Mentorship programs are often misunderstood. Historically speaking, “the term mentor is derived from both the Greek language and mythology. Mentor was the friend and counselor of Ulysses, who during his 10-year Odyssey raised Ulysses’ son.” (Hunsinger, 2004) Mentoring is a forceful, lengthy process after which the individual taught grows tutor�s guidance. After the successful completion of a mentorship program, the protege learns to adjust to the requirements of a speedy, nerve-racking environment. Mentorship programs are extremely important for both the military and the civilian sector.
Mentorship Programs in Military
In the year 1997, Chief of Staff of the US Army instructed the professional development of Officers Study (PDOS) to give formal suggestions for the professional growth of officers through 2025 for the whole Army. Only 59% officers stated at that time that they had a mentor. (Army Mentorship Resource Center, n.d.) As modern higher-ranking administrators confront challenges presented by speedy scientific, cultural, and economic changes, the need to locate and improve future administrators for militaries and nations is always on the rise. Once prospective leaders are spotted, military leaders have to train them so that the newcomers can face upcoming challenges in the future.
The Essay on My Role as a Military Officer
Ever since the 9/11 attacks in the US, Americans have found a new sense of nationalism. This tragic event have invoked the sentiments of the people and intensified their love for democracy and freedom and their aversion for terrorism. As a result, thousands of able-bodies of men and women joined the US Armed Forces in order to retaliate from the terrorists who deliberately killed thousands of ...
For a military mentorship course to be effective, military leaders must first comprehend what mentoring means. In the 1980s, Lieutenant General Charles W. Bagnal contributed in an article titled “Leaders as Mentors”. In this article, the authors defined the conventional features of mentorship programs by identifying the mentor’s role as assisting the mentee in simplifying career objectives and developing a durable approach for professional improvement; developing interim personal development strategies; acquiring technical and administrative expertise through training; developing the framework of recommendations and standards needed at advanced organizational phases; managing occupational or personal challenges through guidance; and obtaining the experience needed for development through intervention. (Hunsinger, 2004)
There are three possible strategies to execute a feasible mentorship program in the military. Each strategy has its advantages and disadvantages. Strategy 1 involves formation and execution of a mentorship procedure from the top down that utilizes researched metrics for each officer to apply as a benchmark for mentorship. (Hunsinger, 2004) Using this strategy, mentorship programs can fill the existing void in military policies by clearly identifying mentorship and by offering assistance on how to become a successful mentor. Moreover, mentorship programs can be subject to modifications based on comments from the field. These programs can be employed for training in military schools instead of the negligible exposure that mentoring currently receives. Furthermore, such programs can provide assistance to low-ranking leaders on how to become successful mentors in future as their expertise begins to develop. Lastly, using this strategy, mentorship programs can encourage trust and confidence as higher-ranking leaders understand the necessity for formal mentorship programs and are prepared to address it.
However, there are a few drawbacks too of this strategy. For example, a formal mentorship program might lead to doubts because the definition and application of mentorship differ from one leader to another. Moreover, military personnel will only get what they invest in a mentorship program. Furthermore, it may be problematical to evaluate the success of such programs because they are subjective.
The Essay on The Mentorship Program At TVH
Our study attempts to evaluate a company TVH which started a training program that is Mentorship program but face some problem because they didn’t provide the training in a systematic way. Sometimes company face many problem for the new employee’s activities because they are not well experienced before working into a company. Then Mentorship program plays an important role to develop the ...
The second strategy requires introduction of a bottom-up mentorship policy that adheres to mentorship’s basic doctrines set by a new military course of action. Furthermore, this strategy requires that military commanders report their achievements. (Hunsinger, 2004)
This methodology gives flexibility to senior and junior officers in developing appropriate programs. Furthermore, it spreads out the program with reoccurring supervision to monitor development. This strategy too encourages trust and confidence as seniors recognize the inevitability for mentorship programs. Moreover, in this strategy, mentorship programs promote professional development because a bottom-up mentorship policy is applied.
Nevertheless, there are some disadvantages of this strategy too. Firstly, assessing performance of individual programs would be subjective, not irrefutable. Furthermore, each unit would have a distinct definition of how to carry out mentoring. This can lead to confusion when officers leave for other duty stations.
In the third strategy, things are left as they are. In this way, senior leaders can characterize and instigate mentorship programs as per the need and when they feel the need. Moreover, it would not force officers to engage in mentorship programs. However, junior officers would not gain much as they would not get formal support from their seniors in prearranged mentorship programs. Moreover, junior officers would lose confidence in their seniors since mentorship would be given to only some preferred personnel. Lastly, officers would enroll in mentorship programs only because of good luck or because of the timing of such programs.
