Strengths and Weaknesses of Mentoring in Human Resource Practice
Introduction
Dealing with different individuals in an organization is one complicated and tedious process. To be able to maintain an organization effectively, a Human Resource practitioner must be able to employ different practices that would help develop the values and culture of individuals and the whole organization as well. One of these practices includes mentoring, which involves passing the knowledge of the mentor to a protégé. Mentoring can be useful in passing knowledge and learning to an individual or groups of individuals to facilitate greater production or output in a certain organization. The process of mentoring is considered one of the most useful tools in career development, and thus, significant in the work or job of any employee. In this regard, this essay discusses the concept of mentoring as a valuable Human Resource practice that would be helpful in the career development of employees. In addition, it also discusses the strengths and setbacks of using mentoring as a Human Resource practice in an organization.
Mentoring as a Human Resource Practice
The concept of mentoring has been used throughout history. It has been first emphasized in Homer’s Odyssey, telling how Athena, the Goddess of War and patroness of the arts and industry assumes the form of Mentor and accompanies Odysseus’ son, Telemachus on his quest to find his father. From this, the word mentor has been synonymous to being a trusted advisor, friend, teacher, and a wise person. During the course of history, many more examples of mentoring relationships have been observed and cited, namely, the mentoring relationships between Socrates and Plato, Hyden and Beethoven, and Freud and Jung. As such, the concept of mentoring has been a fundamental form of human development, in which a specific individual invests time, energy, and personal expertise to assist the growth and ability of another individual (2001). In this regard, it can be perceived that through mentoring, significant and long-lasting relationships can be developed and maintained, thus, enriching interpersonal communication and cooperation.
It has been emphasized that mentoring has been observed among royalties, fathers and sons, histographers, musicians and many others throughout history. Likewise, it can also be observed in contemporary organizations and companies. Mentoring is an old-age practice that offers significant benefits to both employees and organization; however, despite its value, its practice is limited only to a few companies. This is because some managers perceive its implementation as cumbersome and with its benefits not proportionate to the resources invested (2004). As such, most mentoring programs must still be evaluated and assessed, as to how it would be accepted by employees and how would be employed by managers or supervisors. In this regard, mentoring is regarded as one of the processes through which scholars replace themselves and through which flexibility and openness to ideas and creativity of the manipulation of phenomena can be maintained, and this leads a mentor to move beyond preoccupation with self to foster the growth of a developing professional (2006). Because mentoring focuses on the development of relationships between two individuals, it can be perceived that this process focuses on communication and effective interpersonal relationships. In addition, due to the fact that a manager or supervisor, or any individual that has an advanced learning takes time, perseverance and effort in sharing his or her knowledge, skills, and techniques with another employee or individual, means that mentoring serves to be one of the most useful Human Resource tools that foster career development. It has been reported that Human Resource practices vary depending on the influences of factors such as values and beliefs of top management, business strategy and strategic goals of the organization, structure and culture of the organization, technology, core activities, and competencies of the organization, the policies involved in HR functions, and the expertise, credibility, and political strengths of the Human Resource department (2003). In this regard, the influences of such different factors, both internal and external the organization determines the need and the extent for the use of mentoring as a tool for career development.
Career development is related with the process of mentoring, as mentoring becomes an effective means to achieve the other. Since mentoring focuses on the establishment of interpersonal relationships, it becomes a good means of developing one’s career in the organization through effective communication and human interaction. The mentoring process involved in career development can be summarized into two broad categories known as career functions and psychosocial functions. Career functions refers to those aspects of a relationship that enhance learning the ropes and preparing for advancement in an organization, while psychosocial functions refer to aspects of a relationship that enhance a sense of competency, clarity of identity, and effectiveness in a professional role (1993). In this sense, mentoring targets both the development of career and psychosocial functions that play vital roles in the overall development of an individual in an organization. Mentoring then, plays an important role in career development through development of both the professional skills of an individual being an employee, and through development of his or her mental health through improvement of his or her personal communication and interrelationships with other employees as well.
Strengths and Weaknesses of Mentoring
Given the nature, functions and applications of mentoring in both practical situations and in the nature of organizations, it can be perceived that mentoring has both advantages or strengths, and weaknesses or setbacks, based on the fact that not all organizations use the process for the development of their organization. As such, both advantages and setbacks must be determined in order to evaluate the use of mentoring as a valuable Human Resource practice.
