The Impact of E-Mentoring on Information Technology Professionals

ABSTRACT

Our research examines the impact of virtual mentoring, or E-mentoring. We surveyed 133 IT professionals as to their experiences as protégés. We asked them about their mentoring relationships, as well as job and career outcomes, and the extent to which they interacted with the mentor virtually. We predicted that E-mentoring would lead to less effective mentoring relationships, less mentoring satisfaction, and lower career outcomes, and that these effects would be moderated by age (millennial protégés versus older protégés). We found few effects, other than lower satisfaction with E-mentoring relationships. The results suggest that E-mentoring can be as effective as face-to-face mentoring. However, few in our sample had completely virtual mentoring relationships, so it may still be possible that E-mentoring with almost no face-to-face interaction may be less effective.

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Index Terms

• Social and professional topics

  • Professional topics

    • Computing profession

      • Computing occupations

      • Employment issues