Mentoring Program Design Comment by Catherine Raffaele: This section is mostly just describes your mentoring program and lacks “critique and recommendations for improvements” as well as your critical reasoning for those critiques and recommendations.
If you are doing an evaluation, rather than a design of a new program, then you need to evaluate – not just describe – your mentoring program.
The mentoring program designed to educate and familiarize the new employees and interns into China Mobile Limited marketing department followed a well-defined format. The program's length was three months. In the three months meant for the program, individuals moved from one functional area to another. There are different subdivisions in the marketing department, representing different target markets and customer segments. Undertaking mentoring for three months was critical in ensuring that the mentee had enough time to interact with each subdivision before being posted in any. All mentees were to be supervised every time they work. Strict supervision guaranteed that the mentees acquired the highest possible knowledge by seeking clarification and being directed to undertake their daily activities. Continuous supervision and mentoring ensured that the frequency of clarification was guaranteed in the mentoring program. As indicated above, the location of the mentoring program is designed to take place in the company offices. Other than taking the program in another area, I ensured that mentees interacted with practical knowledge and challenges that face the department; hence, they asked questions leading to improved knowledge. Every mentee was required to call a notebook and a pen to record answers to question asked as a way of reading afterward and improves their knowledge of the department's issues.
The mentoring program in the organization was formal. Notably, a formal mentoring program follows structured sessions and framework. This type of mentoring ensures adequate learning and development, offers a formal support system from and for participants, and ensures successful matching of mentees and mentors. Given China Mobile Limited's magnitude and complexity, informal mentoring could not work successfully, and the management needs to equip mentees with the right information, experience, and knowledge to serve the high number of customers it enjoys. Once the matching of mentors and mentees occur, the mentorship program took a face-to-face approach over the three months. There was setting up of strategic goals to achieve informal mentorship; the goals were aligned with the vision, mission, and values of the telecommunication company. Although the formal mentoring program was inflexible as it follows a set standard, it ensured that mentees acquired the right information and met the program's expectations. Furthermore, it ensured that there was accountability from mentors and mentees.
There was a matching of mentees and mentors. The mentoring programs involved different stakeholders in every subdivision of the marketing department. The mentors included market coordinator, market analyst, vice president of the marketing department, brand manager, digital marketing manager, content marketing manager, chief executive officer, and general employees. Given the wide range of subdivision in China Mobile Limited’s marketing department, mentees first interacted with the chief executive officer, who indicated to them the strategic plan and direction of the company. They were then handed over to the vice president's marketing department as the highest manager who would kick-start the mentor match. It included two methodologies. First, the mentee was asked to choose the subdivision they would like to be attached to or start their mentorship. Those who did not understand the department subdivision were attached to different subdivision heads, which later matched the mentees to more experienced employees in the department. Notably, the matching process involved understanding the mentees’ personality, attitudes, and desires before matching them with available mentors whose mentoring personality was already evaluated. Ensuring that there was a match in the mentees' personalities and mentors followed Menges' (2016) suggestion that if mentors and mentees' personalities and attitudes are not the same, the expected results are not attained.
There was a high expectation that the mentoring session program would cover all the subdivisions in China Mobile Limited marketing department. The expectation was founded on equipping the mentees with adequate knowledge about how all the subdivisions. Notably, China Mobile Limited forecasted that there would be an increase in customers in the future as the firm improved its services and expanded. Therefore, any employees in the marketing department could be called upon to help in any subdivision to reduce complaints or service needs with the aim of improving the service quality. The mentoring program was guided by the principle of being an all-around employee in the marketing department. Mentoring the newbies on all activity and constant supervision was a better mentoring session design that improves knowledge attainment.
