Suppose you have just been hired as the Chief Diversity Officer of a large company. Previous mentoring programs at this company have not been successful. After inquiring about previous efforts, you discover that most mentor pairs met just a few times, but very few lasting or meaningful mentoring relationships were created. There were also a significant number of employees that did not even attempt to seek out a mentor relationship. Which of the following may be a reason why prior mentoring programs at your company failed? Check all that apply.

a. Minorities and women are much less likely to develop mentoring relationships than white males
b. Mentoring is not an effective way for organizations to develop female and minority employees
c. Due to specific laws governing appropriate workplace behavior, senior-level male executives were reluctant to cultivate mentoring relationships with female employees, fearing negative repercussions
d. Fear of creating a future competitor within the company, senior-level female executives were hesitant to mentor other female employees