The most effective mentoring relationships exist outside the immediate boss-subordinate interface. The boss-subordinate context has an inherent conflict of interest and tension, mostly attributable to managers’ directly evaluating the performance of subordinates that limits openness and meaningful communication.
What are the aims of mentoring?
Organizations may decide to use mentoring to achieve a number of aims, which are derived from the organization’s starting point, and therefore from the current needs for change and development. The diagram below illustrates the range of possible directions that mentoring can take:
As the new employees need a mentor to enhance their skills in the same a leader wants to be a mentor because there are personal benefits to a leader as well as benefits for the organization. The mentor-protégé relationship gives the mentor unfiltered access to the attitude and feelings of lower ranking employees. Protégé can be an excellent source of potential problems by providing early warning signals. They provide timely information to upper managers that short-circuit the formal channels. So the manager-protégé relationship is a valuable communication channel that allows mentor to have news of problems before they become common knowledge to others in upper management.
Introduction of Case:
This case is about the mentoring problem at Walnut Insurance Company. Tom Morrison is the President of Walnut Insurance Company. The company practices informal mentoring program with an aim to empower young fresh employees by building their confidence and self-esteem, to assist the agent with the policy questions, to provide training and to enhance the skills and capabilities of employees. Over the years this approach worked quite well. However in the last two years the firm had hired 50 new agents and almost 2/3 of them were women. Now the problem arises as the president Tom Morrison, thought that the women would be excluded from the informal mentoring program. Tom Morrison wanted to implement formal mentoring program to get the women who were newly appointed by the Walnut Insurance Company, participate in the mentoring program because according to him the existing informal mentoring program would exclude the women from the mentoring program. Therefore he wanted to introduce the formal mentoring program so that the women are not excluded. To solve this problem the President wanted the consensus of his Vice Presidents.
But the idea of the President was opposed by the Vice Presidents of the company as tactfully as they could. All the VPs rejected the idea by giving different professional and personal reasons. However the president finally made the decision.
Questions:
- If you were Tom, would you implement a formal mentoring program? If so, how would you address VP’s concerns?
If I am Tom, I would implement the formal mentoring program on the basis of its importance in this case. According to current situation in Walnut Insurance Company, the present informal mentoring system might result in women exclusion from the mentoring program so we consider that formal mentoring program must be implemented. Here the question arises that “Are all employees in the organization equally likely to participate in a mentoring program?” Unfortunately the answer is no. evidence indicate that minorities and women are less likely to be chosen as protégés then the men and thus are less likely to accrue the benefit of mentorship. That is why we will implement the formal mentoring program to include the women as protégés in the mentoring program. As we see in the most organizations in United States upper management positions have been traditionally staffed by the men, so it is hard for minorities and women to be selected as protégés. In addition, in terms of cross gender mentoring senior male managers may select male protégés to minimize problems such as attraction or gossip.
The VPs of the company opposed the idea of formal mentoring program by giving different reasons. One VP said that he is an elder in the church and a very religious person. He can work with the women in the office premises but he cannot travel with them because he thinks that it might tarnish his image among his evangelical friends. We address this VP’s concern as if he is a religious person then he must understand the rights of women. He said that he can work with women in the office and if by working with women in the office his image is not being tarnished then he should not have any problem in working with them on field. As a Professional he must not relate his personal concerns with the job requirements.
Some VPs opposed the idea because they were fearful of sexual harassment suit being filed against them. We address their concerns, that it is right to be afraid of women because some women have damaged the image of all women who intentionally attract the males sexually. But all the women are not same and as you are a senior member of the organization you can easily handle this situation by setting the boundaries between you and your protégé in the beginning of the mentoring program to build a healthy professional relationship. It is not the solution of the problem that women are excluded from the mentoring program. The best way is to solve the problem by including them in the formal mentoring program.
Another VP resisted the idea because he wanted free choice of selecting employees for mentoring. According to his view, only the best agents deserve to be mentored. He said that it is a waste of time to mentor each and every agent. We address his concern in a way that each and every employee needs a mentor. When they are newly hired, at that time they need support. The best way to support that employee is by providing them a mentor because they feel very comfortable while performing various tasks assigned to them. Every employee can become the best employee if a mentor is provided to him.
The last VP objected the idea because he knew that his wife could not approve of any plan that would require that he work closely with young female agents, particularly at night in faraway locations. We address his concern in a way that, it is not necessary to discuss each and everything that happen in the job at home with your wife. Wife and job must be separated. It is requirement of the job to work with women so every employee is liable to perform his responsibility.
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What alternatives to a formal mentoring program are available to Tom?
- As the VPs are not ready to become the mentor, we suggest the Tom to arrange the training session for the women and appoint a trainer for them so that all the women are trained in the same way and a day should be fixed for a meeting to share their experiences and solve the problems they faced while working. In this way they will feel privileged.
- Tom can also provide women, the facility of coaching so that the women can get complete guidance and feedback about the performance. Coaching is a continuous process that is why it is more effective.
- Female mentors should be appointed for female. If female mentors are not available inside the organization then invite someone from outside the organization as a consultant.
- Tom must provide training to the minorities and women and encourage them to that extent so that they do not need any mentor.
