An Analysis of the Formal Mentoring Concept in Business and Industry: Implications for Development and Implementation

126 p.Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1988.With an awareness of the kind of developmental assistance mentors can provide inexperienced employees, public and private sector organizations have encouraged mentoring relationships as part of their career development programs. Employers often looked toward a formal mentoring program as a means of instituting a management continuity system at a variety of levels. Some have used the program as a vehicle to integrate newcomers, protected class employees, and high potential employees more rapidly into the mainstream. However, there was no empirical evidence which described how formal mentoring programs were used in business and industry.The study was undertaken to provide a foundation for organization decision makers who are considering the implementation of formal mentoring programs. The study utilized decriptive research methodology and qualitative data collection techniques. Descriptions of formal mentoring programs in three Chicago area companies were prepared. Recommendations and a model for planning and conducting formal mentoring programs was developed.The data were collected through the use of indepth, on-site interviews and documents reviewed in three organizations located in the Chicago area. The findings indicated that the organizations investigated established formal mentoring programs to assimilate employees in the organization, to provide skills training and to enhance career development. Newly hired employees were assigned a mentor without consideration to gender, cultural differences, or personality styles.The human resource personnel were charged with orientating mentors and proteges. Two of the three companies had sequential training which complemented the formal mentoring program. In all cases the organizations provided an environment of encouragement for mentoring relationships. The outcomes for the formal mentoring programs were reported as benefiting the organization as well as the individual employees involved.There was no apparent relationship between the nature of the organization and its use of a formal mentoring program. The findings further suggested that formal mentoring programs are not widely use by business and Industry in the Chicago area. In those organizations where formal mentoring programs were used, and environment where employees are encouraged to develop others was crucial to its success.U of I OnlyRestricted to the U of I community idenfinitely during batch ingest of legacy ETD