Mentorship as an HR practice - A case study on Region Västra Götalands’s pilot project on mentorship programmes

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate what implications a mentorship programme can have on HR-practices. More specifically, the purpose is to identify how mentoring can affect the employees' social work environment as well as personnel development. This will be done through a case study on a mentorship programme within Region of Västra Götaland to help investigate the research questions: 1. Whether, or how, a mentorship programme, based on experiences, can affect both knowledge transfer and social work environment? 2. What implications can a mentorship programme have from an HR-perspective? The theory used in this thesis is social capital theory, first presented by Bourdieu in 1986. Since then, the theory has been developed by several researchers. Putnam presents in 1993, the importance of trust when creating social capital and adds two new concepts to the theory, Bonding and Bridging. In 2001 Lin discussed the importance of networks and connections when creating social capital. This study uses the lens of social capital theory and the four themes of Trust, Bonding, Bridging and Networking when investigating the HR practice of mentorship programmes. This study uses an abduction research approach, meaning that is both inductive and deductive. The research method is qualitative. The empirical data is gathered through semi-structured interviews with initiators of the programme such as project managers and HR. trade union representatives as well as the participants. The sampling method is snowball sampling, meaning that one interviewee has connected the researchers further. Mentorship programmes accelerate knowledge transfer by years within healthcare. It creates self-assurance, security, confidence, and motivation. Furthermore, it was found that some participants preferred a more open and free programme structure and others wished for more structure. It was found that those who were contemptuous with the open structure identified more benefits of the programme than the ones that wished for more structure. Trust within the mentor and mentee relationship is the most important building block for a successful mentorship programme. Other important building blocks are time and energy. Conclusions can be drawn that mentorship programmes can be very beneficial in terms of HR-practices. But for it to reach its potential, the organisation needs to continuously work with information transpiring from top to bottom. Information about the main purposes of the programme has somewhat failed in reaching practice, i.e. from theory to practice. However, the learning organisation has developed, meaning that a secondary purpose has been fulfilled. This in itself could lead to an environment where the main purpose of senior employee retention is fulfilled unintentionally.