An exploratory study on mentoring in the South African construction industry

Abstract: Mentoring is important for all young employees entering the workplace. Despite the growing research on both sets of individuals, mentors and proteges, mentoring from the perspective of the organizational remains comparatively under reported. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of mentoring in the construction industry.Further more it will identify the drawbacks, benefits and examine future prospects of formal mentoring in medium sized and large organisations in South African construction industy. The paper focuses on how organisations view mentoring. The study was mainly a literature review with a special focus on formal mentoring. The data used in the report was mainly qualitative, based on the, case studies and historical data. The review is into formal mentoring of young employees entering the work place. The scope of this review is confined to the literature that discusses formal mentoring internal to the workplace which support on and off job learning. The results revealed the organisation current situation and the issues that are important to the HR function. Mentoring is primarily used to transfer tacit knowledge from those near retirement to younger employees, foster the personel development and create well being at work. Career advancement and work performance are not as impotant as might have been thought. Young employees, in particular may demand the use of social media, along side mentoring