Category: Mentorship

Mentoring is an essential part of the practice in any business and field of activity. Watson (2020), in her article “The virtue (and necessity) of mentorship,” examines positive examples of mentoring at university to highlight its importance and usefulness. Thus, although the article does not have all the scholar research elements, it is suitable for studying business mentoring by real-life examples given by the author.

This article demonstrates various examples of professors mentoring students that have enabled them to achieve academic and life goals. Although Watson does not highlight the research question, it can be defined as the ways and impact of professors’ mentoring on the academic and personal success of students. The author’s main argument is that teachers’ and students’ spiritual closeness in small universities is often necessary to reduce the stress students face and retain their attendance of classes. Watson quotes Professor Easton: “Each professor absolutely is an open door of knowledge, commitment, dedication, and faith” (2020, p. 7). In other words, successful mentoring depends on the skills and qualities of professors who engage students in conversation.

This article can be used to justify the need for mentoring in other organizations, for example, business or non-profit companies and any field of activity, although the author does not discuss this fact. This article is qualitative research as the primary method of data collection is interviews, although it does not have clear-cut methods, conclusions, and results that the author discusses. For example, the reader needs to choose and interpret the ways of mentoring according to his or her observations because: “There is no How Your Professor Can Help You Navigate College guide handed out with each syllabus.” (Watson, 2020, p.7). For this reason, the article is open to interpretation and criticism. In addition, in this paper, mentoring is discussed in the context of Christian values, which limits its fundamental principles for application. Thus, although the article has many different examples supporting the benefits of mentoring, it lacks the specificity of methods, results, and conclusions.

Reference

Watson, K. (2020). The virtue (and necessity) of mentorship. Christianity Today, 64(2), 73–84.

Introduction

Coaching and mentoring is very important in human development. Almost every sports personality, successful businesses, outstanding students, successful families have had either a coach or a mentor in their lives. The modern world has embraced fully, these two terms and is exploiting them to realize their full potential.

Their popularity is credited to the uncountable success they have brought to individuals, groups and corporate clients. Coaching and mentoring usually share numerous similarities, regardless of whether they are done for reward (professionals) or for philanthropic purposes. This paper will explore coaching and mentoring, and in particular, concern itself with its benefits to business activities and management (Emelo, 2011, p. 44-49).

Definitions

Coaching is defined as the process through which learning and development are allowed to happen with the intention of improving performance. Coaches are required to have a thorough understanding of the knowledge, skills, techniques and styles suitable for the context under which coaching is to take place.

This way he/she is capable of instilling confidence and ability to the learner. Mentoring refers to the process of providing guidance to another person in how he/she makes momentous transitions in work, thinking or knowledge (The New York Times Company, 2011, p. 1).

Mentoring impart the mentee with confidence to make significant decisions that would help achieve success. Business coaching and mentoring is very important in instilling knowledge, skills, styles, and techniques as well as the ability to make significant decisions that are aimed at improving an individual’s achievement or business goals (The Coaching & Mentoring Network Ltd., 2010, p. 1).

Similarities and differences of coaching and mentoring

Coaching and Mentoring associate several ways since they aim at almost similar objectives such as exploring in individuals, their corporate needs, desires, skills and motivation, the aim of which is to help the them make genuine and long lasting modifications. Other similarities include, questioning techniques, progressive support of clients, observation, and listening techniques to understand the context, among others.

Their main differences include the fact that in mentoring, when considered in its traditional context, implies that the mentor must be experienced in the line of mentorship, in most cases, the older and wiser take this responsibility to pass knowledge, which are of significant help to the mentee. On the other hand, coaching may be done even if the coach does not have direct experience of occupational responsibilities of the client , unless it requires focus on specific skills (The Coaching & Mentoring Network Ltd., 2010, p. 1).

Coaching and Mentoring in Business

Several changes that occur due to restructuring, mergers as well as acquisitions always prompt companies to outsource coaching and mentoring services. These services are nowadays provided to all professionals in companies for personal development purposes. They are aimed at promoting morale, productivity and motivation to lessen staff turnover, as it makes them feel connected and valued. This is usually done by internal mentors or coaching staff or in some cases outsourced.

Coaching and mentoring is a two-way relationship, which affords the employee significant benefits of fulfilling his/her goals as the business or organization achieve their goals (The Coaching & Mentoring Network Ltd., 2010, p. 1). Recent trends show that more individuals have made steps to hire their own private coaches and mentors, giving them a greater responsibility in maximizing their potentials as well as achieve their personal objectives (Čiutienė & Neverauskas & Meiliene, 2010, 444-449).

Conclusion

Coaching and mentoring are very important in a business organization as they help impart a sense of belonging, moral, motivational, individual responsibility as well as the fulfillment of both personal and organizational objectives. This is important in ensuring continued focus and attainment of business goals. It also readies the staff for any eventualities like mergers and adjustments in responsibilities that may follow such changes (Madlock, 2010, p. 42-62).

Reference List

Čiutienė, R. & Neverauskas, B. & Meiliene, E. (2010). Coaching as a Tool to Develop Employees Career. Economics and management. (p. 444-449).

Emelo, R. (2011). Creating a new Mindset. In T+D (pp. 44-49).

Madlock, P. E. (2010). The Effects of Supervisors’ Verbal Aggression and Mentoring on Their Subordinates. In Journal of Business Communication (pp. 42-62).

The Coaching & Mentoring Network Ltd. (2010). What is Coaching. Coaching Network. Web.

The New York Times Company (2011). Top 15 Characteristics of a Successful Mentor. The New York Times. Web.

The concept of servant leadership is hailed due to its regard for human functioning. In this approach, the manager assumes a collaborative attitude. The guiding principle is that of participative leadership. A three step approach guided by foundation, feedback and friction is recommended (Anit & Maayan, 2006).

In foundation, the manager sets the standards through training his team on required behaviours and skills in leadership. Employees are trained in leadership skills, active listening, character development and constructive discipline. Once this is done, gaps are identified and in this step the manager is also a leader using the same approach. In the friction level, goals that are measurable are set and behaviour changes are measured.

This is accomplished using a Continuous Improvement Panel, which is a tool that ensures individual behaviour is improved until it becomes the desired behaviour. It is also recommended that the manager in such a case develops the virtues of empathy, healing of one’s inner self and of others and also awareness of both self and general awareness.

He must be able to conceptualize or create a personal vision beyond day to day realities. Above all, he needs to be a good steward and committed to the growth of people. Spears (2005) asserts that the manager must be able to listen to others and have foresight.

In general, any manager who wants to assume this model must instill, in his employees and to himself, the principle that leadership is cooperative and collaborative. The manager must teach the concept of desire to serve first and encourage trust, listening and ethical use of power. The manager can use this approach to maintain status quo and stress on long established goals and principles of his organization.

On the other hand, transformational leadership has its stress on identification of needed change, creating a vision among the employees through inspiration and executing the change with full support and commitment of the employees. The best approach is to inject enthusiasm and energy into everything he cares about and thus luring people to work towards his vision (Tim & Barbara, 2007).

The steps involved include first developing a vision. The manager stresses on features and benefits of his vision and gets proposals. A plan is then created and followers sought once the idea has been well articulated. The manager must lead by example and accept some failures. In this step, recognize those who take charge to help you.

The manager then focuses on motivating the organization, taking feedback and inspiring everyone to work towards achieving the organization’s goal. The final but continuous step is to celebrate small and big victories that come along in the implementation of your goals as the manager. The manager can use several channels like newsletters, meetings and other methods to communicate progress.

Keeping the long term benefits is crucial for both the manager and the employees who he must keep constantly reminding. In the end and successful implementation of the process, the manager can schedule an award ceremony to recognize those who contributed (Pielstick, 1998).

This approach must put into consideration the concept of individualized attention where the manager acts as the mentor to all followers, injects some intellectual insight to encourage creativity, and gives inspirational motivation to challenge the followers with standards and provide meaning.

Unlike servant leadership, transformational leadership is about transforming the organization and is very applicable during managerial change-over and also when there is a major transition both transformational and servant leadership, one of the effects is that the followers are also transformed.

References

Anit, S. and Maayan, W. (2006). The impact of participative and directive leadership on teachers’ performance: The intervening effects of job structuring, decision domain and leader-member exchange. Educational Administration Quarterly, 42(5), 746-772.

Pielstick, C.D. (1998). The transforming leader: A meta-ethnographic analysis. Community College Review, 26(3), 15-34.

Spears, L. C. (2005). The understanding and practice of servant-leadership. Servant Leadership Research Roundtable. The School of Leadership Studies: Regent University.

Tim, T. and Barbara, M. (2007). Examination of leadership practices of principals identified as servant leaders. International Journal of Leadership in Education, 10(4), 401-419.

Introduction

Many a times, organizations do not carry out training and mentoring programs in the right format. Training and mentoring should mainly focus on learning and personal development (Wilson 27). The training and mentoring that employees of Interclean will undergo will be necessary for the coverage of essential skills crucial in their success on the job (Norman et al 46). The program will also be important because it will equip them with techniques and knowledge about what they need to do to bring the new company up to speed with its goals.

Needs

The new training and mentoring needs of interclean employees will be establishing the cause of the program, focus, formality and mode of delivery of the program. The cause of the program will define the main reason why the program has to be pursued while the focus will clarify and concentrate the specific areas where the training and mentoring will address.

Formality of the program will cover the level of official conduction of the program. The program will be designed to cover both formal and informal aspects. Mode of deliver will be both individually and in a group setting.

Objectives

The main objective of the mentoring and training program will be to provide assistance and support for the new staff. Another objective will be to equip the new team with the necessary knowledge about products and skills required in selling so that they can be in a position to close sales.

Additionally, the program will be aiming to help the new employees of Interclean to understand the organization, the expectations of the company from them and how they will go about in achieving these expectations. Besides, the program’s objectives will include human resource development, increasing productivity, career development and improvement of quality.

Mode of delivery

This will mainly concentrate on how the information will be imparted on the trainees. The trainers will use both visual and audio aids, role-plays, buddy learning, lectures and face-to-face sessions. Besides, the trainees will be to undertake a team project to enhance their bonding and improve their teamwork skills. After the initial two week training, the trainees will be introduced to the on the job training.

Performance standards

Standards will enable Interclean to gauge how well the employees got the training and how well they understand their job. These standards will have to be measurable, realistic, objective and clear. The general appraisal of standard will follow a criterion based on quantity, quality, timeliness or promptness, and cost effectiveness of the company.

Quality standards will be used to gauge how well the work is performed while quantity will measure productivity and delivery. Timeliness will measure the effectiveness of soft skills that the employees of Interclean will have in terms of faster resolution of problems.

Cost effectiveness will measure the extent to which employee performance will contribute to cost cutting for the company. There may be other specific measures that will be made by departmental heads for easier appraisal at that level.

Content for training and mentoring

Content will include; the training and mentoring needs, the objectives that the programs hopes to achieve, the methods of delivery, the standards of performance, the appropriate content for the curriculum, the time it will take and the ways through which evaluation will be carried out. Also, the content of the program will focus on the organizations products and services.