It has been reported that mentoring programs provide a structure to support the deliberate pairing of the more skilled and experienced person with the less skilled and experienced person. As such, the mentor is seen as having a breadth and depth of experience, such that the protégé or mentee could not have had at this stage of his or her career. The purpose of this type of relationship is to develop and improve the unique skills and abilities of the protégé, and not to make an exact clone of the mentor (1999). One of the strengths of mentoring is providing emotional and psychological support ( 1999). As emphasized the previous discussion, psychosocial development of an individual is being improved in the process, thus, supporting his or her emotional and psychological construct. Through the process of mentoring, the mentor provides his or her protégé with emotional and psychological support through constant communication, appraisal, and constructive criticisms that would further improve the performance and personality of an employee. Another strength of mentoring is role modeling. Role modeling is being exemplified by the mentor, as he or she tends to influence the personality and performance of the protégé through good manners and performance in terms of work and work ethics. As such, the mentor shows the protégé a skilled and capable mentor that also exemplified good performance in the organization. In relation to this, it increases feelings of support and friendship that would further provide better awareness of what new employees must experience (2004). Thus, it helps an employee to gain new experiences, learning, skills, and knowledge in the organization.
Fourth, mentoring programs provide better understanding of corporate culture and organizational structure (2004). Through mentoring, the mentor would be able to inform his or her protégé on certain practices and culture of the organization that exist, thus, helping the protégé to adjust to his or her working environment. Fifth, mentorship is a reciprocal relationship, making it complex, interactive, and mutually beneficial (2006). In this regard, both the mentor and the protégé would have the chance to develop mutual communication and interrelationships, thus, improving inter and intra-communications in the organization. The improvement in terms of communication in the organization would enable gradual development and advancement in the company, thus, leading to the empowerment and motivation of employees. Lastly, involving the mentor in the development of an employee, in this case is a protégé, helps to provide the motivation in developing a good professional plan for the enhancement of the career of the employee. The mentor can introduce the protégé to people with specific skills to act as coaches, and provide opportunities for the protégé to take on tasks and projects that will extend their expertise, with the help of the support structure to ensure that the project will not fail (1999). In the process, the mentor provides the protégé with sponsorship, where the mentor puts his or her reputation on the line by actively promoting the protégé and by giving him or her important responsibilities ( 1993).
In this regard, it can be perceived that the advantages or strengths of mentoring and mentoring programs provide both the mentor and the protégé with the opportunity to build effective interpersonal relationships, with the assistance and support of communication, and mutual trust. However, given the many benefits of mentoring programs, there are still setbacks or disadvantages that can be determined. Such setbacks may be the cause why not all companies and organizations employ mentoring as one of its Human Resource practices. Primarily, difficulties or weaknesses in mentoring are being observed when there is insufficient funding or termination of funding before the mentoring program is established, thus emphasizing the costs and resources associated with mentoring (Hansford et al 2004). In this regard, it can be emphasized that funds are importantly needed in terms of implementing mentoring programs. As such, more companies would be able to hire external mentors in order to provide additional knowledge and input to the new employees or the supposed protégé. Additional setback includes the lack of support from the top management. This must not be so because support from the top management is needed for additional learning and dissipation of knowledge regarding a certain subject or practice. Without the support of the top management, mentoring would not be effective, as their roles in the development of the employees and the organization itself is crucial, most especially in terms of sharing adequate knowledge and experiences. Another setback includes the difficulties in coordinating programs within organizational initiatives (2004). This setback or drawback is difficult to overcome as this involves the lack of coordination and communication with other departments or functions of the organization. Without the support and cooperation of other functions of the organization, mentoring through sharing of experiences and knowledge would be hard to achieve. Fourth setback is the lack of formal structure and evaluation of the mentoring experience (2006). It has been reported that mentoring programs implemented without sufficient preparation, particularly placing managers as mentors without sufficient training tend to provide no benefit, thus, treating the matter by both mentor and protégé as a burden (2004). In this regard, it can be observed that without proper preparation, dedication, support, and knowledge, mentoring programmes would not be successful. As such, to be able to successfully implement mentoring programs in an organization, preparation and proper knowledge must be had, thus, indicating the preparedness of the mentor and the organization itself. Moreover, implementing mentorship and mentoring programmes would involve the use of different tools and training methods, such as printed materials, media, discussions, feedbacks, and other types of communication processes. In this sense, mentoring programmes would be facilitated much better with the use of such means and methods.
Conclusion
From the discussion, it can be concluded that mentorship and mentoring programmes in an organization provide effective communication and interpersonal relationships between the mentor and the protégé. In addition, mentorship and mentoring programmes provide the whole organization with the opportunity to develop interpersonal relationships, communication and coordination among functions, as mentorship entails the support of the top management and the different functions of the organization. However, despite advantages are the disadvantages or setbacks, when the organization fails to support and become prepared for implementing such mentorship programs.
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