The mentoring program involved a lot of specific training and support activities and provisions. First, the training program involved equipping the mentees with practical knowledge concerning good decision-making skills. Under such training, mentees were guided on how to forecast and read the changing nature of the market and customer expectations. It would help mentees make better decisions that ensured that customers’ needs and expectations were catered for to improve satisfaction. Similarly, there was training on service branding. The marketing department has a primary responsibility to create a good image in the mind of customers to attract them to the firm’s service. Mentoring allowed experienced employees and managers to pass knowledge on how to brand China Mobile Limited services. In addition, training in market analysis to understand what competitors are doing was imperative. The mentoring program also included assurance from the board of management that they supported the program. Such assurance was vital to mentees as a way of showing management confidence and support in the process. Apart from management support, the mentoring program needed financial provisions (Chen et al., 2016). There were external mentors brought on board to help instill external outlook and new ideas about what mentees need to know about the company from an outsider perspective.
Supporting Literature Analysis Comment by Catherine Raffaele: Consider incorporating your Literature Analysis in the above section with your evaluation – so you could draw on the literature to support your evaluation.
There is no right or enough time to undertake a mentoring program. Notably, the amount of time that a program may take depends on different issues. The urgency of the mentoring program determines the duration the program will take. There is a general consensus that if the mentoring objectives wish to impact knowledge as soon as possible, the program will be faster and vice-versa (Goodsett & Walsh, 2015). At the same time, the availability of mentors is also a key determiner. For a mentoring program to be successful, the mentors should have adequate time to impact mentees' knowledge and assess their knowledge, failure to which a fact program might not meet the expected objectives. In China Mobile Limited, the duration of the program is three months. It is enough time for individuals to familiarize themselves and move from one subdivision to another with ease.
A mentoring program requires some significant supervision to ensure that the mentees do the right thing to avoid wastage, injury, and damage. According to Gopee (2015), supervision is critical in bringing success in the mentorship program given that mentees can get clarification of the issues they find challenging as they work. Supervision allows forming a close relationship between a mentor and mentee as they interact in their daily activities. Mentees benefit more from supervision as they get practical knowledge from their supervisor. In terms of the organization, supervision reduces the rate of damage and poor services more so in products or services produced, which might affect the organization-customer relationship. Comment by Catherine Raffaele: You’ve done a good job in this section of pulling out relevant literature to inform your evaluation. Now what you need to do is make more of a connection between these learnings and your evaluation of your specific program.
Often in this section, you talk generally about mentors/mentees/mentoring, when you should be using this literature analysis to support or extend your evaluation.
So connect each point back to the mentoring program you’re looking at. Or another possibility is to incorporate some or all of your literature analysis into your evaluation and recommendations.
The mentoring program presents increased benefits when conducted in the institution in which the mentees will work. Notably, the mentees have a chance to interact with the environment they would work. It offers the benefits of asking relevant questions concerning problems which might be experienced during practical working time. The mentoring design may involve having external and internal mentors who offer a wide range of knowledge and experience. External mentors offer an outside perspective in which customers and competitors might look at the business. The external perspective is vital as it offers a wider knowledge base for better decision-making by the mentors. However, external mentors are not the only imperative stakeholder to include. The internal mentors, like employees and management, are also important. Such internal mentors have firsthand knowledge and experience of the working and problems facing the institutions and methods to mitigate the challenges. Bradford, Rutherford & Friend’s (2017) study suggests that internal mentorship is more helpful than considering external mentors. The internal mentors provide greater exposure, challenging assignments, as well as role modeling. Therefore, combining external and internal mentors in the mentoring program is critical in knowledge dissemination, more so to interns, graduates, as well as new employees in an institution (Klasen & Clutterbuck, 2012).
An organization can undertake either a formal mentoring program or an informal mentoring program. The difference between these two types of mentoring programs lies in the structure. A formal mentoring program is well-structured and planned and with support from the management. On the other hand, an informal mentoring program lies in an unstructured relationship, but it does not mean it is unsuccessful. In China Mobile Limited, the best choice of program is a formal program. According to Chen, Liao, & Wen (2014), there has been a growth and shift from the informal mentoring program given that there is a positive impact of formal mentoring programs on mentees’ career success. The authors also indicated that formal mentoring effect affective commitment as well as reduced turnover intention. Formal mentoring is not only beneficial to mentees but also to mentors. For the mentee, formal mentorship ensures that enough support is acquired from management in terms of financial support as the mentoring program requires paying the mentors more so the external mentors. Ghosh & Reio Jr (2013) suggest that mentors undertaking the mentorship program also benefit. Mentors act as role models to employees and mentees. In return, it comes with career outcomes like organizational commitment, job satisfaction, career success, and improved job performance for mentors and the organization.