The sales people will undergo intensive training on the skills necessary to achieve the company targets and to drive up revenues. The content will also include information about the existing clients and how to handle and maintain them. Further, the training will include information about the different types of clients and the target and niche markets for interclean products.

Time frame

The time frame for the training will be two weeks. After the initial two weeks, the trainees will be put on a longer six-month program to provide for enough time for appraisal. The training will start formally with strict learning of the company missions and expectations as well as the skills necessary of the success of the sales tea.

The second week will be more informal with each sales person buddy leaning with an old employee for mentorship and acquaintance. The two-week period will ensure complete induction into the company program.

Evaluation methods

The evaluation method will be through the use of forms. The sales leadership will appraise individual sales people on their performance against the sales targets that they have been set for. On the other hand, the sales leadership will be evaluate by the senior staff.

The evaluation will seek to have the trainees, reactions, and behaviors on the whole training. Their reactions will seek to know their feelings towards the training program while learning will gauge the level of knowledge and skills trainees gained. The evaluation will be done immediately after every training session and after every two months.

Company management and sales leadership will also engage customers who will be served by the sales people. The customers will be asked to take surveys voluntarily to ascertain if the sales people did apply the techniques and skills that they were taught during training.

Feedback

There will be regular feedback on the progress made by the trainees. Trainees will be monitored by managers and their views about the training will be sought legally. They will be encouraged to provide honest assessment about the training to help in the betterment of the program. The feedback assessment will be done daily by both sales leadership and senior management.

The trainees will be encouraged to voice their feedback on their daily sales reports. Feedback that will be sought will be used to make the sales team more effective and improve on the areas that the management feels needs more polishing.

Alternative development

For those that will need further training, the company will avail other avenue such as seminars that will be full paid for. In fact all trainees will need further training on their specific areas of specialization. The company will facilitate the availability of these trainings to all members after an evaluation is done.

The trainings will begin after the trainees have spent one month on the job. The evaluation will help management determine which areas in the specific specializations will need more polishing. These seminars will compliment the needy trainees to ensure they are well equipped for their job.

Works Cited

Norman et al. A step-by-step guide to starting an effective mentoring program. London: HRD Press 2000. Print.

Wilson, John. Human resource development: learning & training for individuals & organizations. New York: Kogan Page Publishers, 2005. Print.

Literature Review

Overview of Mentorship

Mentorship is a personal development relationship in which a more experienced person offers guidance from a real world perspective. Effective mentoring involves building a continuous learning relationship between the mentor and the mentee. Research has shown that matching mentors and mentees helps create effective mentorship programs (Bokeno, 2003).

Organisations have designated mentoring administrators consisting representatives of human resource and training and learning departments. The administrators scrutinise the mentoring profiles and match the mentor and the mentee depending on training needs, career goals, and competence. Moreover, mentees can use technology to choose the most appropriate mentors and mentorship programs.

There are many types of mentorship. However, they fall under two categories, namely, monologic mentoring and dialogic mentoring. Mentoring administrators help mentors to select the best programs with reference to the prevailing needs. Some of the benefits of mentoring include enhancement of self-efficacy and productivity.

Types of Mentorship

Business managers should choose mentorship programs that meet the needs of employees across the various levels of organisational structure. Whether the managers choose dialogic or monologic mentoring, they need to structure objectively the mentoring programs.

Dialogic mentoring

Dialogic mentoring is the best organisational program for learning. The most recent re-emergence of interest in dialogic mentoring is traceable to many organisational learning theorists. Current research has confirmed that there are patterns of communication and tactic theories in use that are obstacles to the invention of mutual learning efforts. Dialogic mentoring attempts to eliminate the obstacles and enhance learning (Bokeno, 2003).

Dialogic mentoring relies on the aptitude and readiness to express one’s ideas and feelings authentically, the aptitude and readiness to take part in both collective and individual reflection, and a natural care and respect for the mentor and the mentee. These aptitudes have productive impact on learning and organisational change.

According to research, the concept that the dialogic mentoring is highly effective is based on the understanding that collaborative mentoring creates a two-way communication strategy that enhances learning (Mezirow and Taylor, 2009).

However, dialogic mentoring has certain shortcomings. Notably, the mentoring approach requires facilitation, episodic interventions, and structuring. These requirements make dialogic mentoring partly ineffective for creating therapeutic solutions for top leadership personnel.

Conventional regulations, responsibilities, and proprietorship roles limit the scope of the learning approach to deliver the desired results. Besides, the success of dialogic experiences depends on the learning ability of the client. As a result, outside its therapeutic context, the client determines the success of the distinct learning model (Wallbank, 2012).

Monologic mentoring

Monologic mentoring is an appropriate approach for the reinforcement of culturally relevant behaviour in a given context. Research has established that monologic themes reflect some positioned objective goal steered by common believes of the right manner of doing things. These themes function on equilibrium and stability. When a person deviates from the standard norms, the society provides a correctional response (Manley, 2005).

Additionally, developmental relationship enacts monologic themes. According to Manley (2005), the interaction is not permeable to new structured meanings. Managing supervision and providing information that reflects organizational reality characterises monologic interaction practices. Sometimes, the interactions are weakly unilateral and coaching characterises it. The core function of the mentor is interpreting reality in a form that is less scripted, but experience based.

The most appropriate mentoring program

Choosing the most appropriate mentoring program depends on the experience of the employee in a particular organisation. Mentoring programs have a variety of purposes. However, they sometimes have explicit goals, for instance helping to resolve performance deficiencies, advancing career objectives, and transferring technical knowledge.

Research has indicated that dialogic mentoring has more advantages than most emerging mentoring techniques (Bokeno, 2003). However, it cannot reinforce culturally appropriate behaviour. Monologic mentoring is useful in reinforcing culturally appropriate behaviour in a given context. Therefore, the most appropriate mentoring programs enhance business experience of employees.

Effects of Mentoring Programs on Self Efficacy

Mentoring programs create an environment that promotes a healthy self-efficacy, which is a core component of the larger social cognitive theory (Nabi and Clark, 2008). Mentoring programs help in building confidence in employees across the various levels of organisational structure.

The programs expose employees to new environments where they can interact with their colleagues who have excelled in their careers. The colleagues reassure them of their ability to deliver the desired results. The reassurance increases self-efficacy, which has positive effects on productivity.

Mentorship also exposes leaders to opportunities that influence how they learn in a social context. The learning opportunities model their behaviour. The leaders watch others with experience performing tasks and learn to repeat the behaviours (Nabi and Clark, 2008).

Mentorship enhances social interaction and improves employee satisfaction. The constant reassurances that mentees get from their mentors give them hope in life and eliminate frustrations. Mentorship, therefore, equips employees with virtues that enable them to face life challenges with incredible confidence.

Effects of Mentoring Programs on Productivity

Mentoring programs help reduce turnover. When mentoring shows employees that they are valued and provide an individualized experience, they get motivated to work hard. Effective mentorship pays off by increasing satisfaction, which results to reducing the rate of turnover (Villani, 2009).

Additionally, group-mentoring programs help employees learn from each other, understand their roles, and reduce redundancy. Group mentoring is beneficial for both organisations and senior executives nearing retirement. It provides them with culturally specific resources to motivate them to work hard while executing their roles and passing on their knowledge to the younger generation (Emelo, 2013).

Effective mentorship is a tool for identifying and developing talents. Mentors can groom high performers to execute leadership roles and realise their full potentials. Mentors can also identify, redirect, or retain employees with essential skills and expertise.

References

Bokeno, R. M. (2003). Appraisals of organizational learning as emancipatory change. Bradford, England: Emerald.

Emelo, R. (2013). Creating a modern mentoring culture. Alexandria, VA: ASTD Press.

Manley, M. (2005). A Day In The Life: Mentor:. Academic psychiatry, 29(4), 383-383.

Mezirow, J., & Taylor, E. W. (2009). Transformative learning in practice: Insights from community, workplace, and higher education. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Nabi, R. L., & Clark, S. (2008). Exploring the limits of social cognitive theory: Why negatively reinforced behaviors on TV may be modeled anyway. Journal of Communication, 58(3), 407-427.

Villani, S. (2009). Comprehensive mentoring programs for new teachers: models of induction and support (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Corwin

Wallbank, A. J. (2012). Dialogue, didacticism and the genres of dispute literary dialogues in an age of revolution. London: Pickering & Chatto.

Executive Summary

Workplace shortages have become a common problem in Australia. Because of the upgraded demands towards employees and the unwillingness of the latter to train their professional skills on their own, the Australian public companies and private entrepreneurships have developed a strategy of mentoring, which has already been launched in several companies, yet its aftereffects still remain unexplored. By considering the opportunities that the mentoring approach can offer, as well as evaluating the threats that it poses, one can possibly decide whether approving mentoring in public and private companies is truly worth it.

Introduction: Where Workplace Shortages Stem from

Australian companies are facing a crisis. The lack of qualified workforce is having its toll on the companies’ performance (Fang, 2009). Although reasons might vary according to the chosen field, a number of companies in Australia suffer from the same problem, which is the inability of adopting the recent changes and innovations fast and efficiently (Jaworski, 2010). Therefore, the factors that cause workplace shortage are:

• Problems with tracking recent innovations (Kilpatrick, Johns, Millar, Le & Routley, 2007);
• High community expectations (Beth, 2012);
• High workforce expectations (Lindsay, Hanson, Taylor & NcBurney, 2008);
• Absence of cohesive organizational behavior principles (Iacono, 2010);
• Absence of clearly established corporate values, company mission and vision (Cummings & Patel, 2009).

The Consequences of Workplace Shortages

As one might have expected, workplace shortages will most likely lead to the most deplorable results in the nearest future.

Finally, the lack of qualified workforce will probably lead to such phenomenon as migrant workforce. Therefore, the work quality will drop even lower, while the unemployment rates will sharply increase.

Concerning the existing Alternatives: Workplace Mentoring and More

A number of strategies have been provided to solve the above-mentioned problem. However, only three of them seem viable enough. Of these three, mentoring might be considered the most costly and time-consuming, yet it clearly has fewer drawbacks and will lead to better results.

The Potential of Workplace Mentoring

Naturally, mentoring has a number of advantages compared to other strategies suggested as an alternative for the Australian entrepreneurships to adopt. For example, raising the retirement age seems a rather unjust move, while mentoring is, on the contrary, a very reasonable suggestion. Among the key benefits, the following must be mentioned:

• Upgrading the employees’ skills (Rayburn, 2010);
• Using an individual approach (Holding, 2012);
• Learning the employees to adopt a different (optimistic) approach towards working and learning (Burgess & Dyer, 2009);
• Promoting the idea of lifelong (self-motivated) learning (Morrison, 2004).

It is also crucial that the chosen workplace mentor should have a set of specific qualities that will help the given mentor train the employees in the most efficient way possible. The given issue is rather debatable, though, since it picks a question concerning whether a mentor should train solely the employees’ professional qualities, or their organizational behavior. In the latter case, it is important that the mentor should have the following qualities:

The qualities in the left column will help the trainer upgrade the trainee’s skills, while the qualities in the right column will modify the trainee’s behavior.

