„‚ CONDITIONS THAT HINDER EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

Obstacle 5: People’s assumptions, attitudes, and skills interfere with relationships
that provide mentoring functions: People assume that senior employees do not have the
time or interest to coach and counsel others, and many people lack the interpersonal
skills to initiate and manage such relationships. A major obstacle to initiating and
building relationships that provide mentoring functions is the lack of awareness of the
important role that relationships play in career development. Early in their careers, most
people are concerned with mastering technical competence; the notion that relationships
might aid in preparing for advancement is rare (Dalton et al., 1977; Louis, 1980;
Webber, 1976). Similarly, people in mid-career and beyond frequently do not
understand how providing guidance to others can support their own continued
development. Without this recognition, any mentoring that does occur is a result of
intuitive, rather than deliberate, action. Attitudes about one’s own competence and
career potential, assumptions about those in authority, and attitudes about the
organization in general can affect the extent to which people will attempt to build
relationships. A positive attitude generally is a prerequisite for proactive behavior.
People further along in their careers who have encountered blocked opportunity
and/or the threat of obsolescence are likely to have attitudes that make them
psychologically unavailable to provide mentoring functions to others. These may
include resentment toward younger colleagues who face opportunities for growth and
advancement. The organization’s response to a person’s mid-career dilemmas is critical
in determining his or her potential value in helping to develop other employees.
Finally, lack of interpersonal skills can harm the supportive relationships that
provide mentoring, even when attitudes and assumptions are positive. Skills in active
listening, communication, building trust and empathy, providing coaching and
counseling, and managing conflict and competition are essential to the maintenance of
relationships that contribute to growth and development.
TYPES OF INTERVENTIONS
Systematic diagnosis, planning, and action steps can modify the reward system, culture,
performance-management system, job design, and individual skills and attitudes within
the organization. An open-systems perspective suggests that change in any one feature
of an organization will affect other parts of the system as well (Beer, 1980; Nadler &
Tushman, 1980; Rice, 1969). This perspective also suggests that there are several ways
to achieve a desired objective; thus, the appropriate intervention strategy for a given
situation will depend on which features are to be modified, where the readiness and
motivation for change exist, the extent to which top management supports the objective,
and what resources are available to support the effort (Beckhard, 1969).
There are two types of interventions to encourage mentoring. Educational
interventions are training and development efforts designed to create awareness and
understanding of mentoring and its role in career development and to develop
relationship skills. Structural interventions are planned efforts to modify existing
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The Pfeiffer Library Volume 6, 2nd Edition. Copyright ©1998 Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer