Assignment:
IBM Reinvents Mentoring, Via the Web Case From the Pages of It may be time-tested, but there’s something uninspiring about the corporate mentoring protocol, wherein a seasoned veteran gets assigned to impart wisdom to an ambitious young talent. IBM is putting a fresh spin on the practice by democratizing its mentoring program. As of January, the company began empowering employees to reach across its global empire with the click of a button for advice on everything from preparing for a promotion to learning how to innovate. The changes reflect the company’s effort to become a truly global enterprise that relies on crossborder information-sharing and collaboration. “It became obvious that we had to make mentoring a tool for transferring knowledge globally,” says Sheila Forte-Trammell, an IBM human resources consultant who helped launch the initiative. Any IBM employee can now sign up to give or receive advice by filling out a profile in a Web-based employee directory called BluePages. Think of it as Match.com for mentoring. In less than two months, 3,000 people have joined. Jocelyn Koh McDowell, a 22-year IBM veteran who lives in Houston, sought a mentor who could give her detailed advice on how to qualify for a promotion. Using a Web search tool, she found the right person in minutes: Lisa Squires, a 13-year veteran in Sacramento who oversees a technology certification program McDowell needs to complete. “She had even more experience than I was looking for,” says McDowell. IBM’s program earns praise from experts. Belle Rose Ragins, a human resource management professor at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, says IBM has “broken new ground in using the Internet to develop global relationships.”
Q1. Do you think the advice you can get electronically is just as good as the advice you might get from a mentor in a face-to-face relationship? Explain.
Q2. What advantages and disadvantages does IBM’s program have for mentors? For protégés? For mentees?
Q3. Is IBM’s program really a mentoring program? Why or why not?
Q4. How would you evaluate the effectiveness of IBM’s web-based mentoring program?
Your answer must be typed, double-spaced, Times New Roman font (size 12), one-inch margins on all sides, APA format and also include references.