The Possible Obstacles and Negative Outcomes

It would be wrong, however, to assume that mentoring is an impeccable approach for any Australian entrepreneurship to adopt in order to raise employees’ motivation. Mentoring also has its flaws, which have to be taken into account as long as the company leader is willing to get a positive effect out of the specified approach. With that said, one must remember that mentoring, as a rule, implies the following flaws:

Conflicts between the trainer and the trainee

Arguments in the trainer–trainee are inevitable; moreover, they are necessary. In order to make the employee take interest in self-development, a trainer must offer challenging tasks, the difficulty of which will surely trigger conflicts, yet will teach employees to handle complexities at work (Ghosh, Dierkes & Falletta, 2011).

Bringing the employees’ self-esteem down

Providing a grown-up person with a trainer who is said to be trying to improve the skills of the latter and, which might be considered even ore humiliating, change the attitude of the employee towards his/her work might be regarded by this employee as a sign of his/her incompetence. Unless (s)he failed at his/her work and was irresponsible for the task that (s)he had been assigned with, the employer would have never resorted to hiring a trainer – these are the kind of ideas that will definitely rush through the employees’ mind. Therefore, it is crucial that the company manager or, more reasonably, an HRM team, should explain the purpose of the trainers and where the necessity to change the current state of affairs stems from (Eby, Durley; Evans & Ragins, 2008).

Decreasing the rates of responsibility

Not a very plausible concern, it should be considered anyway as a threatening possibility. Once a grown-up person accepts that (s)he is going to have someone tracking his/her actions and controlling his/her steps, the quality of the employees’ performance might go down a few notches, since (s)he will feel the coach, not the employee is responsible for the outcomes. Hence, it is up to the company and/or the coach that the employee should retain his/her responsibilities (Griggs, 2012).

Workplace Mentoring Strategies

Needless to say, a number of workplace mentoring strategies have been developed over a relatively short period of time because of the promising concept that the given approach offers. As a result, company leaders face a wide range of strategic choices that will most likely predetermine the course in which their company is going to develop. Therefore, workplace mentoring seems the optimum decision at present (Washington, 2011). Even though the given approach is relatively new, it has already evolved far enough to offer the company leaders several mentoring types to choose from. Among the most popular, the following kinds of workplace mentorship must be name:

• Setting the goals and splitting them into objectives;
• Learning to distinguish between personal, professional and career goals;
• Differentiating between personal needs and the needs of the company;
• Providing the ways to link personal needs and the needs of the company;
• Learning new professional strategies and tactics;
• Applying the new learned strategies to practice.

Conclusion: Mentoring as the Most Promising Coping Mechanism

Therefore, it cannot be doubted that workplace mentoring is bound to become an Australian foot forward in dealing with workplace shortages. While mentoring might be considered as displaying a lack of trust towards the potential employees and a definitely overbearing, parenting attitude towards the company staff, it is still clear that mentoring will help not only train the employees accordingly, but also provide a behavioral model for them to follow.

Instead of changing the corporate climate and adapting private and public companies towards what employees would like to see them – calm, stale environment with little problems and even less progress – the Australian entrepreneurs seem to have taken risks to provide employees with role models to live up to. While some will certainly find the message too on-the-nose, the idea of representing a model employee who will be able to both mildly control the team and stream their activity in the right direction looks very promising at present.

Reference List

Beth, M. (2012). High performance workplaces of the future. The Queensland Nurse, 31(1), 3.

Burgess, J. & Dyer, S. (2009). Workplace mentoring for indigenous Australians: a case study. Equal Opportunities International, 28 (6), 465 – 485.

Cummings, L. & Patel, C. (2009). Managerial attitudes toward a stakeholder prominence within a Southeast Asia context. Bingley, UK: Emerald Group Publishing.

Eby, L. T., Durley, J. R., Evans, S. C., Ragins, B. R. (2008). Mentors’ perceptions of negative mentoring experiences: Scale development and nomological validation. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93(2), 358-373.

Fang, T. (2009). Workplace responses to vacancies and skill shortages in Canada. International Journal of Manpower, 30(4), 326-348.

Ghosh, R., Dierkes, S. & Falletta, S. (2011). Incivility spiral in mentoring relationships: Reconceptualizing negative mentoring as deviant workplace behavior. Advances in Developing Human Resources, 13(1), 22-39.

Griggs, C. (2012). Mentoring community-based trainee assistant practitioners: a case study. British Journal of Community Nursing, 17(7), 328-32.

Holding, G. (2012). Introducing mentoring: A guide for mentors and organisers of mentoring schemes. Bloomington, IN: Balbo Press.

Jaworski, K. (2010). Minding the gaps: Examining skill shortages in Australian rural non-agricultural workplaces. Journal of Management and Organization, 18(4), 499-515.

Iacono, T. (2010). Addressing increasing demands on Australian disability support workers. Journal of Intellectual & Developmental Disability, 35(4), 290 – 295

Rayburn, C. A. (2010). A handbook for women mentors: Transcending barriers of stereotype, race, and ethnicity. Santa-Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.

Kilpatrick, S. I., Johns, S. S., Millar, P., Le, Q., Routley, G. (2008). Skill shortages in health: innovative solutions using vocational education and training. Rural And Remote Health, 7(1), 623.

Lindsay, R., Hanson, L., Taylor, M. & NcBurney, H. (2008). Workplace stressors experienced by physiotherapists working in regional public hospitals. Australian Journal of Rural Health, 16(4), 194-200.

Morrison, R. (2004). Informal relationships in the workplace: Associations with job satisfaction, organisational commitment and turnover intentions. New Zealand Journal of Psychology, 33(3),114-128.

Washington, C. E. (2011). Mentoring, organizational rank, and women’s perceptions of advancement opportunities in the workplace. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 2(9), 162.

Introduction

A number of successful organizations have relied on coaches and mentors in order to develop both current and future leaders and facilitate the realization of organizational goals.

Given such importance of coaching and mentoring, professionals in the field have urged CEOs to incorporate coaching and mentoring programs in their leadership styles and develop positive influences within their organizations.

This report justifies to the CEO of Skoda Auto why it is necessary to introduce coaching and mentoring programs in the organization.

Coaching and mentoring: contents and participants

Mentoring relates primarily to the “identification and nurturing of an individual’s potential through guidance, instruction, encouragement, and correction” (Megginson and Clutterbuck, 2005). The process may involve a long-term relationship, but the mentee controls goals and processes of the mentoring program.

A mentor or coach assists the mentee in developing an insight and comprehending the process through natural observation. This process allows mentees to develop awareness of their experiences as responses come from them.

On the other hand, coaching refers mainly to “performance improvement usually on a short-term basis in specific skill areas” (Megginson and Clutterbuck, 2005). It is the responsibility of the coach to set the goals or short-term aims of the program.

The coach controls the program, whereas the learner or the protégé owns the goals. The coach also provides feedback to the learner based on his direct observation.

Contents

The course content shall capture fundamental aspects of coaching and mentoring with aim of understanding the importance of the program in an organization.

• Defining key terms of coaching and mentoring, which include mentor, mentoring, protégé, and coaching
• Learners must also understand what coaching and mentoring are not. Coaching cannot succeed unless there are clear goals with measurable terms. Moreover, it needs support from senior managers, and the protégé and the coach must have full commitment to the program.
• Mentoring can enhance commitment of the team to Skoda, its strategic objectives, facilitate communication, improve organizational culture and practices, provide opportunities for the team to gain insights on how the firm runs and promote success and networking within the organization.
• Coaching will enable the team to gain skills, knowledge, and personal growth. It will also provide individual-centered learning, improve attitude, and allow protégés to choose their areas of interests.
• The content shall also cover the rationale for coaching and mentoring employees of Skoda, benefits of the program and identification of employees who can participate in the program
• The program will also evaluate qualities of a good coach and mentor by identifying eligibility, qualifications, characteristics and matching employees with the program
• Coaching and mentoring will establish a productive relationship with the aim of developing elements for starting and sustaining the program at Skoda Auto. Therefore, it will focus on the role of Skoda administrators, how to establish successful program, assess the needs of employees, ethical guidelines and confidentiality in the relationship of the coach and protégé.
• The program shall explore pertinent areas that employees need to know in order to understand culture, practices, and norms of Skoda Auto, evaluate core knowledge required for a successful program, organize the team professional and personal lives, develop, and sustain organizational relationship in the industry.
• The content shall also explore methods of coaching and mentoring with aim of strengthening relationships. The CEO must support employees through sharing of experiences, facilitating and developing communication skills, encouraging shared decision-making, record keeping, reflective practices, and reducing risks in coaching and mentoring.
• Improve coaching and mentoring practices by highlighting differences between observation and evaluation, collect data for constructive feedback, encourage role modeling and continuous need assessment of the team.
• The program shall provide problem-solving strategies to allow the protégé to identify and resolve problems within the company. It will also highlight how to work with reluctant experts, provide real life examples, bring the program to successful end, and engage in continuous support after the end of the program.
• Finally, it covers mentoring and coaching scheme completion in which the CEO evaluates the success of coaching and mentoring scheme. The review involves lesson learned, integration approaches, and program evaluation and sustainability strategies

The CEO must recognize that skills required in coaching and mentoring may overlap and at times the same. Therefore, he may use different methods to coach and mentor employees at Skoda Auto. The CEO as a coach may rely on direct feedback, whereas he may use observations and questions as a mentor.

During coaching, the CEO must work with employees on specific areas such as marketing, sales, leadership, and management. These areas require specific objectives and approaches during coaching.

The CEO must note that coaching and mentoring are “open processes, which many occur without the involvement of line managers and other departments” (Thomas and Saslow, 2007).

In this regard, the coach mentor assists the protégé to achieve the best skills and knowledge for the organization by bringing new skills to specific areas of focus. The protégé controls the learning process.

Instead, the coach develops the protégé’s skills and knowledge by asking the right questions to enhance decision-making and self-awareness. The goal of the program changes as the protégé acquires new skills and knowledge. The program must meet all its set targets.

Participants for mentoring and coaching

• Top executives who did not achieve much from normal training
• Executives who need to acquire new skills in various areas like leadership styles, knowledge management, and other related areas
• Workers who wish to develop their careers
• Top executives who have noticed poor records of achievements
• New recruits in the firm
• Workers who wish to transfer to other divisions
• Workers who have been away from work for a long period
• Decision-making managers in critical success areas
• Workers who need new abilities and insights
• The firm’s coaches and mentors

Potential costs and benefits to the organization

Coaching and mentoring shall offer many advantages to Skoda Auto. Coaches and mentors who provide their services in efficient and productive ways offer opportunities for employees to acquire and grow new skills for the company and personal development.

Retention

Skoda Auto can win employees’ loyalty through coaching and mentoring. When the CEO molds his juniors, they may develop a strong sense of connection and commitment to the company.

Coaching also encourages open communication between management teams and their juniors. Therefore, Skoda shall save costs on continuous recruitment of new employees.

