Mentoring. Rådgivning eller hjælp-til-selvhjælp?

Workplace mentoring programmes for new employees are time limited and aim to end with the mentee continuing on the job without the help of a mentor. But how can a mentor both give professional advice and experience-based instructions and at the same time facilitate the mentee’s own problem understanding and problem solving? This would entail helping both as an expert adviser and as a coach, which – according to Schein’s (1999; 2010) theory on helper conversations – cannot happen simultaneously. However, through analysis of a video-observed mentoring conversation and through interviews, this article shows how this can be done in practice when mentoring conversations are scheduled, when participants respect mutual confidentiality, when the mentor has knowledge of and is skilled in facilitating helper conversations, and when inputs and professional advice are given from a standpoint of genuine interest in the mentee, so that both emotional and cognitive recognition of the newly employed person is possible (Honneth, 2006).

面向新员工的职场导师制项目均设有明确时限，其核心目标是使受指导者在脱离导师帮扶后可独立履职。那么，导师如何才能在提供专业建议与基于实战经验的指导的同时，助力受指导者自主完成问题理解与问题解决？这要求导师同时扮演专家顾问与教练的双重角色，但根据沙因（Schein）1999年与2010年提出的助人式对话理论，这两种角色无法同时兼顾。不过，本文通过对视频记录的导师指导对话进行分析，并结合访谈资料，证实了在以下实践条件下该目标可得以实现：一是导师对话已提前规划安排，二是参与双方恪守相互保密原则，三是导师具备助人式对话的相关知识并熟练掌握引导此类对话的技能，四是所有指导内容与专业建议均出于对受指导者的真切关切，如此方能实现新入职员工的情感与认知层面的双重认同（霍耐特，2006）。