Understanding E-Mentoring in Organizations

As new forms of electronic communication have emerged with increasing speed in recent years, opportunities for online learning, including mentoring, have taken on many new dimensions. Mentoring relationships now almost always extend beyond traditional face-to-face mentoring, and mentoring programs supported by technological advances have developed in number and in sophistication. In trying to make best use of the new technologies, and investing time and resources wisely in building infrastructure for mentoring, it is helpful to have a framework to know how and under what circumstances to employ online mentoring effectively to accomplish the mentoring objectives for organizations and individuals. This article presents a discussion of e-mentoring, its advantages as well as its disadvantages. Aspects of internal v. external e mentoring are also presented as well as program planning insight and guidance for e mentoring. Reflection questions for examining and expanding mentoring practice are presented.