Benefits and Challenges of Mentoring to Hospitality Organizations and Employees - Literature review Example

Contemporary Issues and of the Benefits and challenges of Mentoring to Hospitality Organizations and Employees Mentoring plays a major role in ensuring a less-experienced worker acquires necessary professional skills. The professional relationships between an experienced individual and less-experienced employee has seen major firms transform financially (Skocpol, 2010). However, there are a number of setbacks that are associated with various mentoring processes in respect to hospitality companies and their employees. The hospitality industry, which majorly relies on a disposable income and leisure time, has employed a significant number of mentoring programs in the recent past. This is due to the fact that there is an increasingly stiff-competition in the hospitality industry, as well as an increased dependability on the quality of human resource to improving the performance of various firms. Firstly, Brockbank and McGill (2012) provide that workers that participate in a mentoring program are more likely than not to experience a high employment satisfaction. Consequently, an increased employee satisfaction may lead to an augmented productivity of a firm. It also leads to a decline in the rate of employee’s turnover. For instance, an employee in a tourist firm is likely to discuss personal issues, such as the best way of dressing as a tourist guide, with a mentor who would provide a solution. In this case, an employee would feel relieved and dress in the most decent way. According to Aston and Hallam (2011), the failure of a worker discussing openly with a manager is due to the fact that employees do not expose their weaknesses to their senior staff-members as a result of fear regarding a negative impact on their job. However, a mentee is normally open to discuss both weaknesses and strengths to a mentor in an attempt to seek advice. Employees are likely to retain their jobs for a long period if they are allowed to participate in a productive mentoring program. Passmore (2013) believes that the high retention among employees is attributed to the fact that employees are normally mentored as to how certain tasks can be effectively executed. It has been established that a large number of organizations experience high levels of turnover as a result of lack of adequate regarding the execution of various assigned tasks. For instance, a flight attendant who is well mentored about the various functions as regards attending to clients has a high chance of retaining an occupation in an airline firm for a long period. However, in the case a flight attendant does not receive adequate assistance as far as attending clients and their luggage are concerned; there is a likelihood of quitting an employment due to fear and uncertainty in relation to providing quality services (Grossman, 2013). Mentoring is an important business aspect as far as providing a career growth to an employee is concerned. In relation to Hagger and Mcintyre (2013) argument, mentoring can help boost the skills of an employee; a worker can acquire managerial skills via mentoring. As a result, a firm would be saved from hiring managers and other individuals to senior positions (Stoica, 2010, p.2200). For instance, a junior staff in a hotel may be provided a mentor to an employee. The mentor may teach various skills such as the market conditions, decision making strategies and building productive relationships. In this event, an employee is likely to understand how events are coordinated in a hotel. In this case, this junior employee may be promoted to the level of management. As a result, the hotel would be saved from costs of hiring a new manager. Waterman (2013) affirms that there is a possibility of both employees (the mentor and mentee) improving their performance following the mentorship program. It has been established that a senior employee, who is a mentor, hones his skills in the process of mentoring a mentee. On the other hand, a mentee learns how to execute tasks above his level effectively as a result of constant interaction with a senior employee. The mentee also does not stuck while performing various tasks due to an advice from the mentor. As a result, the relationship contributes to the bottom line of a company. For instance, a less-experienced lodging-attendant, who is being mentored by an individual with a lengthy-period professional experience, is likely to learn new and exceptional ways of arranging a room for visitors. At the same time, the experienced attendant would learn new ways through constant mentoring as regards the arrangement of furniture and other items in a room (Heikkinen, 2012). It is established that individuals get satisfied via sharing their experiences with less-experienced individuals. Hunt (2011, p.17) believes that, characteristically, individuals gain a sense of achievement when they teach other persons how to perform various aspects. This achievement is not associated with any reward such as money (Howlett, 2013). For instance, a senior hotelier who teaches a colleague how to prepare a certain recipe successfully is likely gain a sense of achievement. This enhances a better personal relationship in relation to the past. A number of times it has been reported that junior employees are not aware of what is essential as far as growing skills in an organization is concerned (Western, 2012). However, due to the relationship that is fostered between a junior and senior employee, an individual is likely to focus on skills that would enhance ones competency in an organization. For instance, during a mentorship program between a senior and junior driver working in a tourist firm, an individual might learn the best routes to drive, as well as learn the appropriate speed that would be line in with efficient fuel consumption. Owen (2011) asserts that there are chances that a new employee may be assigned a senior employee whom they fail to cultivate a productive relationship. In the event that the mentorship between the two employees are not terminated, there are possibilities of a new employee feeling unwelcomed in an organization. This would result in worst performance as a result of the junior employee ignoring various details as mentored by senior employee. In worst cases, a junior employee may decide to quit an employment. For instance, a patient and humble graduate-trainee who is assigned to an impatient senior-employee in a hotel may result in strained relationships. This may occur due to various factors, such as the senior employee not providing quality time to mentoring process as it is expected by the junior graduate trainee. In this scenario, the