E‐mentoring for aspiring women managers

Mentoring is frequently cited as playing an important role in the career development of successful women managers. E‐mentoring is relatively new and under‐researched, particularly outside North America. The present research investigates the advantages of e‐mentoring for women through a pilot programme set up with 28 mentor pairs. E‐mentoring is compared with traditional mentoring, and the potential of e‐mentoring for women's management development is evaluated. Challenges included encouraging participants to use all the resources of an e‐mentoring system and to develop fluency in online communication. The quality of the mentoring relationship remained the most important factor in the success of e‐mentoring. The paper identifies areas for further development in e‐mentoring.