Personal Development

Employees with minimal experiences can learn from their most experienced counterparts. This facilitates employees’ abilities to grow professionally. Therefore, Skoda can improve efficiency among its employees. Still, coaching and mentoring enhance career growth of individuals.

For instance, coaching provides employees with opportunities of solving their own issues. Such skills are useful in decision-making processes for the individual, as well as for the organization.

Team Efficiency

Coaching and mentoring have abilities to improve teamwork in Skoda because they provide opportunities for managers to identify strengths and weaknesses within the organization and among employees. As a result, the organization can assign duties to employees based on their abilities to collaborate effectively.

Motivation

Coaching and mentoring also increase employees’ morale, career progression, and job satisfaction. Consequently, Skoda can derive benefits, which come from motivated employees such as increased outputs and high rates of retention.

Performance

Coaching and mentoring aim at improving performance within the organization. Employees can use their new skills to improve achievement of targets, productivity, and reduces cases of dissatisfaction.

Policy implementation

Such programs account for talent management, diversity within the organization, and retention. Therefore, they can provide opportunities for the human resource department to arrange succession plans, employees’ placement, and policy implementation.

Knowledge and skills benefit

Coaching and mentoring widen skills, knowledge, and experiences of employees. In addition, they provide opportunities for employees to “acquire new skills and knowledge and support innovation” (ACCA, 2008).

Managing change

Coaching and mentoring program shall aid the company to support a culture of openness and information sharing. They can also improve reorganization, support new roles, and develop favorable attitude towards change.

Succession planning

Coaching and mentoring help in identification of employees with leadership abilities. Therefore, Skoda can develop its success plan and manage any change process, which can disrupt the company.

Costs of coaching and mentoring

Skoda can incur substantial costs because a well implemented coaching and mentoring program requires many resources. Some of the costs may involve the following:

• Fees for external mentors and coaches
• Training costs for organizational mentors and coaches
• Lost valuable or chargeable time during coaching and mentoring programs
• Coaching and mentoring consume considerable amount of time
• Costs of training the trainer for the organization

Skoda can measure benefits of coaching and mentoring by analyzing their effects among employees. It should start by observing individual’s performance after coaching and mentoring programs. Alternatively, it may focus on a single department and note changes in areas of interests.

The organization can define success as “a return on their expectations, which would be to achieve their coaching objectives” (ACCA, 2008). Skoda can evaluate the effectiveness of the program by using the following procedures.

• The company must set goals, a timescale, and create tools of measurements. This requires inputs of managers and protégé.
• The learner must provide a reflection of lessons he or she has learned from the program through formal feedback. This should identify changes in management skills, behaviors, and performance.
• The mentor and coach can provide feedback in the learners based on pretest and posttest results. Observations from colleagues, team members, and line managers are also useful for evaluation purposes.
• The organization can measure key performance indicators (KPIs) of the learner after coaching and mentoring programs. At the same time, they can also observe rates of employee retention, growths in profits, and effects on customers.

According to past studies, many organizations have applied the above steps to evaluate effects of coaching and mentoring on employees. They recorded improved results among employees (Thomas and Saslow, 2007).

For instance, they noted improvements in staff relationships, management of change processes, employees’ problems, and strategic approaches to business.

However, the major challenge is in measuring individuals’ performance based on their KPIs. Both external and internal factors can affect coaching and mentoring. Therefore, it is difficult to account for positive effects of coaching and mentoring programs based on KPIs of individuals.

In 2006, Chartered Institute of Personnel Development conducted a study (Does coaching really work?) and noted the following:

• 96% of respondents thought internal and external coaching were highly effective
• Only 32% suggested that this conclusion could be based on KPI improvements, whereas the remaining respondents agreed their conclusions were subjective (Chartered Institute of Personnel Development, 2006).

On the other hand, some institutions have found out systematic methods of measuring benefits from coaching programs. For instance, in 2001, Manchester Consulting Inc. conducted a study among Fortune 1000 firms based on the return on investment (RIO) and noted that ROI was about 600 percent.

It compared “the benefits as measured by increased revenue, cost savings, and estimated financial gains from better relationships and improved KPIs” (Manchester Inc., 2003). The study also established the following:

Table 1: Benefits to companies that offered executive coaching

Source: Manchester Inc., 2003

Table 2: Improved benefits to executives who received coaching

Source: Manchester Inc., 2003

Such figures provide precise ROI because of coaching. However, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) noted that some organizations believe that the benefits of coaching are “not capable of such precise measure” (ACCA, 2008).

Potential changes on organizational culture and knowledge management because of adopting mentoring and coaching program

Organizations derive their cultures from “beliefs, practices, and behaviors that form a part of their identity” (Peel, 2006). In any organization, the CEO and managers take responsibilities of managing employees. As a result, they shape cultures of their organizations as they work towards organizational objectives.

Therefore, the CEO of Skoda is in the best position of influencing organizational culture. However, transforming cultures in organizations require a team effort because a single individual cannot do it. Changing a culture of an organization can occur by winning the trust of employees. In this regard, coaching and mentoring can help the CEO to achieve cultural transformation in the organization.

Skoda has developed its culture from attitudes, beliefs, and assumptions. Organizational culture can define the success or failure of a firm. In some cases, cultures may be obvious or hidden. Moreover, a large firm like Skoda may have a complex culture that consists of a number of sub-cultures in different divisions. However, it is difficult to identify how an individual’s behavior may affect the culture of an organization.

Coaching and mentoring normally involve assessing, understanding, and changing the existing culture if there is a need. However, it is necessary to transform organizational culture over time so that the firm can realize its strategic business objectives.

The mentor or coach should design a plan for guiding a culture change in an organization. This plan should also contain the desired changes as it addresses possible barriers to culture change. Managers who take part in coaching and mentoring programs can also facilitate culture change within the organization.

This method is suitable for large firms. It is fundamental for the mentor or coach to a plan culture change for the CEO and senior managers so that employees can follow their examples.

At the same time, coaching and mentoring programs should link organizational culture with the strategy. This suggests that organizational culture affects strategic objectives of the firm, and it is important for the program to account for business objectives.

Denison observed that some elements of organizational culture like mission, involvement, consistency, and adaptability affect a firm’s “return on investments, return on assets, sales growth, customer satisfaction, and other outcomes” (Denison, 1990).

A study by Barham and Conway shows that issues, which coaching and mentoring should focus on originate from a culture of a company (Barham and Conway, 1998).

In addition, Hay notes that the way in which an organization treats its people and its strategies and structures are all a part of organizational culture (Hay, 1999). Therefore, Caplan pointed out that coaching and mentoring programs can only succeed if they align with the current organizational culture (Caplan, 2003).

An organization can achieve a culture change through coaching and monitoring by focusing on the following:

• Promoting employees’ commitment and involvement
• Helping the CEO to set strategic vision for the company
• Focus on profitability, teamwork, and operation efficiency

Executive coaching has a crucial role in transforming organizational culture. Therefore, mentors and coaches must ensure that programs address organizational culture adequately for effective development of group dynamic, leadership and management styles.

Organizations have noted that creating, sharing, and retaining knowledge can create competitive advantage. In this regard, managing knowledge has become a way of employee development due to sharing of proficiency and ideas, involving best practices, and developing mutual relationships.

Best work practices usually engage and inspire employees, especially when they come from experienced managers and CEOs.

Coaching and mentoring gained recognition across many firms as effective methods of transferring knowledge from experienced employees to others who need such knowledge.

Through matching new or inexperienced employees with the “most experienced senior executives, an organization can effectively pass the intangible and tacit knowledge among its employees” (Denison, 1990).

Knowledge management during coaching and mentoring processes allow employees to acquire new knowledge through formal processes.

In addition, the protégé can create a bond with his or her coach or mentor. Knowledge management can be effective for firms, which have high rates of staff turnover, high numbers of employees who are approaching retirement age, or where an organization has a poor training and learning habits.

Through managing knowledge, CEOs and senior managers who have experiences can share their knowledge with the rest of the team. At the same time, interactions between coaches and mentors with the protégés increase socialization within the group.

Junior employees shall understand the importance of corporate vision, values, beliefs, and improve their chances of networking both within and outside the organization. This suggests that Skoda should consider investing in the CEO’s coaching and mentoring as a valuable investment for the company.

Knowledge management also facilitates open communication within the firm i.e., employees freely share their knowledge and skills with others, including employees from other departments. Coaching and mentoring must address issues of competition among employees by encouraging a culture of creating, sharing, and retaining knowledge within the organization.

Coaching and mentoring have abilities to facilitate such seismic changes. Therefore, if the CEO is also a mentor and coach, then he or she has favorable opportunities of transferring knowledge to other employees. Coaching and mentoring are ways of advancing skills and knowledge to people who need them.

Moreover, the CEO also creates an opportunity of grooming potential replacements and successors for the organization. The CEO, as a coach and mentors, has opportunities of expanding the skill pool for the organization.

In addition, he or she must also endeavor to have many talented individuals for the company. In short, the CEO has the responsibility of ensuring that an organization has the right people for its future growth.

Benchmarks to judge the success of a coaching and mentoring scheme

Once Skoda Auto has decided to introduce coaching and mentoring scheme, the mentor or coach and the learner must set certain goals.

• Identify specific areas for mentoring and coaching
• Define overall goals and objectives of the scheme
• Create achievable and realistic outcomes
• Create a plan for getting the preferred results
• Develop a suitable coaching or mentoring scheme for the program
• Create a favorable timetable
• Devise a method of evaluation and assessment of the progress
• Develop a feedback mechanism

The coach or mentor and the protégé must agree on a feedback mechanism before the beginning of coaching or mentoring process. A feedback system provides opportunities for the coach or mentor to provide a true account of the success or failure of the program.

It is necessary for the mentor or coach to seek for feedback as scheduled so that they can address any emerging issues before such issues derail the program. It is also necessary for the mentor and protégé to “agree on evaluation processes and standards for the program” (Thomas and Saslow, 2007).

This implies that the program must have “clear objectives, standard, assessment, and evaluation systems to allow for effective review of the protégé’s progress” (Thomas and Saslow, 2007).

Table 3: Coaching program with targets and assessment

The mentor or coach shall collect feedback data by informal interactions with the protégé. The mentor or coach records the outcomes in a report together with recommendations for the next course of action.

Before or after the end of mentoring or coaching program, the protégé and mentor or coach should “check the progress against the set objectives and criteria” (Megginson and Clutterbuck, 2005). The process involves making of a short report.

The protégé and the coach or mentor must review their achievements against the objectives, provide overall account of the program, and provide recommendations for further action if required.

Table 4: Coaching program evaluation outcomes

Both the mentor or coach and the protégé must be aware of possible barriers to effective coaching and mentoring. Some of the barriers include the following:

• Challenges from organizational culture whereby the culture of the organization does not support coaching and mentoring program
• Inappropriate matching of the mentor or coach with the employee
• Failure of the CEO and line managers to support the initiatives
• Lack of collaboration and support from colleagues who have missed an opportunity to take part in the mentoring and coaching program
• Lack of clear objectives
• Unrealistic expectations about the possible outcomes from the program
• Conflicts between the line manager or other departments and the mentor or coach e.g., failure to involve the HR department in the process of selection

Conclusion

Studies have shown that both coaching and mentoring programs could provide significant benefits to an organization. As a result, the role of ‘the CEO as a coach and mentor’ as gained popularity in many organizations.

