E‐mentoring: solving the issue of mentoring across distances

Abstract

he virtues of mentoring within organisations have long since been extolled by many of the leading authorities in the field and HR people, but little is still known about the e-mentoring approach. Some organizations have flirted with e-mentoring but few have come close to emulating the successes that have been achieved in the areas of business-to-business in the UK (see Box 1) or business to university in the USA. Why, we might ask ourselves, when e-mail is such a prevalent means of communication throughout the corporate world should this be? It cannot be the technology that causes the problem, so perhaps it is our lack of understanding of e-mentoring's key features and benefits? Key features6. Web-based support, tools and information. 7. Managed endings.

Searching for e-mentoring practices for SME staff development

“…A blended mentoring model is recommended, one which combines the best in traditional and e-mentoring (Stokes 2001;Woodd 1999;Perren 2003;Clutterbuck 2004). It is believed that e-mentoring can achieve the same advantages/benefits as can traditional mentoring programmes (Hunt 2005;Clutterbuck 2004), but its participatory possibilities and content advantages can best be deployed in mentoring patterns that take place in broader networks (Hunt 2005). E-mentoring appears to be applicable specifically to the kind of mentoring which includes clearly articulated learning and development objectives, and has as its goal the sharing and development of expertise within a specific, restricted area (Leppisaari and Vainio 2006).…”

SeMatching: Using Semantics to Perform Pair Matching in Mentoring Processes

“…Costs related to travel or time away from the job and costs of updating learning resources can be reduced. Lastly, a record of the ''discussion'' usually exists for later reflection and learning [24]. To summarize, it is possible to state, as discussed by Clutterbuck and Cox [25], that e-Mentoring will be able to overcome many of the problems characteristic of t-Mentoring.…”

“…In contrast, the use of the Web as a communication means provides improved access for the mentor and the mentee, and as stated by [16], creates a larger pool of potential mentors and mentees [22]. In addition, as with other e-learning programmes, a major advantage of an e-Mentoring system is its cost effectiveness [23], [24]. There are high start-up costs, but once established, the operational costs are relatively low.…”

“…Such parameters might include values, gender coincidences, related professional experience, and so on. Despite it being a key issue of concern for mentoring, crucial according to [24], there is little research concerning the matching of pairs [23]. Cohen and Light [28] argue that matching solely on the basis of mentees needs and mentors' skills may not be enough to ensure successful matches, and suggest that personality factors may also be significant.…”

E-mentoring: A Model and Review of the Literature

“…If an organization decides to promote a formal e-mentoring program, the development of matching criteria is crucial to building effective relationships in a formal program (Hunt, 2005). Some scholars note that matching mentor-protégé pairs in e-mentoring may be problematic (Bierema & Hill, 2005;Bierema & Merriam, 2002).…”