The importance of communication skills for mentors in the process of integrating new employees into the organizational culture

Abstract

AIM OF THE PAPER

The full knowledge and the acceptance of the organizational culture is an essential requirement of the organizational integration. In this, the mentor helping the new workers’ adaptation plays an extremely important role. Therefore we - by analyzing mentoring as a communication activity - were seeking to find out whether there is a correlation between the mentor’s communication ability and skills and the extent of the new workers’ integration into the organization.

METHODOLOGY

With secondary data collection, we collected and classified the most relevant literature theories and research results related to the mentor’s communication activities and the necessity of getting to know the organizational culture. Beside this, we also carried out primary survey by asking 314 people. Based on the data processing, it turned out that only 164 interviewees had appointed mentors. Thus, the answers given by these people were used in the calculations. In the questionnaire survey, the interviewees rated the mentor’s communication and their own knowledge of the organizational culture on a scale of 1 to 4. The collected data were evaluated with the methods of descriptive statistics, like cluster analysis, analysis of variance and cross tab analysis.

MOST IMPORTANT RESULTS

Based on the research results, it was found that there is a correlation between the mentor’s communication ability and skills and the new workers’ level of knowledge related to the organizational culture. The interviewees who had mentors with good communication skills had a better chance to become familiar with the elements of the organizational culture and could better become integrated.

RECOMMENDATIONS

The results bring attention to the fact that a greater emphasis should be put on the communication ability and skills and personal qualities related to them in appointing mentors. Such mentors must be appointed who always listens to the mentored workers’ problems, regularly gives well usable advice related to work and the behavior within the organization. The mentor also helps the formation of the social network and their explanations are practical and comprehensible.