship for young women in academia.             Poor and Brown (2013) conducted a quantitative study about women mentoring program. The researchers were concern with the retention of women in engineering, which lead to theimplementation of many programs to improve retention, including meeting program.   The college of engineering at Washington State University started a novel women’s mentoring program, using professional engineers who graduated from the university as mentors.

  The results showed that participants in the mentioned program are kept at a higher rate than states that do not take part.  Seventy-four percent of the participants stayed in engineer compared to 68% for all 54 women. In the past, an average of 51% of female students are still in engineering at the end of their first year. Dunbar and Kinnersley (2011) conducted a quantitative study to examine the experiences of administrators who have been mentored.  The participants who were used in the study were two hundred and thirty-nine and, they were employees who work with Tennessee institution of higher education.

  The Kinnersley Mentoring survey was used to gather the data. The results suggest that women prefer mentors who were also women.  The results also revealed that there was no significant difference in mentoring relationship.  The results also show that mentees who had a mentor who were of the different race had satisfying mentoring relationship, and mentors who were of higher rank had useful sessions even when their mentors were of the same rank with them. Johnson (2011) examined the effect of mentoring on female career development.

  The total number of participants who were used in the study was sixty-seven and, they were faculty and administrative employees of a university.  The instrument used to collect the data was developed by the researchers the results suggest that mentoring encourages women to perform well within their organization.  The results also show that mentoring enabled women to create career goals that were attainable with a five-year period.  The more mentoring women received the more they became sure of themselves.  This gave an opportunity for purposeful dialogues and enabled mentees to make better decisions and solve problems.  Furthermore, Ncube and Washburn (2010) studied how a caring focus mentoring team model can aid women in advancing their careers.

  A total of six participants were used for the study and the participants belonged to a local Association of Women Business owners chapter.  The results suggest that women collaborated with each other and created network system where they strategize about how to improve and advance their business.   Radu Lefebvre and Redien-Collot (2013) conducted a mixed method study to assess the impact of learning programs in mentoring.  The total number of participants used in the study was one hundred and ten and they were fromParis, France.

  The results suggest that mentors use persuasion, encouragement, and criticism as mentoring strategies. The results further showed that encouragement, and persuasion had a positive impact on mentees attitudes.  When mentees were encouraging to try new business endeavor or strategy, they felt they have the potential to improve themselves. This motivation provided them with the strengths they needed to try new things and develop their basic skills and improve their work environment.

   When mentees use a mentoring strategy that was not effective, they were informed by their mentors to consider environment and situations that could motivate them to make such a decision so that they would be less likely to make similar decisions in the future. Summary  This paper explained the articles that were used for this literature review.  This paper also discussed how the articles were found.  One of the common themes across the article is open-mindedness.

  St-Jean (2012) noted that one of the most important skills that is effective is having the ability to keep an open mind.  Norman (2012) noted that we all come to the mentoring table with our own thoughts, our own value system, and our own prejudices.  Latham, Ford, and Tzabbar (2012) said that the purpose of mentoring is to transform not only the mentored but also the mentor. Collins et al.

(2014) mentioned that for mentoring to occur, everyone needs to open their minds to new ways of thinking.  It is not always easy, and it will be an ongoing process throughout the mentoring relationship. Another theme that appeared from the articles is listening.  Norman (2012) noted that participants felt that their mentors actively listened to them during mentoring sessions.  Blood et al. (2012) pointed out that during the morning session, mentors are focused on what the manatee is saying, and they reinforce what the mentee is saying by offering nonverbal cues, such as eye contact and nodding their head. Both mentors and mentees need to engage in active listening with one another. Another theme that appeared was honesty.

  Ryan, Goldberg, and Evans (2010) mentioned that their mentors were honest with them and they were prepared to hear honest answers (or to deliver honest answers).  St-Jean (2012) noted that it is not always easy to be completely honest, but it is important. Another theme that emerged was deep reflection and self-awareness. Collins et al. (2014) explained that mentors and mentees took time to reflect on what they were discussing.

  Norman (2012) noted that taking time to reflect, however, can help people avoid automatic reactions and, instead, help each other grow. undefined undefined undefined undefined undefined undefined undefined undefinedundefined undefined undefined undefined undefined undefined undefined undefined undefined undefined undefined