| Course | MGMT 9000M Doctoral Dissertation |
|---|---|
| Week | Week 8 |
| Paper type | Conclusions draft |
| Length | About 530 words, 4 pages |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Walden University |
| Program | PhD in Management |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for MGMT 9000M Week 8
Four Conclusions, Each With Its Chain: A Conclusions Draft for a Two-Firm Study of Mentoring and Promotion Among Women Engineers, Tracing Every Conclusion to a Sub-Question, Numbered Findings and an Interpretation Paragraph, With Recommendations in Three Tiers of Reach
Student Name
Walden University
MGMT 9000M: Doctoral Dissertation
Instructor Name
Month Day, Year
Four Conclusions, Each With Its Chain: A Conclusions Draft for a Two-Firm Study of Mentoring and Promotion Among Women Engineers, Tracing Every Conclusion to a Sub-Question, Numbered Findings and an Interpretation Paragraph, With Recommendations in Three Tiers of Reach
Conclusions
The study examined formal mentoring programs at two engineering firms, through promotion records for 186 women engineers over six years and interviews with 34 of them. Four conclusions follow.
Conclusion 1. At both firms, women engineers whose mentors held senior technical roles were promoted sooner than those mentored by program staff.
Chain: answers SQ2; rests on Findings 2 and 3 (promotion records and interviews); argued in interpretation paragraph 6.2.
Conclusion 2. The mentoring relationships that preceded faster promotion were marked by the mentor's active advocacy in promotion discussions, not by the frequency of meetings.
Chain: answers SQ2; rests on Findings 3 and 4; argued in paragraph 6.3.
Conclusion 3. Mentees valued program staff mentors for support and guidance but did not see them as able to influence promotion decisions.
Chain: answers SQ1; rests on Finding 1; argued in paragraph 6.1.
Conclusion 4. Neither firm's program assigned mentors on the basis of their position to advocate for the mentee.
Chain: answers SQ3; rests on Finding 5 (program documents); argued in paragraph 6.4.
How Kram's Distinction Shapes the Conclusions
Kram (1985) separated two kinds of help a mentor gives: career help, such as sponsoring, creating exposure and offering protection, which moves the protégé's career forward, and psychosocial help, such as role modeling, counseling and friendship, which supports the protégé's sense of competence and identity. Kram (1983) had earlier described how mentoring relationships move through phases in which these functions change. Conclusions 1 to 3 rely on the distinction. Mentors in senior technical roles provided sponsorship, a career function; program staff provided psychosocial functions that mentees valued but that did not affect promotion. Allen et al. (2004), in a meta-analysis, found that career mentoring was more strongly related to objective career outcomes such as promotion than psychosocial mentoring was, which is consistent with the pattern found here.
Recommendations
First tier: the two firms. Each firm should assign at least one mentor with a senior technical role to every participant in its program, and should track, for each mentee, whether the mentor participated in a promotion discussion in the past year. That measure follows directly from Conclusion 2 and can be collected from existing promotion committee records.
Second tier: firms with similar programs. Firms that run formal mentoring programs staffed mainly by human resources or program personnel, and that promote engineers through technical committees, may find the same gap. Under those conditions, the study suggests reviewing whether mentors can advocate in promotion decisions. Firms with different promotion processes should not assume the finding applies.
Third tier: research. Three questions follow. Does the pattern hold where promotion decisions are made by managers rather than committees? Does sponsorship by senior technical mentors also speed promotion for men, and by how much? And how do senior technical mentors decide whom to advocate for?
No recommendation addresses engineering as a profession. The study examined two firms, and its findings do not support claims about the field as a whole.
References
Allen, T. D., Eby, L. T., Poteet, M. L., Lentz, E., & Lima, L. (2004). Career benefits associated with mentoring for protégés: A meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89(1), 127-136. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.89.1.127
Kram, K. E. (1983). Phases of the mentor relationship. Academy of Management Journal, 26(4), 608-625. https://doi.org/10.5465/255910
Kram, K. E. (1985). Mentoring at work: Developmental relationships in organizational life. Scott, Foresman.
What the MGMT 9000M Week 8 instructions ask for
The eighth week asks you to draft your conclusions and recommendations. State each conclusion as a single sentence. Beneath it, add a short chain line naming the sub-question it answers, the numbered findings it rests on and the interpretation paragraph that argued it. Show how your theoretical framework shapes the wording of your conclusions. Then write recommendations in tiers by reach: first for the organizations you studied, with a measure each could track; second for similar organizations, under stated conditions; and third as questions for research. State plainly where your recommendations stop. The draft should run three to four pages. Every conclusion must trace to findings, and no recommendation should reach further than the evidence.
How this MGMT 9000M Week 8 example is built
The mentoring draft opens with the study's scope, then gives four one-line conclusions with chains, from the promotion difference by mentor role to the absence of advocacy in either firm's mentor assignments. A section explains how Kram's career and psychosocial functions name the difference, with Kram's earlier phases study and Allen and colleagues' finding that career mentoring relates more strongly to promotion. The first tier recommends assigning senior technical mentors and tracking participation in promotion discussions. The second tier applies under stated conditions about program staffing and committee promotion. The third tier poses three research questions, and a final line excludes the profession as a whole.
Where the marks sit in the MGMT 9000M Week 8 rubric
Most of the grade depends on the chains. Graders check that each conclusion names its sub-question, findings and interpretation paragraph, and that the conclusion does not claim more than they support. The use of theory to name conclusions earns credit when it sharpens rather than decorates. Tiered recommendations are judged on whether each tier's conditions are stated and whether the first tier offers a measurable step. Stating where recommendations stop shows discipline. Drafts with conclusions that restate findings without synthesis, recommendations that address an entire industry from two cases, or chains that point to findings that do not support the conclusion fall into the middle band. A first-tier recommendation that comes with a measure the organization already collects, such as promotion committee records, is especially persuasive because it can be checked next year.
Common MGMT 9000M Week 8 mistakes, and how to avoid them
Write each conclusion in one sentence, then list by number the findings it depends on. If a conclusion needs a finding you do not have, narrow it. Use your framework's terms where they name your conclusion precisely. For recommendations, start with the organizations you studied and give each something it could measure next year. Then state the conditions under which similar organizations might act, and turn the rest into research questions. End with a sentence on what your study does not address. A tutor can help you check your chains, and the mentoring conclusions above show all three tiers.
Get a MGMT 9000M Week 8 example written to your instructions
For Week 8, share the prompt and rubric, your sub-questions, a numbered summary of the findings, and the organizations or settings your study covered. Conclusions with chain lines and tiered recommendations come back within 24-48h, and there is no charge for the first. They are drafted for an invented pair of aerospace firms; conclusions about your study are drawn by you.
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MGMT 9000M Week 8 questions, answered
Where can I find a free MGMT 9000M Week 8 sample paper?
The mentoring conclusions draft is posted above in full, with every chain line.
What is the first conclusion in the MGMT 9000M Week 8 sample?
Women engineers with senior technical mentors were promoted sooner than those mentored by program staff.
What is a chain line?
A short note under a conclusion naming its sub-question, the numbered findings and the interpretation paragraph behind it.
How does Kram's distinction shape the conclusions?
Senior technical mentors provided career functions such as sponsorship; program staff provided psychosocial support.
Why is there no recommendation for the profession?
The study examined two firms, which cannot support claims about engineering as a whole.