Pathways to employability: A Critical Realist study of mentoring outcomes among women MBA students in India

The significance of mentoring for graduate employability is well established; however, the current literature assumes the process of mentoring to be a stable training tool without elaborating on mechanisms of change. Using the framework of Critical Realism, this study explores mentoring as a generative mechanism that influences employability of female MBA students in India. Applying the method of narrative analysis to 325 student on their mentoring experiences, we obtain 4212 coded segments falling under three related pathways: Corporate Fitness (career-related skills), Crisis of Confidence (self-belief), and Communication as Bridge (mechanism of change). Our findings indicate that mentoring triggers a latent potential of psychosocial agency (Real layer) through mentor-mentee relationship (Actual layer) which results in observable placement readiness (Empirical layer). While in the current body of literature skill development and belief restoration are seen as independent processes, mentoring is a causal system where communication competency helps convert self-efficacy into career competence.