27 May 2008
New research by Victoria University PhD student Kim Rickard highlights the effectiveness of e-mentoring, as part of professional development.
"In a fast-paced world e-mentoring is more convenient, more direct, and possibly more equal than traditional face-to-face mentoring," says Rickard.
Unlike traditional mentoring that relies on participants meeting in person, e-mentoring programs primarily use email to build relationships.
"The most significant benefit of using email is its speed and convenience. Email-based communication is almost instant and this helps overcome one of the major obstacles to traditional mentoring - participants finding a suitable time to meet," says Rickard.
By using email participants can get straight to the issues that need to be addressed, without the need to engage in 'polite conversation' beforehand. It also provides a forum that allows for "fairly sophisticated" exchanges between participants, which improves the chances of higher learning.
Rickard says personal email has been shown to have characteristics that foster relationship development.
"Mentees, especially, look forward to receiving emails from their mentors," she says, "and the research showed that frequent interactions were important in determining the quality of the mentoring relationship - email enables a level of frequency that wouldn't be possible in any other medium."
Rickard's study involved detailed analysis of 20 mentees and five mentors participating in the Connect e-mentoring network. The network is a professional development initiative of the Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers, Australia (APESMA).
"The aim was to find out what works and what doesn't, so we could develop a framework to evaluate e-mentoring programs," said Rickard.
"Identifying the factors that determine how participants respond to a program is essential to enable program providers to improve their service. For example, we found that the process of goal-setting is important because it gets people thinking about what their needs are and how they can be met within and beyond the e-mentoring program."
Overall e-mentoring compared favourably to traditional mentoring even though there were strengths and weaknesses associated with each.
"The main area where traditional mentoring might be considered 'better' is in relation to the non-verbal cues that are picked up when people interact face-to-face. On the other hand, e-mentoring may limit problems associated with cultural differences, which might be of particular benefit to members of minority groups as status differences can be ameliorated."
Rickard believes that as access to broadband and web-camera technology increases, future e-mentoring programs will have the option of enabling face-to-face contact in virtual space.
She said, "E-mentoring is being used to link people on the basis of professional need rather than geographic location, which makes it of huge benefit to a range of industries."
She will be awarded a Doctor of Philosophy from the University on Friday 30 May 2008.
Kim Rickard is available for interview
Ph: (03) 9695 8842; email krickard@apesma.asn.au
Media Contact: Andy Gash, Snr. Media Officer,
Marketing & Communications Department, Victoria University
Ph: (03) 9919 4950; mobile: 0411 255 900
