Scholars, consultants, and practitioners explain the latest theory and practice of mentoring in the business world as the approach has become more widespread and has come under more pressure for performance from all sides. Among the topics are the moral dimension, characteristics ascribed to mentors by their proteges, a quantitative view of mentor competence, competences of building the developmental relationship, insights from psychology, a mentoring approach to organizational learning and knowledge creation, whether variation in mentoring outcomes is an effect of personality factors, when mentoring goes wrong, and winding up and winding down a mentoring relationhsip. Distributed by Ashgate. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Because the mentoring process involves a number of distinct stages, a wide range of skills are needed throughout the process and these skills are situational. In other words, a skilled mentor understands the principles of mentoring, but is also able to use appropriate skills according to the person with whom they are working and the stage they have reached in the relationship. In addition, different types of mentoring programme will demand a skills set particular to each. As with many other areas of development, a mix of the theoretical and the practical is needed to ensure that programmes and relationships achieve their potential. In The Situational Mentor: An International Review of Competences and Capabilities in Mentoring, David Clutterbuck and Gill Lane have brought together contributions from leading international academics and practitioners to define the key skills involved in mentoring and explore how these may be tailored to ensure a successful outcome in all instances.
