E-mentoring for aspiring women managers

摘要

Mentoring is frequently cited as playing an important role in the career development of successful women managers. E-mentoring is relatively new and under-researched, particularly outside North America. The present research investigates the advantages of e-mentoring for women through a pilot programme set up with 28 mentor pairs. E-mentoring is compared with traditional mentoring, and the potential of e-mentoring for women's management development is evaluated. Challenges included encouraging participants to use all the resources of an e-mentoring system and to develop fluency in online communication. The quality of the mentoring relationship remained the most important factor in the success of e-mentoring. The paper identifies areas for further development in e-mentoring.