Workplace mentoring

Workplace mentoring is a “learning partnership between employees for purposes of sharing technical information, institutional knowledge and insight with respect to a particular occupation, profession, organization or endeavor”. If this process is done correctly, the organization may reduce turnover and increase productivity. It can be done in both ways, namely [1] Formal mentoring and [2] Informal mentoring. Informal mentoring, the term itself extrapolates the meaning of being occurred informally, for instance a new employee is taken cared by a ‘seasoned’ employee voluntarily (i.e. providing career guidance). On the other hand, formal mentoring are being done formally as in the predecessors (staffs who are about to leave the organization soon) are required to transfer their knowledge to the selected employees to minimize the loss of Knowledge Management that is resided along with the predecessors. The following sections will elucidate the relationship between Workplace mentoring and Knowledge Management.

History of Mentoring

The concept of workplace mentoring has grown in many organizations. The original form is the idea that an experienced worker train the incoming new worker. Recent data shows that mentoring, can be seen not only through the passing down of information from experienced workers to new workers, but also the development of lasting relationships that can affect how the work develops at his or her new job.

Effects

One positive effect of Workplace Mentoring includes the assistance toward new employees in order to receive the resources they need. This allows for the new employee to perform better at their careers. As a result, new employees typically learn different roles through their transition.Workplace Mentoring therefore has a tendency to create an amicable environment through transition for the new employee.This type of work environment can be found in many careers thoughout the country. Workplace mentoring is not limited to a certain age and is not restricted to the mentor being older than the mentee. In many cases, the mentor may be older than the mentee.

Examples of Workplace Mentoring

Relational Mentoring: this is a style of mentoring that is based on peer interaction. Rather it be an older associate, or their boss the mentoring comes from a close bond with another associate. Reverse Mentoring:this type of mentoring takes place when, a younger member of a company is the mentor of an older member of a company to foster a better pipeline of leadership in a company.