The mentoring program depends on better matching (mentor-mentee matching) for success. There is a possibility that if there are instances of differences in personality, attitude, perception, and expectations between the mentee and the mentor, the matching is unfruitful—the need to match mentee’s and mentor’s personality traits are supported by Menges (2016). According to Menges (2016), there are two most important personality traits to look for in mentees and mentors before matching, namely, openness to conscientiousness and experience to enhance the mentoring program's outcomes. A protégé and mentor must have similarities in their personality traits as it guides goal setting and transfer of knowledge between the two parties. Mentors and mentees should have similar interests. According to Lozinak (2016), prior mentors, administrators, and mentees urged pairing and matching to come from a similar content area for the process to be a success. In addition, when there is matching in a similar content area, it makes the relationship between the mentor and mentee stronger. Notably, there is the increased accessibility of the mentors to the mentees, which results in a stronger sense of overall support of the program. Furthermore, the matching should also fit the organization’s purpose, where it should be aligned with the vision, mission, and goals. Undertaking tests, as well as emotional intelligence profiling, can be a valuable tool in the matching process (Poulsen, 2013).
Identification of Implementation Issues Comment by Catherine Raffaele: This section is much better because you are critically discussing issues in relation to your mentoring program.
Different issues might affect the implementation of the proposed China Mobile Limited’s marketing department mentoring program. First, the issue of budgetary allocation may affect the implementation process. Notably, the mentoring program will include having external mentors who require some financial compensation as an incentive for better coaching and continuous mentorship. In addition, the internal mentors will sometimes work extra hours as a way of ensuring that the mentees attain the relevant details needed in the marketing department. Hence, the employees will request an increase in salaries to compensate for the extra effort. Therefore, without enough money, the program is likely to fail. Approaching the management and requesting the extra money will be a suitable method to mitigate the reduced money needed. Although there are limited resources in the firm, it is necessary to invest in the program as the benefits are imperative to its future success.
The marketing department has different targets to meet with money allocated and human resources. Similarly, the department has a strict deadline to meet concerning their marketing objective. The issue of balancing between the mentorship program and meeting the strict deadline with limited time, human resources, and resources create competing priorities. Balancing these issues will create some significant pressure on the marketing department management, which might reduce the efficiency of implementing the mentoring program. The marketing department can make shifts in the human resource so that when one shift is working, the other can offer mentees training. In the end, the competing priorities will have a balance.
The formal mentorship requires management support. China Mobile Limited’s management must offer its financial and administrative support for the program to be successful (Chen et al., 2016). The chief executive officer and board of management must ensure that the program is authentic. However, there is a possibility that the management may be engaged with other issues affecting the firm, such as ways to increase market share and stand up with the increasing competition. The mentoring program may look like a distraction from the main issue affecting the institution. The marketing manager should explain to the management that the program is likely to improve knowledge and expertise to the firm, which forms a significant human capital necessary for the organization's future needs.
As indicated above, the management may wish to stay focused on the firm's main objective, vision, and mission. Given that the management forms part of the proposed mentors, their availability may hamper successful implementation. As Goodsett & Walsh (2015) indicated, mentors' availability affects implementation as the source of knowledge and direction will lack if the management and employees who act as mentors are not available. Creating shifts and delegation of duties by the management can create enough time that can be dedicated to the mentoring program, hence solving unavailability.
The experienced managers and employees (three years and above) in the firm may have the right experience working in the organization but being a mentor is a whole different thing. There is a possibility that an employee may be attached to a mentee but will train them as expected. Mentorship training requires some special type of skills, and some managers and employees may have no clue, which results in reduced mentoring (Nowell et al., 2017). Solving the problem will require that a workshop will be conducted to prepare and equip the mentors for their new roles before matching the mentors and mentees.