graduate trainee may fail to learn various aspects within an anticipated time. In some instances, the junior-employee may decide to quit the job. This would lead to high costs of employing new individuals, as well as suffer decreased employee’s performance. Research by Crawford (2010) shows that mentorships are associated with increased costs of an organization. There are a number of costs that organizations should meet in the event of implementing mentorship programs, such as administering and overseeing costs. For instance, tourist firm would have to pay for expenses, such as internet, electricity, drinks and food, which are incurred during a mentorship program (Keengwe, 2013). The allocation of enough time from the deduction of regular time for working is also perceived by an organization as a waste to resources, especially time. In this respect, mentorship can be associated with extra costs of an organization’s operation. As a result, mentorship can contribute negatively to a business if mentorship does not turn out to be productive. This denotes that the attempts of an organization to facilitate mentorship between senior and junior employees with regards to organizational communication skills may result in poor results. As Lieberman and Hanson (2012) provide, in the event that a mentee is not showing improvement in a reasonable period, there is a tendency of an employee developing feelings of frustration. In a number of circumstances, it is established that a mentee may fail or would be unwilling to follow the instructions as provided by a mentor (Crisp, and Cruz, 2009, p.539). In this case, a mentor may become frustrated, and perhaps, fail to provide an additional guidance. For instance, a mentee, who works in a car-washing business, may fail to follow pertinent instructions as regards washing the basement of a vehicle. In this regards, a constant failure of washing the basement of customers’ vehicles may lead to mentors frustrations. According to Fletcher (2012), this may also lead to personal conflict between the mentor and mentee. As a result, there would be lack of peace, which may lead straining relationships at the job. Connelly, Lemmon and Woolford (2008, p.361) state that there are many cases of mentors who fail to provide the needed mentorship by the mentee. This is due to diversity as far as mentoring is concerned. For instance, there are a few mentors among women in a large number of organizations. In addition, minority groups also face hardships with respect to finding the right mentor (Spinelli, 2008, p.129). For instance, an employee (from a minority group) who would like to know how to cook the best-quality meal but does not get the chance to be mentored by an individual from the same social and ethnicity is likely to fail in learning new methods from a mentor from a majority group due to strained relationships. To conclude, well designed mentorship program can lead to a better performance of a firm. It can also lead to a number of benefits among the employees. The benefits obtained by firms include an enhanced performance via an increased business performance. A firm also benefits from reduced levels of turnover as result of increased employees’ satisfaction (Lee, 2010). Employees, on the other hand, benefits from learning of essential skills that are fundamental in improving ones career growth. It also enables an individual’s to focus on improving skills that are required by an organization (Loue, 2011). However, there are various challenges that employees and organizations face while administering mentorship programs. This includes frustrations arising from mentees that are unable or unwilling to follow instructions. According to Pickert (2012), frustrations also emerge from mentors that fail to provide mentorship that is line with the needs and requirements of mentees. Conclusively, an organization ensures a mentorship program is well planned to benefits in various perspectives as far as organization’s performance is concerned. List of references Aston, L. and Hallam, P., 2011. Successful mentoring in nursing. Exeter, U.K.: Learning Matters. Brockbank, A. and McGill, I., 2012. Facilitating reflective learning: coaching, mentoring and supervison. London: Kogan Page. Connelly, T., Lemmon, S., and Woolford, J., 2008. Teach, Then Trust – Elizabeth: Mentor To Many. Genetics, (18)2, pp.357-365. Crawford, C., 2010. Managers guide to mentoring. New York: McGraw-Hill. Crisp, G. and Cruz, I., 2009. Mentoring College Students: A Critical Review Of The Literature Between 1990 And 2007. Research in Higher Education, (50)6, pp.525-545. Fletcher, S., 2012. The SAGE handbook of mentoring and coaching in education. London: SAGE. Grossman, S., 2013. Mentoring in nursing: a dynamic and collaborative process. New York, NY: Springer Publisher. Hagger, H. and Mcintyre, D., 2013. Mentoring. Hoboken: Taylor and Francis. Heikkinen, H., 2012. Peer-group mentoring for teacher development. New York, NY: Routledge. Howlett, R., 2013. Innovation through knowledge transfer 2012. Berlin: Springer. Hunt, J., 2011. Peter Graham Hill (1942–2010) – Inspirational Tephra Analyst and Mentor. Quaternary International, (24)2, pp.17-18. Keengwe, J., 2013. Virtual mentoring for teachers: online professional development practices. Hershey, PA: Information Science Reference. Lee, A., 2010. Mentoring in eighteenth-century British literature and culture. Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate. Lieberman, A. and Hanson, S., 2012. Mentoring teachers navigating the real-world tensions. San Francisco, Calif.: Jossey-Bass. Loue, S., 2011. Mentoring health science professionals. New York: Springer. Owen, H., 2011. The complete guide to mentoring how to design, implement and evaluate effective mentoring programmes. London: Kogan Page. Passmore, J., 2013. The Wiley-Blackwell handbook of the psychology of coaching and mentoring. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell. Pickert, L., 2012. Project-based homeschooling: mentoring self-directed learners. United States: Lori McWilliam Pickert. Skocpol, T., 2010. 2010 Excellence in Mentoring Award. Policy Studies Journal, (38)4, pp.777- 778. Spinelli, E., 2008. An Existential Approach To Conflict: A Revised Version Of The Keynote Lecture At The 14th Annual European Mentoring And Coaching Council Conference, 11th October, 2007. Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice, (1)2, pp.120-131. Stoica, A., 2010. George-Emil Baiulescu, Professor, Mentor and Friend, 1931–2009. Talanta, (80)5, pp.2199-2200. Waterman, S., 2013. Mentoring & coaching tips: how educators can help each other. Larchmont, NY: Eye on Education. Western, S., 2012. Coaching and mentoring: a critical text. London: SAGE. Read More