Let's begin by taking a look at business organizations. In the corporate setting, the goal of mentoring is to foster a climate for the protégé to reach his or her full potential by helping to identify and eliminate barriers to effective performance and career success. This is particularly true for new hires entering an organization. Companies have established formal mentoring programs as a management strategy for developing employees. They use mentoring to:

1. Transition new employees into the workplace.

2. Transmit corporate culture.

3. Develop a cadre of technical experts that are capable of assuming managerial roles.

4. Transmit needed skills.

5. Enhance employee career development.

6. Improve the workplace climate.

7. Facilitate diversity awareness.

8. Engage more staff in developing new employees.

9. Improve lines of communication.

There may be others that are important to your organization, and you should reflect on these before you assume your role as a mentor.

D.J. Levinson (1975) identified six areas that a person new to an organization must learn:

1. The politics of the organization;

2. The norms, standards, values, ideology, history and heroes/heroines of the organization;

3. The skills and competencies necessary for succession to the next immediate step in the organization;

4. The path to advancement and the blind alley;

5. The acceptable methods for gaining viability in the organization; and

6. The characteristic stumbling-blocks in the organization and the personal failure patterns.

Employees new to an organization are expected to adapt quickly, become productive, and find a niche in what is known as the "on the job transition phase"- the first eight months or so of employment. This involves:

1. TRANSITION: moving from outsider to insider
2. ACCLIMATION: adapting to the workplace
3. ACCEPTANCE: gaining approval from colleagues.