China Mobile Limited has a result-oriented market culture and support competition between the department in meeting the overall objectives and mission of the firm. Such a culture may create a barrier to implementation, given that the focus will be meeting the set target and maintaining the marketing department as competitive as possible. Emphasizing on the mentoring program may expose the department to the inefficiency of the untrained human resource. Attaching the mentee to a very experienced employee may solve the issue by complementing the untrained mentees' inefficiencies with expertise.
Peer Mentoring Reflection and Implications Comment by Catherine Raffaele: This is meant to be on your peer group mentoring experience in this subject.
If it wasn’t successful, what did you learn from that?
Did anything work and what did you learn from that?
Also make sure you explain what happened that sparked the learning to demonstrate your reflective thinking in more depth. At the moment, it reads like just a list, without much explanation.
Over my peer mentoring activities, numerous issues have been successful. The matching between mentors and mentees has always been a success given that there is adequate evaluation of personality and subsequent matching. In addition, I have established a strong rapport with the mentee as a result of good communication, listening, as well as personal skills. Similarly, handling conflicts and queries arising from the program has been a success where the conflicts have not affected the overall objective of the program.
From this experience of peer mentoring, I have learned that better and appropriate mentor matching is the key determiner of a successful mentoring program. With that experience, I have invested in evaluating mentors and mentees’ personality traits, attitudes, and perceptions before matching. In addition, I learned that having adequate finances and management support is imperative in peer mentoring. The support helps get external mentors with wider knowledge in mentoring and maintaining the authenticity of the program. The issues I have experienced during the mentoring period have changed my view on mentoring. It has added knowledge of what entails better mentorship hence preparing me for future programs and activities. The experience has given more insights on how to prepare a successful program with minimal challenges. The informal mentoring design is a better design to adopt, as it gave the results I expected. Comment by Catherine Raffaele: What issues?
How did they change your view on mentoring?
What do you believe now?
Conclusion
Summarily, as the chief marketing officer in China Mobile Limited, there was the implementation of a mentoring program in the department. The program was meant to familiarize and educate mentees on the marketing activities in the organization. The main elements in the mentoring program were adequate supervision, having the program for three months, better matching, and undertaking an informal program. There is enough literature to support the implementation of the elements named as discussed above. Issues that might affect the implementation include low budget, competing priorities, unavailability of mentors, poor culture, and a lack of adequate training for the program. Based on my experience in peer mentoring, I have learned that there are different elements and challenges that must be solved to increase the achievement of the peer mentoring program.
References
Bradford, S. K., Rutherford, B. N., & Friend, S. B. (2017). The impact of training, mentoring and coaching on personal learning in the sales environment. International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring, 15(1), 133.
Chen, C., Liao, J., & Wen, P. (2014). Why does formal mentoring matter? The mediating role of psychological safety and the moderating role of power distance orientation in the Chinese context. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 25(8), 1112-1130.
Chen, M. M., Sandborg, C. I., Hudgins, L., Sanford, R., & Bachrach, L. K. (2016). A multifaceted mentoring program for junior faculty in academic pediatrics. Teaching and learning in medicine, 28(3), 320-328.
Ghosh, R., & Reio Jr, T. G. (2013). Career benefits associated with mentoring for mentors: A meta-analysis. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 83(1), 106-116.
Goodsett, M., & Walsh, A. (2015). Building a strong foundation: Mentoring programs for novice tenure-track librarians in academic libraries. College & Research Libraries, 76(7), 914-933.
Gopee, N. (2015). Mentoring and supervision in healthcare. Sage.
Klasen, N., & Clutterbuck, D. (2012). Implementing mentoring schemes. Routledge.
Lozinak, K. (2016). Mentor matching does matter. Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin, 83(1), 12.
Menges, C. (2016). Toward improving the effectiveness of formal mentoring programs: Matching by personality matters. Group & Organization Management, 41(1), 98-129.
Nowell, L., White, D., Benzies, K., & Rosenau, P. (2017). Factors that impact implementation of mentorship programs in nursing academia: A sequentialexplanatory mixed methods study. Journal of Nursing education and Practice, 7(10), 1-11.
Poulsen, K. M. (2013). Mentoring programmes: learning opportunities for mentees, for mentors, for organisations and for society. Industrial and commercial Training.