Informal Virtual Mentoring for Team Leaders and Members

Abstract

The Problem Leaders and members of virtual teams do not always have the opportunity to seek training and development to overcome the challenges of being culturally and geographically distant, nor the serendipitous exchanges afforded by proximity to work associates who might provide mentoring for personal or professional guidance. How then might organizations and human resource development (HRD) professionals foster relationships that are supportive in nature, considered critical for many outcomes associated with individual and leadership development and virtual team success? The Solution Drawing on the theoretical perspective that communication is constitutive of social, psychological and organizational realities, a conceptual model was developed through an interpretive study. The model highlights how informal developmental relationships emerge, what type of communication constitutes these relationships, and the impact they have on leaders and members of virtual work teams. The Stakeholders The results of this study have implications for leaders and members who work virtually and for HRD professionals seeking strategies to create and improve informal developmental relationships through the medium of virtual work team communication. Opportunities exist for researchers to explore the effectiveness and outcomes of building developmental relationships in virtual contexts.

Promoting virtual, informal learning now to thrive in a post‐pandemic world

“…However, increases in telecommuting and virtual work may interfere with mentoring and the development of other social relationships important to career development (Allen et al, 2017). Particularly, concerns about equitable technology access, online communication skills, and mentor‐protégé privacy are all hurdles that could interfere with the process of building trust and otherwise sustaining high‐quality virtual mentoring relationships (Bierema & Hill, 2005; Hart, 2016). These hurdles are problematic because building connections with others is important to socialization and development (Bauer, 2010) and are compounded in that informal connections can be more difficult to establish virtually than face‐to‐face (Hemphill & Begel, 2011; Wesson & Gogus, 2005).…”

“…Although virtual mentoring or e‐mentoring is not as common as traditional in‐person mentoring and has unique challenges, it can also be effective (Bierema & Hill, 2005; Bierema & Merriam, 2002). The first step to promote mentoring connections in a virtual environment is to make it easy for those seeking mentorship and those willing to serve as mentors to connect and communicate (Bierema & Hill, 2005; Hart, 2016; Salmon, 2000). This usually requires some sort of structure or platform to support mentoring relationships (Bierema & Hill, 2005).…”

“…COPs could be formed around topics pertinent to the current COVID‐19 crisis and future challenges for remote/hybrid work, including employee health and well‐being, leading hybrid teams, virtual socialization for new employees, or work‐family balance when working from home. Organizational efforts to encourage virtual mentoring will help employees see that opportunities for learning and career development are still important, even during difficult times like COVID‐19, which should help to build a culture of continuous learning (see Tip #5 below; Bierema & Hill, 2005; Hart, 2016).…”

Virtual team member perspectives on personal development: A sequential explanatory study

“…Hart (2016) and Owen (2015) studied virtual mentoring, also known as remote mentoring, eMentoring, distance mentoring, telementoring, and cyber–mentoring. Virtual mentoring offers flexibility for mentors and mentees to maximize and use both synchronous and asynchronous tools.…”

Telework, virtual work or telework

“…In this sense, the effective use of technology-mediated communication, as well as the contextualization to the virtual environment of relational skills, have been highlighted as desirable competencies for teleworkers (Gupta & Pathak, 2018;Norman et al, 2020;Holtz et al, 2020;Hart, 2016). In this sense, Iulia and Dumitru (2017) present in their review on competencies for virtual work the role of the leader is fundamental, whereas it will be necessary to strengthen the strategic alignment, as well as to share the vision of the project in an assertive way.…”