This provides adequate grounds for a subsequent adoption of the program by the CEO of Skoda Auto because it is necessary for managers to possess various skills and knowledge and transfer them to other employees.

The approach to coaching and mentoring can be either short-term or long-term program based on the availability of time.

However, it is necessary to monitor the effectiveness of coaching and mentoring program, but there is a need to understand the relationship among the learner, managers, HR, and the coach or mentor.

For instance, employees may select their own coaches and mentors without consulting with the HR or other departments. This has led to conflicts in the program.

Effective mentoring and coaching must have clear objectives, goals, milestones, outcomes, evaluation, and feedback procedures. Every detail must be clear before the start of the program. The aim of the program is to improve employees’ performance.

Therefore, it is simple to measure ROI if there are clear guidelines. Skoda Auto must implement practical steps in order to improve coaching and mentoring programs.

Besides, past studies have indicated that coaching programs have the potential to increase RIO of an organization. However, some firms believe that it is difficult to provide precise measure for such benefits.

The company must understand the ultimate role of mentoring and coaching as methods of improving performance rather than as substitutes for conventional studies.

The roles of the CEO and other senior managers are critical for the success of the program because of their influences on organizational culture and knowledge transfer.

Such involvement and support show other employees that senior executives also believe in the culture of mentoring and coaching as strategy with benefits to the firm. However, the firm must anticipate any barriers to effective implementation of the program.

Reference List

ACCA, 2008 The coaching and mentoring revolution – is it working? ACCA, London.

Barham, K, and Conway, C 1998, Developing Business and People Internationally: A Mentoring Approach, Ashridge Research, Berkhampstead.

Caplan, J 2003, Coaching for the Future, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, London.

Chartered Institute of Personnel Development. (2006). Does Coaching Really Work? CIPD, London.

Denison, R 1990, Corporate culture and organizational effectiveness, John Wiley, New York.

Hay, J 1999, Transformational Mentoring: Creating Developmental Alliances for Changing Organizational Cultures, Sherwood Publishing, Watford.

Manchester Inc. 2003, Executives Coaching Yields Return on Investment of Almost Six times Its Cost, Says Study. Web.

Megginson, D and Clutterbuck, D 2005, Techniques for coaching and mentoring, Elsevier Butterworth Heinemann, London.

Peel, D 2006, ‘An Analysis of the Impact of SME Organisational Culture,’ International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 9-20.

Thomas, N and Saslow, S 2007, ‘Improving productivity through coaching and mentoring’, Chief Learning Officer, vol. 6, no. 5, pp. 22-26.

Part 1: The Four Phases of Reflective Practice

According to Passmore (2010, p. 26), “reflective practice is a powerful process that encourages mentors to prepare, encounter, and engage with their clients”. The process encourages them to reflect on the best mentoring approaches”. This process can involve more individuals in order to achieve the best results. The strategy has the potential to support the targeted outcomes. Trainers, coaches, teachers, and mentors can use this practice to understand the issues affecting their clients. The practice also informs trainers about the experiences and views of their clients. Trainers and coaches can use the power of reflective practice to reexamine their mentoring processes. The approach will result in better outcomes. Mentors should therefore use the four stages of reflective practice presented below.

Concrete Experience

Every mentor should have the required knowledge and expertise. The individual should also undertake new exercises in order to improve his or her competencies. The client should also reexamine his or her experiences during the process. The mentor will “acquire better skills in order to analyze the issues affecting every client” (Nash, Sproule, & Horton, 2009, p. 231). However, this stage can take different paths depending on the targeted outcomes. Mentors should also embrace different “lifelong learning processes in order to widen their skills” (Passmore, 2010, p. 39).

Reflective Observation

This stage is relevant because it encourages different trainers to analyze the issues affecting their targeted clients. The stage reveals the possibilities that might arise from the established relationship. The individual “must use his or her past experiences in order to review the situation in a professional manner” (Passmore, 2010, p. 48). The mentor will eventually establish a good relationship with his or her client. Mentors should also listen attentively. This approach will produce the best reflections. The individual can also obtain the relevant feedbacks and suggestions from the client. Mentors can use this stage in order to analyse the opinions of their clients (Passmore, 2010). Mentors should also formulate the best concepts and ideas during this phase.

Abstract Conceptualization

This phase makes it possible for the mentor to learn new ideas from the established relationship. The event will encourage “the mentor to make informed decisions based on the collected feedbacks from the client” (Nash et al., 2009, p. 231). The mentor also identifies the strengths of the relationship during this phase. The individual will also be able to interact with the targeted client in a positive manner. The mentor might also identify the challenges affecting every relationship. This knowledge will make it possible for every mentor to address the challenges affecting his or her mentoring strategy. Professional mentors and trainers should use this stage in order to improve their competencies (Nash et al., 2009). Trainers should support the changing needs of their clients using this phase.

Active Experimentation

This stage is relevant because it makes the reflective practice complete. This stage encourages mentors to form better relationships in their future practices. Many mentors use this knowledge to formulate the best strategies. The person gains new concepts and competencies. The individual also applies the concepts in different situations. These “situations can also occur between mentors and their clients” (Connor & Pokora, 2012, p. 47). This discussion explains why trainers and clients should focus on the best outcomes. Mentors should also use their new skills in every stage of the mentoring process. According to Connor and Pokora (2012, p. 53) “reflective practice is a continuous process aimed at improving every mentoring relationship”.

Part 2: Listening to the Podcast Scenario

The Targeted Podcast Scenario

Tom has been a charismatic leader. He has managed to achieve most of his goals. However, he has been using a passionate approach in order to achieve the best goals. This strategy has made him an overbearing leader. This leadership style has alienated most of his employees and teammates. The client always focuses on the best goals. He has become overbearing and ineffective. He has been forcing his employees to complete every task without asking questions. He does not share empower or support his employees. This issue has discouraged most of the targeted employees (Passmore, 2010). The workers have also become less productive thus affecting the company’s productivity.

Applying the Four Phases of Reflective Practice

The above four phases of reflective practice can address and resolve the organizational conflict presented in the podcast. This approach will ensure the organization promotes the best practices and activities. This effort will eventually make the organization successful. The trainer should begin by analyzing Tom’s competencies and skills. The individual will also examine the weaknesses affecting the client’s leadership strategy. The two individuals can therefore use this stage to explore the company’s strengths and weaknesses. This knowledge will ensure every stage of the mentoring exercise succeeds (Connor & Pokora, 2012).

The second phase is “reflective observation”. The mentor should revisit the issues and ideas presented by Tom. The mentor should “identify the best practices that can encourage the client to support the newly-formed relationship” (Connor & Pokora, 2012, p. 65). The two individuals should “present their ideas in order to support the existing relationship” (Connor & Pokora, 2012, p. 65). The mentor should use different concepts such as active participation and listening during the process. This practice will eventually produce the required goals.

The third stage will ensure the mentor understands the expectations of the targeted client. The two individuals will repeat every practice. This practice will produce the best goals and outcomes. They should also use various leadership concepts and models in order to achieve the best outcomes. The mentor should use new concepts in order to support the existing relationship. This knowledge “will produce the best practices in every stage of the mentoring process” (Connor & Pokora, 2012, p. 87). This phase of reflective practice addresses most of the challenges affecting the mentoring process.

Active experimentation is a powerful practice in every mentoring practice. The mentor should use these three stages in order to promote the best changes (Nash et al., 2009). The individual should use his or her ideas to address Tom’s needs. This discussion explains how the mentor will identify the leadership issues affecting Tom’s performance. The practice will address such challenges without discouraging the targeted client. The approach also embraces the use of evidence-based ideas in order to produce the best outcomes.

These phases will encourage Tom to form new teams and embrace the best communication methods. He should also become a team player in order to achieve the best results. Tom should also address the issues affecting every worker. The “four stages of reflective practice can therefore make every mentoring process successful” (Nash et al., 2009, p. 235). Mentors should therefore use the four phases of reflective practice in order to achieve their goals.

Reference List

Connor, M., & Pokora, J. (2012). Coaching and Mentoring at Work: Developing Effective Practice. New York, NY: Open University Press.

Nash, C., Sproule, J., & Horton, P. (2009). Excellence in Coaching: The Art and Skill of Elite Practitioners. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 82(2), 229-238.

Passmore, J. (2010). Excellence in Coaching: The Industry Guide. New York, NY: Kogan Page.

Mentoring is viewed as an effective strategy applied in organisations in order to support colleagues, provide expert opinion and assistance, and promote the further professional development of an employee. As a result, mentoring allows for forming productive and beneficial relationships between mentors and mentees that contribute to learning, the development of skills, and the creation of a positive, supportive atmosphere in the workplace (Abalkhail & Allan 2015). However, the literature indicates that the issue of mentoring in the advancement of the career of a female manager is more complex, and it requires further analysis and discussion. In this context, it is important to analyse the effectiveness of mentoring in advancing the careers of female managers with reference to the work of Ehrich (2008) and Durbin (2016) among others. Despite the fact that researchers identified various issues associated with mentoring, such as a lack of mentors, power imbalances, and cross-gender mentoring, the effectiveness of this strategy for female managers is supported by evidence in studies that also accentuate the necessity of selecting mentoring techniques depending on mentees’ expectations and organisational goals.

The key idea promoted in the management literature is that mentoring is effective in any organisation, especially for minority groups and employees who need additional support. Women who will be promoted to managerial roles or who have recently taken a senior position in their organisation are viewed as individuals who may require the assistance of mentors (Janssen, Vuuren & Jong 2016; Schein 2007). The reason is that the percentage of women who take leadership positions in organisations is lower than the percentage of men. Furthermore, women can require more career and psychological assistance, as well as social support, when being promoted (Davis & Maldonado 2015). According to Durbin (2016), mentoring helps women to avoid feeling isolated when they take managerial roles and when they lack the support of other female managers, because the managerial staff in many organisations is mainly represented by men. From this point of view, the key benefits of having a mentor for a female manager are the assistance, communication, support, and advice that are provided by experienced persons who can help women to adapt to new roles and achieve at a high level.

It is important to note that mentoring can be defined as a strategy promoted by human resource managers according to which experienced employees or mentors build professional, supportive relationships with their colleagues or mentees in order to help them share information associated with work, cope with new work tasks, and become oriented to new duties and responsibilities (Davis & Maldonado 2015; Ehrich 2008). These are the key components of formal mentoring, which is effective when the focus is on helping employees to adapt to work. However, when more social and psychological support is required without depending on strict plans and scheduled communication, informal mentoring works more effectively (Durbin 2016; Janssen, Vuuren & Jong 2016). Thus there are two key types of mentoring that can be effectively used by mentors in their work with female managers.

