Many mentoring relationships incorporate electronic communication. This study aims to examine the effects of communication format and interaction frequency on career and social support felt by the protégé.
Surveys followed 39 high-potential protégés over seven months in a mentoring program at a large US manufacturing organization.
All pairs but one chose to communicate electronically at least 50 per cent of the time. Less mentoring support was perceived when average media richness was lower (e.g. when pairs communicated more by e-mail); however, this effect was reduced when communication was more frequent.
Mentors and protégés should be trained to understand that average media richness is associated with perceived support and that they should avoid using exclusively low-richness formats (e.g. e-mail). When they do need to use more low-richness formats, they should communicate more frequently. Companies should provide technological support and motivational incentives for mentoring pairs to incorporate high-richness interactions (e.g. face to face) in their mentoring relationships more often.
This study is the first to our knowledge to examine mixed-media formats in high-potential employee mentoring pairs. In contrast to past work which has randomly assigned participants to communicate only via one format, these participants were allowed to choose their interaction format for each interaction, which is more realistic. The findings have practical value for mentors and protégés in terms of balancing format and interaction frequency.