The military is organized in a chain of command. “The key to the mentorship program’s success is command emphasis and accurate and timely feedback through the chain of command to ensure its continued success.” (Hunsinger, 2004) A formal mentorship program must be designed from the top down so that it can flourish.
Advantages of Mentorship Programs in Civilian Organizations
It becomes challenging to discuss the advantages of mentorship programs because formal and informal mentorship can be experienced differently. Similarly, the responsibility of the mentor can also vary significantly. However, this paper discusses numerous advantages of mentorship programs for mentors, mentees, and corporations. A short summation of the advantages of mentorship programs is given below in Table 1. [pic]
The Essay on Justification of the Mentorship Program
The main task in the program is for employees with one or more years of experience in the company to serve as mentors who will train new hires of the company. The objective of this program is to solve some prevailing issues of the company such as the retention of employees and injury prevention especially for the new people. The mentorship program is an efficient tool that aims to address these ...
Table 1: Advantages of Mentorship Programs (Ehrich, Hansford, 1999)
While Table 1 illustrates advantages of formal mentorship programs, research on informal mentorship programs can be found to verify each of the advantages stated above. These advantages are discussed in some detail below.
Advantages for the Protégé
A review of Fortune 500 CEOs revealed that 75% of them recognized mentorship programs as one of the top three crucial aspects in their career whereas 96% accepted that mentoring is important for career development. Another survey of more than 60 Fortune 500 corporations revealed that only 16% of proteges wanted to leave their jobs within a year whereas this figure was 35% for those employees who did not receive formal mentoring. (Army Mentorship Resource Center, n.d.)
Career advancement is globally recognized as one of the key advantages a protege benefits from. A survey of 320 graduates from two major universities in the US revealed that individuals who enrolled in extensive mentorship programs secured more promotions, had higher pay scales and were more satisfied with their salary and advantages than individuals who experienced less extensive mentorship programs. (Ehrich, Hansford, 1999) Personal support is another important feature of the mentor’s responsibility. Research shows that mentees appreciate supportive actions such as friendship, support, advice, and guidance, and view such behaviors as key advantages provided to them through mentorship programs. (Ehrich, Hansford, 1999)
Furthermore, mentees also reported increased confidence which they experienced as an outcome of being incorporated completely into the new role. (Ehrich, Hansford, 1999) Moreover, productivity and performance ratings are higher for mentees than non-mentees. Proteges secure higher pay scales, enjoy their work, and have better career satisfaction than non- proteges. The National Center for Education Statistics 2001 revealed that 66% of the teachers surveyed accepted that being mentored by their fellow teachers in formal mentorship programs enhanced their teaching skills. Moreover, 37% stated that such programs improved their teaching a lot. Advantages to Mentors
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Altria Corporation Altria Corporation is one of the worlds largest tobacco corporations, the parent company of Philip Morris International, Kraft Food, Philip Morris Capital Corporation, and Philip Morris USA. It was founded in New York in 1919. The companys headquarters are based in New York, U.S.A. Through its subsidiaries Altria Corporation is engaged in the manufacture and sales of tobacco ...
The National Center for Education Statistics 2001 revealed that 52% mentor teachers testified that mentoring other teachers in formal mentorship programs enhanced their own teaching skills. Another 18% indicated that being a formal mentor enhanced their tutoring a lot. (Army Mentorship Resource Center, n.d.) According to a mentoring consultant for a large corporation in Sweden, mentors recognize the joy of sharing their expertise and knowledge (Ehrich, Hansford, 1999).
Mentor teachers also identify a sensation of fulfillment in helping trainee teachers. Other significant fulfilling features of playing the part of a mentor include the development of a warm correlation with mentees, a feeling of being recognized professionally, and awareness of one’s significance. AMI Healthcare and Midland Bank, two significant corporations in the UK, view mentees as a source of practical support to mentors. Another advantage for mentors is the perception of self-rejuvenation.
Advantages to Corporations
There are various advantages of formal mentorship programs for civilian corporations including amplified productivity, enhanced recruitment efforts, inspiration of senior people, improvement of services provided by the corporation and enhancement in succession and strategic planning. The growth of managers who can perform their duties effectively is one of the advantages of mentorship programs for corporations. Greater commitment has also been recognized as another advantage for civilian corporations.
Moreover, mentorship programs also result in cost-effectiveness as mentors conduct such programs along with their regular work. The benefit in this condition is that mentees get the opportunity to operate with experienced superiors without any extra cost for mentoring, training facilities or mentors. The final advantage to corporations is enhanced organizational collaboration amongst workers because mentors and mentees share skills and information concerning vital issues in corporations.