Research indicates that in spite of the expectations of organisational leaders, informal mentoring potentially provides better results than formal mentoring. According to researchers, this phenomenon can be explained with reference to the type of relationships desired by the mentee, as well as by the woman’s position (Durbin 2016; Ehrich 2008). Women who take senior management roles are inclined to view informal mentoring as more appropriate for them because of the possibilities for developing informal connections and receiving advice from mentors whom they choose independently (Durbin 2016). Informal mentoring is often the result of building prolonged professional relationships between a mentor and a mentee, who can be perceived as a protégé of the mentor. In this context, the promotion of a female mentee and positive changes in her career can be viewed as expected consequences of these relationships. From this point of view, women benefit from developing these types of mentoring relationships because they are mutually advantageous, and they are developed in the context of similar goals and objectives.

Still, it is necessary to point out that mentoring is only effective when the techniques used by mentors help women to achieve success upon obtaining a managerial position. Therefore women who have recently been promoted to higher managerial roles can require more formal support and mentoring organised according to a programme with set objectives (Davis & Maldonado 2015; Durbin 2016). In this case, formal mentoring can be regarded as a more appropriate choice because these programmes include a list of skills to develop in order to perform certain duties; they include objectives to reach, regulate the communication between mentors and mentees, and ensure that communication will be regular and continuous (Durbin 2016; Ehrich 2008). As a result, after completing these programmes, female managers appear to be prepared to perform their duties and responsibilities.

Human resource managers should also pay attention to the fact that different women can have various perceptions of mentoring depending on their past experiences. If these experiences have been positive, the development of effective relationships can be expected when women take higher managerial positions and begin to work with a mentor (Davis & Maldonado 2015; Sahoo & Lenka 2016). Still, the gender of a mentor can be an issue because women can consider cross-gender relationships differently. Nevertheless, the literature on the topic provides much evidence for the view that mentoring in organisations is an appropriate and potentially beneficial practice (Durbin 2016; Ehrich 2008; Janssen, Vuuren & Jong 2016). Thus when female managers are able to influence their participation in mentoring programmes and choose mentors to work with, their relationships with more experienced colleagues can become more productive, cooperative, and advantageous for an organisation.

Views regarding the effectiveness of mentoring for female managers are also based on the idea that this practice helps women to overcome the “the glass ceiling” effect and cope with possible barriers when they take higher managerial positions. After breaking “the glass ceiling,” a woman can require the assistance of mentors to handle new responsibilities and environments (Davis & Maldonado 2015). For a woman, the process of promotion can be associated with a range of obstacles because females are often viewed as not having developed the leadership skills and abilities required in managerial positions, as well as not having enough experience and knowledge (Ehrich 2008; Sahoo & Lenka 2016). These obstacles create additional stress for women who hope to be promoted. Therefore when they take their desired role, much support is required because female managers often have no access to networks of female managers, or they can experience some kind of prejudice (Hoobler, Lemmon & Wayne 2014). The support of mentors is extremely important at this stage because women have fewer chances to succeed in this area than men because of various barriers, as has been observed in studies of the problem.

Research in the field indicates that mentoring practices are important for female managers because they receive additional psycho-social resources and support in order to develop their leadership abilities and effectively perform managerial tasks. In response to these study findings, many organisations try to identify individuals who can work as mentors for female managers. As benefits of mentoring are supported by evidence in studies, more attention is being paid to developing these advantageous relationships (Durbin & Tomlinson 2014; Hoobler, Lemmon & Wayne 2014). However, the problem is that women who perform managerial roles often lack mentors who can set appropriate goals for them or who can develop effective informal mentoring relationships. The reason is that female leaders usually require the assistance of women in the same positions (Durbin 2016; Ehrich 2008). Organisations experience difficulties with assigning female mentors because there are often no role models for women in these contexts. Furthermore, men usually have more opportunities to participate in informal mentoring than women. As a result, in addition to focusing on the benefits of mentoring for women in organisations, it is also important to pay attention to challenges that can be associated with this practice.

The problem is that, in different situations, female managers require various types of support, and the nature of the mentoring provided can be inappropriate for a particular case, as Ehrich has observed (2008). In her study, the author tried to discuss the issue of mentoring female managers from another perspective, not only accentuating benefits of mentoring for women but also identifying potential obstacles and problems associated with this practice. In reviewing the literature in the field, Ehrich (2008) presented three key issues that need to be addressed to make sure that mentoring for women in managerial or senior positions can be effective. These issues are the nature of the relationships between mentors and mentees as well as the focus of these relationships, cross-gender mentoring, and power imbalances. These challenges need to be discussed in detail as the focus on these aspects makes it possible to analyse the effectiveness of mentoring for female managers from different perspectives.

In spite of the obvious benefits of mentoring programmes for managers who can rely on the support of more experienced colleagues, proposed mentoring techniques and practices are often not effective enough for a female manager in a particular organisation. According to Ehrich (2008), many problems are observed when mentees cannot recognise the type of mentoring in which they are involved or when they have no opportunity to choose between formal or informal mentoring and its type and outcomes in order to contribute to their professional development. This idea is also supported by Durbin (2016), who stated that informal mentoring is preferred by senior managers and by managers in private organisations. In contrast, formal mentoring programmes are beneficial for novices or for managers who need to pay more attention to the development of their professional and leadership skills. Consequently, as has been noted by Ehrich (2008), formal mentoring is used in the majority of organisations because of the level of mentees and the lack of experts to act as mentors in the context of informal mentoring.

It is also important to note that another obstacle to receiving support and assistance during mentoring for female managers is associated with cross-gender relationships. The problem is that female managers often require the support of mentors, but when these mentors are men, possible barriers to communication between a mentor and a mentee can be observed. Stereotypes, prejudice, and the risk of harassment are often discussed in the literature when the focus is on examining the relationships between male mentors and female mentees (Durbin 2016; Janssen, Vuuren & Jong 2016). However, there are also arguments for developing cross-gender relationships because male mentors can teach female managers how to behave in different situations, work with male colleagues and business partners, negotiate, solve problems and make decisions, demonstrate leadership abilities, and prevent or address conflicts while working in male-dominated environments (Ehrich 2008; Hoobler, Lemmon & Wayne 2014). Therefore managers need to find ways to resolve cross-gender issues related to mentoring.

Furthermore, in order to ensure that mentoring is effective, female managers should understand what type of relationship is appropriate for them and whether cross-gender relationships are comfortable for them in this context. There are also differences in mentoring in public and private sector organisations (Ehrich 2008; Janssen, Vuuren & Jong 2016). Durbin (2016) reports that women in the private sector are more oriented toward creating and developing mentoring relationships, and males often act as mentors in this case. Thus cross-gender relationships are typical for the private sector (Durbin 2016; Ehrich 2008). Women who have recently become senior managers are interested in receiving support or advice from male senior managers, who are usually viewed as specialists in this area.

Mentoring relationships can be effective and contribute to the development of women’s careers in the area of management in those cases when mentors and mentees understand each other’s roles and needs. According to Durbin (2016), even if there are no cross-gender issues and mentors and mentees are of the same gender, they need to have similar aspirations, goals, backgrounds, education, and attitudes to their careers as well as similar beliefs and values. These similarities are important in order to guarantee that the communication between a mentor and a female mentee will be productive and that the outcomes will be positive (Durbin 2016; Schein 2007). The goal of mentoring is the development of a female manager’s leadership skills, her professional potential, knowledge, critical thinking, emotional intelligence, and other important capacities. It is necessary to pay attention to the fact that mentoring programmes contribute to the development of these abilities and qualities, but their effectiveness depends on the success of selecting a mentor in each case.

One more challenge to discuss while analysing the effectiveness of mentoring for advancing the careers of female managers is the issue of power. It is difficult to determine who should control mentoring relationships in terms of setting goals and objectives, selecting topics for discussion, and other aspects (Abalkhail & Allan 2015). According to Ehrich (2008), the problem is that mentors usually control the power in their relationships with mentees, but this position can decrease the motivation of mentees and negatively affect their learning. On the other hand, if mentees choose the direction for their relationships with mentors independently, there are more chances that these relationships will be appropriate and beneficial for the participants because the focus is on the development of mentees’ skills in a comfortable atmosphere (Durbin & Tomlinson 2014; Ehrich 2008). Therefore the critics of mentoring programmes, especially formal mentoring practices, accentuate these challenges while discussing the overall effectiveness of the method for promoting female managers’ careers in organisations.

The analysis of the literature on mentoring and its role in influencing the career development of female managers indicates that mentoring programmes, including formal and informal ones, are extremely important for both public and private organisations. The reason is that these programmes enable female managers to receive the required support and assistance. They can ask for advice, develop strategies and techniques for working with employees, and learn how to build strong professional relationships. The likelihood of success of mentoring programmes is increased when the techniques used address mentees’ expectations, the mentoring programme is organised according to the company’s goals, and cross-gender and power issues in the relationships between a mentor and a female mentee are effectively addressed. However, if these issues are not addressed, there are risks that a proposed informal or formal mentoring programme will not be effective enough to guarantee that female managers obtain all the necessary knowledge to develop their skills and abilities. Therefore, the effectiveness of mentoring depends on a range of factors that need to be taken into account by human resource managers when they plan the implementation of mentoring programmes and choose whether informal or formal mentoring is appropriate for working with a particular female manager.

Reference List

Abalkhail, JM & Allan, B 2015, ‘Women’s career advancement: mentoring and networking in Saudi Arabia and the UK’, Human Resource Development International, vol. 18, no. 2, pp. 153-168.

Davis, DR & Maldonado, C 2015, ‘Shattering the glass ceiling: the leadership development of African American women in higher education’, Advancing Women in Leadership, vol. 35, pp. 48-64.

Durbin, S 2016, Women who succeed: strangers in paradise, Palgrave Macmillan, London.

Durbin, S & Tomlinson, J 2014, ‘Female part-time managers: careers, mentors and role models’, Gender, Work & Organization, vol. 21, no. 4, pp. 308-320.

Ehrich, LC 2008, ‘Mentoring and women managers: another look at the field’, Gender in Management: An International Journal, vol. 23, no. 7, pp. 469-483.

Hoobler, JM, Lemmon, G & Wayne, SJ 2014, ‘Women’s managerial aspirations: an organizational development perspective’, Journal of Management, vol. 40, no. 3, pp. 703-730.

Janssen, S, Vuuren, M & Jong, MD 2016, ‘Informal mentoring at work: a review and suggestions for future research’, International Journal of Management Reviews, vol. 18, no. 4, pp. 498-517.

Sahoo, DK & Lenka, U 2016, ‘Breaking the glass ceiling: opportunity for the organization’, Industrial and Commercial Training, vol. 48, no. 6, pp. 311-319.

Schein, VE 2007, ‘Women in management: reflections and projections’, Women in Management Review, vol. 22, no. 1, pp. 6-18.

Barton Legal Services appeared to meet the changes and innovations in the world of legal practice and decided to develop a be-spoke, integrated software product. The solution was based on the principles that juridical practice and the management of the company is no longer ruled by print and paper in today’s legal framework. The main advantages include tools to give the employees messages of the existence of new law and changes in old, also legal risks will be managed in advance of questions appearing and so dispute forestall rather than dispute resolution will become an important principle and others. The only problem that needs solution according to the solicitors of Barton Legal Services is that the employees of the company are rather conservative selecting their working methods and that the solicitors themselves are suspicious to any new method that, to their opinion, restrains working flexibility in working practice. Anyhow the solicitors can be divided into those who are interested in IT and those who adhere to traditions (Culp, 2001).

