Designing and validating the organizational mentoring evaluation model in the higher education system in Iran

This study was conducted with the aim of designing and validating a comprehensive model for evaluating organizational mentoring in the Iran’s higher education system. From a philosophical point of view, this study is an empirical research that was done with a deductive-inductive approach. From the perspective of purpose, it is in the category of exploratory research and from the perspective of method and time period of data collection, it is in the category of survey-cross-sectional research. It is also a mixed research because of the quantitative and qualitative methods used. The statistical population of this study in the qualitative section included 11 professors and experienced experts of higher education in Iran who were selected purposefully. Also, in a quantitative part, the point of view of 384 master and doctoral students of higher education was used. In this study, theme analysis method was used to identify the underlying categories of organizational mentoring. Partial least squares method was also used to validate the model.  Data analysis was performed with MAXQDA and Smart PLS softwares. The results showed that the evaluation of organizational mentoring is the cornerstone of achieving the competency of a mentor. The competence of the mentor improves the quality of the relationship between the mentor and the mentee and improves the activities and practical actions of the mentor. In this way, the culture of mentoring develops in the higher education system, and this ultimately leads to the effectiveness of mentoring behaviors and increased mentoring support.