Barriers to Mentoring of Graduates in Quantity Surveying Firms in Tanzania: A Factor Analysis Approach

ABSTRACT Despite the plethora of studies on barriers to mentoring, these have focused more on the higher education sector, and particularly mentoring to university graduates. However, there still limited studies that have focused on understanding the barriers affecting the mentoring process of graduates in quantity surveying firms within developing countries. This research aims at bridging that knowledge gap by exploring the underlying relationships among the barriers to mentoring of graduates in the context of quantity surveying firms in Tanzania thus minimizing risk of losing vital knowledge and competencies. An interpretivist epistemological design was adapted to extensively manually review and search the literature on mentoring barriers. Based on 15 barriers to mentoring identified, a questionnaire survey was used to collect data from graduates employed in Tanzanian quantity surveying firms, with 53 validated responses; mean score techniques and factor analysis were conducted. Empirical results showed a four-factor model comprising the following: multicultural and social injustice-related barriers; mentoring relationship-related barriers; personal and relational behavior-related barriers; and attitudinal and knowledge-related barriers. The identification of the key barriers to mentoring of graduates would be useful to advocate informal mentoring training programs to sharpen the skills of mentors in order to improve the performance of graduates.