3/11/2016 Anderson et al. 2015: Compartmentalizing Feelings http://www.cios.org/getfile/025304_EJC 1/16 Select a page... Volume 25 Numbers 3 & 4, 2015 Compartmentalizing Feelings: Examining the Role of Workplace Emotions in the Mentoring Experiences of Underrepresented Women Faculty Lindsey B. Anderson University of Maryland College Park, MD, USA Ziyu Long Colorado State Fort Collins, CO, USA Patrice M. Buzzanell Klod Kokini Jennifer C. Batra Robyn F. Wilson Purdue University West Lafayette, IN, USA Abstract: Mentoring is a fundamental organizational process that people enact through communication: one that relies on emotion to maintain the professional relationship. This article explores underrepresented women faculty members’ mentoring relationships and corresponding emotions in a College of Engineering (CoE) at a large Midwestern university. Based on indepth interviews with female engineering faculty members, the case study demonstrates how emotions underscore women’s mentoring experiences in academe. Their personal stories demonstrate how the development of mentoring relationships is compartmentalized (emotions and containment) and simultaneously built on trust (emotions and integration). Stories also illustrate how these women see the mentoring processes, emotions, and reproduction of traditional mentoring system as facilitating their professional growth. Our findings contribute to better understanding women’s mentoring in academe and the communicative constructions of mentorship, emotions, and resilience. From the women’s narratives of their everyday mentoring experiences, we draw theoretical implications concerning the restriction and expansion of emotional boundaries in professional mentoring relationships and provide pragmatic recommendations for improving academic mentoring practices. Mentoring is an important organizational process in which more and lessexperienced members communicate information and advice, often marked by emotion (Kalbfleisch, 2000). When mentoring is depicted as knowledge transfer or socialization for career developmental needs, the emotional and relational aspects of the mentoring processes and practices may be neglected. Moreover, communication, when viewed as a conduit or tool for mentoring, tends to belie mentorship’s complex nature as well as its reliance on different communication strategies for relationship development (Kalbfleisch, 2002). To integrate workplace emotions and