Drawbacks of Civilian Mentorship Programs
A summation of the drawbacks of mentorship programs is depicted below in Table 2. [pic]
Table 2: Drawbacks of Mentorship Programs (Ehrich, Hansford, 1999)
The Research paper on The LIFT program
The LIFT program will be implemented in randomly selected schools under the Dallas Independent School District (DISD) which operates 225 schools. The DISD in Texas serves the biggest number of minority students across the nation. More than 60% of the student population are Hispanics and around 30% are African American (Dallas Independent School District, 2010). This program will be timely ...
An impression of the benefits of mentorship programs is frequently depicted especially for the professional growth of the workforce, but a few researchers are doubtful about these benefits. One of these researchers, Douglas, pointed out the possible drawbacks of mentorship programs for civilian organizations, mentors, and the mentees. (Ehrich, Hansford, 1999) Other researchers talk about the possible challenges or negative features of formal mentorship programs. The first negative aspect discussed is the execution of a mentorship programs in an organization where growth opportunities are extremely limited or insignificant. According to these researchers, such a condition can result in disappointment for the mentees. The second negative aspect raised by Murray and Owen, two significant researchers, is the risk of permitting a mentorship program in the absence of organizational commitment for that particular program. (Ehrich, Hansford, 1999) The third issue these researchers discussed focused on concerns about those corporations that have faced problems in trying to synchronize current ongoing mentorship programs with new ones. The fourth issue raised by Murray and Owen is the probable complexity involved in convincing management to execute a mentorship program when there is not enough data to defend the usefulness of a particular program. The last issue raised by these researchers is the complication and costly supervision associated with mentorship programs that integrate cross- functional combinations.
Clawson and Kram, two other researchers who have studied mentorship programs in detail, stated numerous case studies that focus on informal cross-gender mentorship programs. (Ehrich, Hansford, 1999) They revealed that there are threats when mentorship programs involve sexuality and when others view the mentoring relationship as a sexual one. There is a deficiency of female mentors in corporations. Therefore, it may be difficult for female workers to be included in mentorship programs. Hence, the drawbacks of mentorship programs can be linked with specific risks for female workers in some corporations. However, a study of professional women revealed that “81% saw their mentors as being critical or fairly important in their career advancement”. (Army Mentorship Resource Center, n.d.)
Another researcher stated 13 possible concerns about mentorship programs. “These concerns are identified as mentoring is time consuming for all concerned, poor planning of the mentorship programs process, unsuccessful matching of mentors and mentees, lack of understanding of the mentoring process, potential for mentoring to create work tensions, few available mentors-especially women, over use of available mentors, lack of access to mentoring for women and minority groups, reproduction of the mentor’s work style, poor relationship between mentor and mentee, high visibility of mentoring program, lack of clarity as to whether mentoring is linking to career advancement, and insufficient funding or termination of funding before the program can demonstrate potential benefits.” (Ehrich, Hansford, 1999)
The Term Paper on Mentoring Mentor Mentors Men
Managing People Individual Assessment Managing Mentoring With the development of the more organic and less formal organisational structures the role of mentors has shifted with these changes. Unlike previously where mentors where seen as formal trainers who taught newcomers the processes and got them acquainted with the cultures and the systems within the organisation. Which required good ...
Conclusion
Throughout this paper, the concept of mentorship programs has been shown by analyzing the advantages and drawbacks of such programs in military and civilian sectors. To be precise, human resource managers and military leaders must realize that mentorship programs cannot serve as a universal remedy. There are probable drawbacks too although the benefits of mentorship programs outnumber such drawbacks in both the military and the civilian sector. Moreover, these drawbacks can be reduced by careful execution and thorough planning. The summation point of this paper is that civilian and military administrators should view mentorship programs as advantageous courses of action that demand careful planning and proficient human resource management. Therefore, it is necessary to point out that there are numerous types of mentorship programs and implementation of a formal mentorship programs does not mean that informal mentorship programs should be excluded in a comprehensive human resource strategy.
References
Army Mentorship Resource Center: General Benefits of Mentoring (n.d.) Available At:
http://www.armyg1.army.mil/hr/MRC/Army%20Mentorship%20Program%20Benefits.doc
Retrieved May 14, 2007
Ehrich, Lisa Catherine and Hansford, Brian (1999) Mentoring: Pros and cons for HRM.
Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources 37(3):92-107.
Hunsinger, Nate. (2004, Sept-Oct) Mentorship: growing company grade officers. Military Review.