The further discussion will be devoted to the question of how and what informational technologies can be used in law and particularly in information system of Barton Legal Services. According to the research carried out there are six basic applications of technology that could be used for lowers and legal information services: electronic communication, text creation and production, litigation support, internal know-how, external information retrieval and case management. These are not strict definitions but identified categories of application which can represent the basis of workable IT project for Barton Legal Services (Culp, 2001). The six categories interact with one another, moreover some of the applications actually relies one or another.

Electronic Communication and Legal Support

Solicitors constantly deal with kinds of information – law regulations, case studies, legal textbooks, information relating to client matters, including accounting and management information, marketing information, and personal and internal know-how (Culp, 2001). These statements result hat the job of a lawyer involves activities of sharing of the information and its transfer to others; to colleagues, barristers, other firms, the courts of justice, and other agencies; and also its sale to clients. Five basic functions of electronic communication for legal framework can be defined. The first point is sending and receiving messages. The generic term means electronic mail or “e-mail” that allows users to send and receive messages. This facility is commonly used by solicitors across local area networks within their practices but communicating this way with other computer users and clients beyond their firms may become a necessary tool. This means the change from interpersonal computing to inter-organizational IT. And represent e-mail as a substitute for telephone conversations, exchange of memoranda, and informal letters. The second point is gaining access to internal know-how. The creation of unlimited access to databases of internal know-how, to the cases studied in order that solicitors can take advantage and speed up work with the help of accumulated expertise and experience within Barton Legal Services.

The third point is gaining access to external information. This point includes access to external information held in online databases. Solicitors may use electronic communications facilities search engine to find relevant information view and download the data into their own computers (where the law of copyright permits this). The forth point is providing access to information on particular activities. Clients as well as lawyers should have ready access to information concerning particular activities that are handled. This could be a status reporting function that can vary in detail and consist of different information. The fifth point enables free-form discussion with other users. That means the exchange of opinion among participants on pre-specified topics. Real-time interchanges amongst participants can increase the speed of decision approval. In legation support IT comprises two components. The first component means assistance to managing and control of the documents which solicitors have to study and advance in order to prepare their client’s case. The second component is the usage of IT to store and make available to study the work progressed by lawyers and to generate their own databases linking relevant documents to one another and enabling users to study the work product and evident. The main task of legal support is to make automatic different aspects of trial preparation. Searching, retrieval, cross-referencing, and annotating can be done automatically using IT.

Internal Know-How

The common statement is that the information as well as being internal seems to be that the data available is practical in it meaning, focused, as the term know-how suggests, on how to operate the process and get things done. The internal database of the legal service company may be consisted of several items discussed further. The precedent bank means that standard form documents are stored in a special database of the company, so that they can be found and used again in appropriate circumstances. Legal storeroom includes historical documents, useful letters of advice, reports, contracts, pleadings, and so forth. Indexing by reference to subject matter, author, and document type is also very important. The subject matter is all-important and rich vocabularies and thesauri of legal terms and meanings which help to compile this part of the index. Ideally, there should be restricted definitions which can be used for categorizing subject matter. Work product retrieval tool enables solicitors to refer to relevant activity done in the past and reused where appropriate on later cases.

Case Management

Case management tool is a type of project management. In order to assist progressing of individual cases all users can run case management systems. Designed to drive cases efficiently from the initial stage through to final realization flow management systems appear to be computerized dairying and scheduling tools, which develop timetables for important events and tasks in a legal matter.

Text Creation and Production

Users will directly type the text into any system in use. Some users will prefer to type using keyboards as their device of text entry. But today speaker independent, large vocabulary, continuous speech voice recognition systems are available. As users speak to their computers, the words will appear instantaneously on their screens, not only making the process automated but editing it by allowing immediate examination of the words.

The discussed previously tools will help the solicitors to improve the quality of work produced and further plan will comprise this knowledge in the information system most suitable for Barton Legal Services. The existing information systems and their levels (operational, knowledge, management, and strategic) will be displayed below:

• Operational Level Systems. Operational systems aid managers by tracking elementary activities and orders. The primary objective of this kind of information systems is to keep flow of transactions through the organization. In Transaction – Processing Systems (TPS) (Shell, 2003), the five basic needs of organization are normally comprised: finance (cash management), accounting (payroll, accounts payable, accounts receivable), sales and marketing (order tracking and order processing), manufacturing (machine control, plant scheduling, material movement), and human resources (payroll, training and development, employee record keeping). TPS is the basic business system that aid in daily routine operations.
• Knowledge Level Systems. Knowledge level systems aid managers in organizing internal resources of a company, as they support knowledge and data workers (Susskind, 1998). These systems, as a rule of thumb, include forms of collaboration tools, office systems, workstations. Knowledge Work Systems (KWS) and Office Automation Systems (OAS) aid workstation engineering, graphics workstations, document imaging, management workstations, and electronic calendar (Shell, 2003).
• Management Level Systems. Management information systems aid in monitoring, controlling, administrative activities, and decision-making of middle level managers. Normally, these systems provide reports rather instant information on current operations (Shell, 2003). While some of these systems support less structured decisions, other focus on routine decision making (Susskind, 1998).. Management Information Systems (MIS) and Decision Support Systems (DSS) include sales management and regional analysis, inventory control that is followed by production planning, cost analysis and annual budgeting, capital investment and cost profitability analysis, contract cost analysis and relocation analysis (Rivera & Casias, 2001).
• Strategic Level Systems. The fourth and highest level of information systems is strategic level systems that address strategic issues and long term trends in organizational development including both external and internal environment. The basic concern of these systems is to match organizational capabilities to threats and opportunities in the medium to long term, which is the period of 5 to 10 years (Shell, 2003). Executive Support Systems (ESS) aid in sales trend forecasting, capital budgeting, operational planning, profit and manpower planning for a period of 5 to 10 years, as previously indicated.

Selection of information systems for Barton Legal Services starts from determination of the informational needs of a given enterprise. Objective assessment of the organizational needs is the first step in information system development for Barton Legal Services. This process starts from an in-depth survey of the organizational needs that involves everyone employed in the company. One should start with dividing company into departments and then surveying every department within a company to estimate the basic informational requirements. The survey can be conducted in the form of an open ended questionnaire that allows identify the informational needs and trends. The next step is to set priorities at the same time remaining objective. This step can be attained through a close ended questionnaire, as informational needs have been identified and only importance and priority should be determined. (Galliers, 1999).

Finally, the established informational needs must be projected onto the future organizational needs to make sure that the selected information system meets the requirements for the long term. Informational systems are then selected based on the conducted research within organization and employee needs and considering the external factors for a long rather than short period of time. Following the specified theory it could be proposed that the most suitable information system for Barton Legal Services will be knowledge level system that enables the company to manage internal resources in the best way with all the necessary tools, databases and application. (Galliers, 1999).

The development of such kind of a system will require a vast amount of money as the system should be specially developed for Barton Legal Services, have the highest protection level and meet in requirements to the management plan.

If a manager wants to plan adequately, he or she must make effective decisions. In many ways, the decision wheel could be titled easily a planning wheel. Many of the steps are the same.

The planning process differs from the decision-making process because planning is so concrete. Although the decision wheel can be applied to most any decision, business planning takes three forms: strategic planning, intermediate planning, and short-run planning. (Galliers, 1999).

Strategic planning involves allocating resources to achieve the long-term goals of an organization. Intermediate planning usually covers 6 months to 2 years and provides reinforcement or correction data for the long-term goals. Short-run planning involves plans for a few weeks or at most I year. This type of plan is meant to allocate resources on a day-to-day or month-to-month basis. The strategic plan fulfills the firm’s mission and overall general goals. The intermediate plan involves the general way in which the strategic plan will be pursued, and the short-run plan is how the strategic plan will work on a day-to-day basis.

All three types of planning have commonalities although the time period, responsible parties, and actual steps vary. Barton Legal Services Company should have general organizational goals which are fairly abstract statements of what a firm hopes to achieve within given areas of performance. These goals are derived from the organization’s mission as its business domain. It often includes statements about the firm’s role outside its primary business markets (Galliers, 1999).

In order to assess progress, an organization must have operational definitions for measurement. The main points of the plan for Barton Legal Services include (Sayers, 1997):

1. Examine the legal service business environment and past performance.
2. Evaluate available resources.
3. Identify, select, prioritize, and operationalize planning goals.
4. Identify alternative approaches for obtaining goals.
5. Select from the alternative approaches.
6. Implement the plan.
7. Monitor implementation.
8. Evaluate plan’s progress and adjust the plan.

The development of the information system for Barton Legal Services requires from the company certainty about the planning goals that can be met, and company must evaluate at-hand resources. At hand resources include the company’s name and reputation, personnel, equipment, and finances. At hand means the resources either are held currently by the firm or can be borrowed easily. Thus, financial resources also include an organization’s credit (Sayers, 1997).

Evaluating available resources is important because resources determine whether goals can be achieved, and although resources can be changed from one form to another, the process does not occur as quickly as management would like. In the case of Barton Legal Services resources allocated are staff, experience and finance. According to the staff and questionnaire the main goals should determined (Sayers, 1997). And on that base IT technologists start Systems Life Cycle. It is used by a system analyst to develop an information system, including requirements, validation, training, and user ownership through investigation, analysis, design, implementation, and maintenance. SLC is also known as information systems development or application development. SLC is a systematic approach to problem solving and is composed of several phases, each comprising multiple steps:

• The information system concept – identifies and defines a need for the new system.
• A requirements analysis – analyzes the information needs of the end users.
• The architectural design – creates a blueprint for the design with the necessary specifications for the hardware, software, people and data resources.
• Coding and Debugging – creates and programs the final system.

System testing – evaluates the system’s actual functionality in relation to expected or intended functionality (Sohn, Ardyth, LeBlanc, Lacy, Sylvie,2000).

Also such points should be mentioned: terms of reference — Barton Legal Services should decide what capabilities and objectives they wish the new system to incorporate.

