„‚ CONDITIONS THAT HINDER EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION

The participants in the conference also need to conduct what is called a SWOT
analysis. The acronym SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and
Threats. An analysis of these four areas provides a perspective on the organization’s
internal and external environments. The ideas of conference participants are particularly
valuable in identifying the opportunities and threats impacting personnel development.
Consequently, brainstorming and other idea-generation activities should be used to
identify situations and trends that the organization will have to respond to in the short
and long term as well as to pinpoint strengths and weaknesses in terms of resources and
procedures. To conduct a SWOT analysis, the conference participants answer questions
such as these:
■ What are the organization’s personnel strengths and weaknesses?
■ What are some opportunities and threats connected with the development of our
staff
Establishing an Organizational Philosophy
The test of an organization’s commitment to establishing a mentoring program is
whether that organization would rather develop its staff from within or obtain people
from outside. To determine whether the organization is committed to developing from
within, the conference participants should generate a philosophy statement, which
describes the organization’s values or the broad, general beliefs that it feels are realistic,
credible, attractive, and desirable. Such a statement is one tool for developing an
organizational culture; if the statement promotes a culture that emphasizes development
from within, then the organizational culture will foster mentoring. The following is an
example of an organizational-philosophy statement that expresses the desire to develop
from within:
Of all the environmental influences in our organization, the most powerful ones are
personal relationships
Of all relationships, it is the manager/employee relationship that leaves the deepest
impressions and has the greatest effect on us
Fundamental to the work of this organization is a respect for the development of the
employee through guidance. We believe that training should respond to our needs.
To construct a statement of organizational philosophy, the conference participants
should answer the following questions:
■ What are our values regarding achieving the organization’s mission and service
to customers or clients?
■ What are our values and beliefs regarding employee development?
■ If we want to encourage development from within, what are the mentor’s
responsibilities? What are the protégé’s responsibilities?
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The Pfeiffer Library Volume 6, 2nd Edition. Copyright ©1998 Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer