Problem: IBM Reinvents Mentoring, Via the Web Case 5 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."
Questions: 1. 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.
2. What advantages and disadvantages does IBM's program have for mentors? For protégés? For mentees?
3. Is IBM's program really a mentoring program? Why or why not?
4. How would you evaluate the effectiveness of IBM's web-based mentoring program?