Factors Affecting Prevalence of Reverse Mentoring in India
Factors Affecting Prevalence of Reverse Mentoring in India
Factors Affecting Prevalence of Reverse Mentoring in India
I. Introduction
The term “mentor” originates from Greek Mythology. The practice of mentoring even dates back to
earlier times. As per the Greek mythology Mentor was Odysseus‟s trusted counselor who also guided and taught
his son Telemachus.
Today, mentoring is a process in which an experienced individual helps another person develops his or her goals
and skills through a series of time-limited confidential, one-on-one conversations and other learning activities.
Mentors also draw benefits from the mentoring relationship. As a mentor, you will have the opportunity to share
your wisdom and experiences, evolve your own thinking, develop a new relationship, and deepen your skills as
a mentor. Mentoring is usually understood to involve a more senior or experienced person (the mentor) helping
one who is younger or less experienced (the mentee).
On the contrary, reverse mentoring is the mentoring of a senior person (in terms of age, experience or position)
by a junior (in terms of age, experience or position) individual. Reverse mentoring aims to help older, more
senior people learn from the knowledge of younger people, usually in the field of information technology,
computing, and Internet communications. The key to success in reverse mentoring is the ability to create and
maintain an attitude of openness to the experience and dissolve the barriers of status, power and position.
The concept of reverse mentoring was introduced by Jack Welch in 1999, former chief executive of the General
Electric Company. It is a formal mentoring program in which a young, junior employee with something to teach
is partnered with a senior manager who has something to learn. Jack Welch undertook pairing of employees in
their 20s and 30s who were knowledgeable about the Internet and interested in new technology with executives,
who were beginners in that realm. Reverse mentoring is a mutual learning experience. As the concept is a
deviation from the traditional approach, it is essential to seek support from top management and line managers
in order to implement it. With the technological advancement at such a fast pace and the growth of social media,
the youngsters in the organization are the best people who can be the mentors of the boomers. In order to grow
and sustain in a today‟s organization, it is essential to have a strong technological know-how. The concept of
reverse mentoring provides a platform wherein the younger employee provides insights on the technological
know-how to the industry experts and pioneers. They also guide them in the use of various social media
applications, such as, facebook , twitter, LinkedIn etc., as they have become important means of communication
not only for the purpose of inside flow of information, but also with the outside world. The scope of reverse
mentoring however, is not limited to imparting of technological know-how. It also facilitates the understanding
of changing work- culture, increasing diversity, growing need for maintaining work-life balance, changes in
global scenario etc. This helps them to keep pace with the changing world and thus, may enhance the level of
employee engagement in the organization.
The objective of reverse mentoring is to "push each other outside of their usual ranges of familiarity and attempt
better approaches for considering, working and being". For a reverse mentoring relationship to be gainful, a few
elements must be in place. Each gathering must be completely dedicated to the mentoring relationship and
concur upon the tenets that will be taken after. This study, therefore, has been conducted to study the
antecedents to reverse mentoring or the factors which promote reverse mentoring in an organization
The results of the regression analysis express a significant model with sig value to be 0.000, as viewed from the
table of ANOVA at F (4, 525)= 573.522.
Independent variables OF and JC were found to have a significant impact on PRM with significant
values=0.000 and 0.041 respectively at the respective t values of 12.704 and 2.047. However, the others two
indep variables namely RB and CF were found to have no significant effect on PRM as their significant values
are greater than 0.05 for a confidence value of 95%.
From coefficients table, it can be derived that, change in values of OF has a greater impact on PRM as compared
to JC. Per unit change in OF, keeping JC as constant, increases the PRM by 0.742. Also, per unit change in JC,
keeping OF as constant, increases the PRM by 0.127.
The constant co-efficient value was also found to be significant (significant value=.016) at t=2.423, with the
unstandardized value of 0.211.
The value of adjusted R Square, as can be seen from the Model summary table, was found to be 0.812. This
signifies that 81.2% of the variation in the PRM has been explained by the selected four variables.
Thus the null hypotheses H01 and H02 are rejected and there is a significant impact of Organizational factors and
Job conditions on Prevalence of Reverse Mentoring. Also, the hypotheses H03 and H04 are accepted and there is
a significant impact of Rewards & Benefits factors and Career factors on Prevalence of Reverse Mentoring.
Findings from this research are valuable to any businesses and representatives or any association considering
actualization of a reverse mentoring program. Leaders, pioneers, managers, HR executives and human
performance specialists and consultants will discover the results of this research supportive for enhancing
performance and diminishing the generation gap with the help of reverse mentoring in any organization.
The study assumes centrality as in it embraces the investigation and examinations of the commonness and
consistency parameters; that are esteemed fundamental over the mentor and the mentee. The examinations on
the predominance of the mentor driven perspectives is fundamental for the maintainability of the relationship
and additionally bidirectional stream of data, thoughts, information and different statistical data points basic for
shared advantage and gap diminishment.
Organization factors have been found to be the most important factor and were positively associated with the
prevalence of reverse mentoring in an organization. Therefore, it becomes important for the organization in
order to encourage reverse mentoring among its employees. This will help employees so that they have clarity
about the company goals and objectives, strengthening employee retention programs, demonstrating strong
ethics at work, promoting team work and gaining trust of the employees. But the special attention of the
organizations should be on the most important organization factor which was „my company encourages
retention‟.
V. Recommendations
This study on the prevalence of the mentor driven aspects is essential for the sustainability of the
relationship as well as bidirectional flow of information, ideas, knowledge and other facts and figures essential
for mutual benefit and gap reduction. Discoveries from this exploration are important to any organizations and
delegates or any affiliation considering completion of a reverse mentoring program. Pioneers, administrators,
HR officials and human execution consultants and advisors will find the consequences of this exploration steady
to enhance execution and decreasing the generation gap with the assistance of reverse mentoring in any
association.
The findings of this study resulted in recommendations for Human Resource Managers, especially in India, as
follows:
In order to increase the willingness of younger generation to mentor the old generation, the organizations must
focus on the factors affecting reverse mentoring. This can be most significantly achieved when supporting
organizational factors are in place, naming clarity about the company goals and objectives, strengthening
employee retention programs, demonstrating strong ethics at work, promoting team work and gaining trust of
the employees to be a few of them.
As mention in the findings, Human Resource Managers should give their attention to the variety of job
conditions shown in this research. These are employee engagement and employee empowerment at their
optimum levels, stress-free work environment, challenging and exciting work combined with role clarity.
Last but not the least, one should begin with one step at a time. Start it small is the cue to success in reverse
mentoring programs. Creating protected and positive invert tutoring connections can be precarious. It is best to
International Journal of Business Marketing and Management (IJBMM) Page 65
Factors Affecting Prevalence of Reverse Mentoring in India
begin with little experimental runs projects and after that, utilization of pilot members as a controlling board of
trustees for take-off of the program on a more extensive scale.
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