PERCEIVED CAREER SUCCESS AMONG FEMALE ACADEMICS IN NIGERIA: THE ROLE OF MENTORING, RESILIENCE AND ORGANISATIONAL JUSTICE

Abstract

ABSTRACT

This study reviewed the roles of mentoring, resilience and organisational justice on perceived career success among female academics in Nigeria. Using a narrative review design, existing conceptual and empirical literature were selected from major academic databases and thematically analysed into four major themes with the aim to identify patterns and relationships. The review revealed that mentoring increases career awareness, confidence and professionalism, networking, research opportunities, and leadership development, which improves objective and subjective measures of success. Resilience emerged to be an important resource for female academics to handle institutional barriers, heavy workloads, rejection and work–life conflict, though highly effective when there are supportive conditions. Organisational justice was found to be an important institutional determinant in the perception of fairness in promotion processes, workload distribution, opportunities and recognition. The review’s integrative contribution shows that these factors are interrelated: mentoring can contribute to strengthening resilience and organisational justice can influence the environment of mentoring and resilience. The study findings suggest that Nigerian higher education institutions need structured mentoring, environments that support resilience and transparent, fair organisational practices to improve the career success of female academics.

Keywords: Perceived career success; Female academics; Nigeria; Mentorship; Resilience; Organisational justice