Definition either company’s’ concept of their desired new system is actually an achievable, realistic goal, in-terms of money, time and end result. Monitoring (watching) the staff to see how they work better. Analysis — free from any cost or unrealistic constraints, this stage lets minds run wild as ‘wonder systems’ can be thought-up, though all must incorporate everything asked for by the management in the Terms Of Reference section;

Design — designers will produce one or more ‘models’ of what they see a system eventually looking like, with ideas from the analysis section either used or discarded. A document will be produced with a description of the. Implementation and Review — set-up and install the new system including writing any custom (bespoke) code required, train staff to use it and then monitor how it operates for initial problems, and then regularly maintain thereafter. The basic plan for IT specialists should include the following stages:

• Planning – establishing the plans for creating an information system by IT technologists.
• Defining the system to be developed – based on the systems prioritized according to the organization’s critical success factor (CSF), a system must be identified and chosen.
• The project scope – a high level of system requirements must be defined and put into a project scope document.
• Developing the project plan – all details from tasks to be completed, who completed them and when they were completed must be formalized.
• Managing and monitoring the project plan – this allows the organization to stay on track, creating project milestones and feature creeps which allow the to add to the initial plan
• Analysis – the users and IT specialists collaborate to collect, comprehend, and logistically formalize business requirements.
• Gathering the business requirements’ – IT specialists and knowledge workers collaborate in a joint application design (JAD) and discuss which tasks to undertake to make the system most successful.
• Analyzing the requirements – business requirements are prioritized and put in a requirements definition document where the knowledge worker will approve and place their signatures.
• Design – this is where the technical blueprint of the system is created by IT technologists.
• Designing the technical architecture – choosing amongst the architectural designs of telecommunications, hardware and software that will best suit the organization’s system and future needs.
• Designing the systems model – graphically creating a model from graphical user interface (GUI), GUI screen design, and databases, to placement of objects on screen.
• Development – executing the design into a physical system by IT specialists.
• Building the technical architecture – purchasing the material needed to build the system
• Building the database and programs – the IT specialists write programs which will be used on the system.
• Testing – testing the developed system.
• Write the test conditions – test conditions are conducted by comparing expected outcomes to actual outcomes. If these differ, a bug is generated and a backtrack to the development stage must occur.
• Implementation – the systems are placed and used in the actual workforce and
• The user guide is created.
• Training is provided to the users of the system – usually through workshops or online
• Maintenance – keeping the system up to date with the changes in the organization and ensuring it meets the goals of the organization.
• Building a help desk to support the system users – having a team available to aid technical difficulties and answer questions.
• Implementing changes to the system when necessary.

The discussion of content of mentoring should start with definition of this process itself. So, mentoring is a combination of activities which are conducted by a certain person, also called mentor, in order to provide support for another person, the mentee or protégé. Mentor’s help is especially significant when mentee does not have enough experience of the job he/she is conducting and mentor provides a valid advice for this person, so that the task would be completed successfully and it would serve as an example for mentee to follow.

There are many creative definitions of this process (Sohn, Ardyth, LeBlanc, Lacy, Sylvie,2000)., which describe it as interaction or developmental relationship between mentee and protégé, involving beneficial for both parties exchange of experience; however all of these definitions have one thing in common – two-sided relationships built between mentor and mentee.

The history of mentorship goes deep in antiquity, being introduced in “Odyssey” by Homer, where the goddess Athena is guiding young and inexperienced Telemachus to overcome the obstacles and difficulties he had faced. Later, mentorship traditions were reflected in such religions like Hinduism or Buddhism, and even Christianity, which promoted the idea of support and mutual help.

Today, the theory of mentorship has taken slightly different and more sophisticated forms due to the fact that new approaches and methods of mentorship’s practice were worked out, making this process much more beneficial for both mentee and mentor.

On the way to deeper understanding of mentoring relationships it is important to distinguish two types of mentorship: informal and formal. The first one is based on the idea that both parties should build mentorship relationships on their own without any requirements or certain approaches. On the other hand formal mentoring aims to develop assigned relationships which are designed to enhance successful development of employees. Formal mentoring involves a great variety of tools like program goals, trainings provided for both protégés and mentors and finally assessment of mentorship programs’ results.

A good example of mentorship process and its importance in the overall performance of the company is the case when new employee is recruited in international IT Company. In spite of his/her high qualification this person needs a temporary mentor who will support the new comer in obtaining necessary information about this company and its practices; after the short term introduction conducted by the mentor this new employee is ready to apply his/her knowledge in the new environment of IT company. On the other hand, the CEOs of this company may want to promote high potential employees, providing them with an opportunity to take leadership roles, so these employees are paired up with more experienced mentors with relatively high level of leadership skills; as a result, protégés are given practical consultations on the ways of taking the leadership position in this company.

General Overview: Coaching

Coaching is a process which involves a person who helps another person, also called clients, on the way of achieving certain goals, encouraging the client to find his/her own solution of the problem. It is essential to understand that the coachee is not provided with an advice or recommendation on the issue, but he/she is motivated and supported by the coach to work out own plan of actions in order to solve certain problem (Susskind, 1998)..

Looking into the roots of coaching process, it can be noted that the term “coaching” first appeared in the nineteenth century to refer to the process of controlling the team. However, this word was rather narrowly applied to the area of sports and athletic teams in the colleges. Today coaching as a process of motivational and inspirational stimulus is widely common in a great variety of non-sporting environments, like business or organizational structure.

There is a great number of various types of coaching, in particular: individual, team, organizational and business, executive and systemic, dissertation and ontological coaching, – every type contains its own distinctive peculiarities and, but also necessarily based on the main principle of coaching – two way communication process between the client and his/her coach (Susskind, 1998)..

According to The Coaching Academy, a great amount of business skills is exchanged and passed through the effective system of coaching. As an example of the positive impact of coaching process the following case can be presented: international IT company has invited a highly qualified coach whose aim is to improve performance of certain department of this company. In order to achieve this goal, invited specialist should start with assessment of department’s efficiency, its overall strengths and weaknesses and after thorough and accurate analysis of the situation work out the program of training for this particular group of individuals. This training should aim to enhance the knowledge of coachees, increasing the level of their cooperation and mutual support (Jakupec, Garrick, 2000).

Team and organizational coaching was involved in the case described above, however, business coaching is another form of coaching which has gained its wide popularity in many countries in the world. In this case, coaches are required to work out successful business plan or even launch a particular business, so the level of qualifications and experience of such business coaches should be considerably high. So, the main advantage of the coaching process is the fact that a company, in particular IT enterprise, is provided with innovative trainings and useful suggestions regarding the improvement of company’s performance.

Inter-comparison: Mentoring and Coaching

The nature of both coaching and mentoring was researched above, and it can be concluded that these two processes share certain similarities, and to a certain extent differ from each other (Jakupec, Garrick, 2000).

It can not be denied that both coacher and mentor help their clients to achieve their goals, by reaching their full potential, whether these are individuals or large international companies. Both coaching and mentorship processes can be offered in professional, also called paid, or philanthropic, or unpaid, forms, which depends on the relationships or agreement set between two parties.

Another similarity of these two processes is the content of tasks and purposes which should be fulfilled by mentors or coachers (Jakupec, Garrick, 2000):

1. Conduct the exploration and deep research of needs and skills of the second party.
2. Take advantage of the questioning techniques in order to gather necessary information about possible solutions of the particular issue.
3. Provide customer with essential support of setting the goals or evaluation methods, which are integral parts of company’s performance.
4. Use a variety of innovational and effective tools, like one-to-one training or method of councelling and networking, and many others.
5. Maintain beneficial relationships with the second side, which are based on the principles of long lasting support and non-judgment of the customer’s decision, lifestyles or views.

On the other hand, coaching and mentoring should not be perceived as the same process due to the fact that mentoring is based on the idea that more experienced and skilled colleague can provide significant support to his/her mentee by sharing the knowledge and own methods of work; on the contrary, the coach may not necessarily possess experience of customer’s occupation and offer consultations on the overall improvements, which are not related to the field where the coachee is working (Jakupec, Garrick, 2000). And as it was noted above, coaching is not supposed to supply its clients with solutions to their problems, but only enhance process of identifying possible solutions by customers themselves.

Information Systems Development and the Role of Communication

Effective Communication Principles: IT Specialists and Users

Information Systems Development involves two participants- Informational Technology Specialists and their Users, which cooperate in the never-ending exchange of information and knowledge. It can not be denied that the effect of user-participation in the development of communications is significant, and the role of users in achieving effective communication management can not be underestimated. So, the principle of customers’ involvement in the process of successful communication development should be included in the overall strategy of any Informational Technology company.

Another important principle of IT company is the process of receiving appropriate and critical feedback from its users. Moreover, it was discovered that if company’s customers took active part in designing a particular project, they were more likely to adopt new systems and more interested in continuing cooperation with this IT company. So, involvement of users establishes long lasting relationships between its customers and IT specialists.

In order to achieve mutual understanding and cooperation between users and IT specialists, communication model of users’ involvement should be designed. In this particular case, a four-stage model can be proposed with the following communication stages and a distinctive combination of certain tools for each stage:

1. The first stage is based on the idea that users should be fully aware of the available opportunities of communication with IT developers. A great variety of tools, like feedback or complaints, as well as customers’ suggestions, can be effectively used in this stage.
2. The second stage involves transition of customers’ messages, which can be achieved through various communication channels. It is recommended that the status of a particular user- first time or permanent user- should affect the level of their involvement: in particular special clients should be entitled to participate in the project-team meetings, as an example of two way information flow.
3. The third level is mostly based on the process of interpretation of users’ messages and suggestions, which is rather complicated task because some information, either accidentally or intentionally can be misinterpreted or even changed. So, the number of intermediaries involved in this process should be decreased to prevent distortion of users’ messages.
4. IT specialists can finally set certain priorities on the basis of users’ feedback, and work out the plan of future actions and measures in order to meet customers’ requirements.

Effective Communication with IT Specialists: Potential Problems

It should be clearly understood that high level of user-participation in the process of communication development does not guarantee the increase of profitability of any IT company, however this process involves increasing expenses and costs of setting and controlling this communication system.

On the other hand, intentional neglect of users’ needs and requirements can lead to much more significantly negative consequences, which may even threaten the future development of IT company. So, in spite of possible disadvantages of user-involvement program, this system should be set and reviewed constantly with necessary updated and modifications.

Unfortunately, there are numerous potential problems which IT specialists may face during communication with their users. First of all, some users may set the wrong combination of requirements or state irrelevant problems, so developers should carefully analyze all the feedback they receive and conclude whether the users’ suggestions should be taken into account or not.

Secondly, setting successful system of collecting customers’ information is a rather complicated process, which requires much time and considerate investment in order to benefit from it. Thirdly, many IT specialists have faced problem of unwillingness from the side of their users to supply this company representatives with their personal information or even their recommendations.

And the last but not the least problem which can emerge during communication between IT specialists and its users, is the distortion of the date received either about appropriate users or their feedback, then the source of false information should be identified and eliminated from the list.

Works Cited

Culp, Christopher L. 2001. The Risk Management Process: Business Strategy and Tactics. New York: Wiley.

Currie, Wendy and Bob Galliers, eds. 1999. Rethinking Management Information Systems: An Interdisciplinary Perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Jakupec, Viktor and John Garrick, eds. 2000. Flexible Learning, Human Resource, and Organisational Development: Putting Theory to Work. London: Routledge.

Sayers, Philip. 1997. Competitive Tendering: Management and Reality : Achieving Value for Money. London: E & FN Spon.

Shell, Richard L. 2003. Management of Professionals. New York: Marcel Dekker.

Sohn, Ardyth Broadrick, Jan LeBlanc Wicks, Stephen Lacy, and George Sylvie. 1999. Media Management: A Casebook Approach. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Susskind, Richard. 1998. The Future of Law: Facing the Challenges of Information Technology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.