Blind date: a case study of mentoring as workplace learning

Abstract

This paper reports on a research project undertaken by the author within a major Australian company which utilised mentoring as part of a leadership training program for potential supervisors. Six pairs of mentors and mentees were asked individually about their perceptions of the mentoring process and of the value of their involvement, personally and professionally. Those responsible for the supervision and conduct of the program were also interviewed. Overall it was clear that the mentees believed they were learning from the mentoring process, in terms of improving their general understanding of the company’s operations and in dealing with practical management issues. The extent of that learning appeared to be influenced by the degree to which the relationship had developed on the basis of openness and trust. The mentors indicated they were also learning from the mentoring process – outcomes which they tended to see in work‐related terms, but with some personal benefits as well. Concludes with a discussion of the place of mentoring in a learning organisation, and suggests some key factors in developing effective mentor‐mentee relationships in a business environment.

Effects of mentoring functions on receivers' organizational citizenship behavior in a Chinese context: A two-study investigation

“…Because relational mentoring facilitates trust, respect, empowerment, and effective communications, high-quality relationships are more likely to benefit receivers than low-quality relationships (Fletcher and Ragins, 2007). This contention is consistent with a finding showing how much protégés can benefit from mentoring is influenced by the development of mentoring relationship based on trust and openness (Dymock, 1999). As hypothesized above, employees' OCB positively relates to the level of benefits they gain from mentoring functions: Employees will perform more OCB when they benefit more in a high-quality mentoring relationship.…”

Mentoring Impact on Leader Efficacy Development: A Field Experiment

“…Richard and colleagues (2009) demonstrated, for example, that when higher levels of trust existed between proté-gés and their mentors, protégés had higher levels of organizational commitment and lower intentions to quit. Further, Dymock (1999) demonstrated that trust in mentoring relationships fostered greater transfer of knowledge between the two parties, which is important if the mentor is to provide developmental advice and feedback to shape the protégé's development. One additional reason to expect trust to be associated with development is the close association between trust and adult attachment styles (Harms, in press).…”

The impact of effort-oriented epistemological beliefs on mentoring support

“…Whereas a learning theory perspective defines learning as "the process of using a prior interpretation to construe a new or revised interpretation of the meaning of one's experience to guide future action" (Mezirow, 1996, p. 162), interpreting meaning relies upon one's ability to understand one's frame of reference and (Taylor, 2000), in this case, his or her underlying epistemologies. As workplace learning entails, in part, the ability of a "system to sense and interpret its changing environment and to apply this shared knowledge in order to […] develop the capabilities of its people" (Marsick, 1997, p. 2), training mentors to help a company's workers to develop from within and to value the capabilities and efforts of its members enables the type of organizational development synonymous with organizational learning (Dymock, 1999). Finally, another practical implication of this study is the importance of the climate for supporting learning relationships, as evidenced by the support for H2b.…”