Mentoring and Change in Cultural Organizations: The Experience of Directors in British National Museums

Abstract

In management and arts management literature, mentoring is generally associated with social reproduction and emulation, and illustrates a phenomenon that is rather conservative in nature. Rarely is mentoring associated with change. In this article, we explore how mentoring has been a force of renewal for the institutional culture of British museums. This qualitative research brings attention to mentoring as a lever for cultural change through the experience of a new cohort of museum directors—one that has translated a new vision and approach to museums and the public into reality, and has brought forward the Labour government's cultural policy ideals.

Keywords:

• change
• cultural organizations
• mentoring
• museums

Acknowledgments

The author would like to acknowledge the support of the British Academy and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for this research. The author would also like to acknowledge the reviewers for their helpful suggestions for the revision of this manuscript.