Mentoring: Pros and Cons for HRM

Mentoring has received considerable coverage in recent decades and this is evident by the proliferation of research and popular literature covering the topic. It has been hailed as an important human resource management strat egy, a career tool, and a workplace learning activity for men, women and minority groups in a variety of organizational settings such as hospitals, large corporations, schools, universities and government departments. In this puper we review the literature on this ubiquitous yet elusive concept. We begin by exploring what is meant by mentoring, the functions of mentors, three differ ent categories of mentorship, and the benefits and hazards for the mentor, mentee and organization. In the final part of the paper we highlight some of the implications of setting up a formal mentoring program for human resource managers.