"Mentorship" in a military environment: benefits and ways of implementation in the Greek Armed Forces.

Abstract

Mentoring as a concept emerged after 1980s. That period both private and public companies understood its importance in hiring, nurturing and retaining new talents and recognized it as a very cost effective way to improve their skills and capabilities and the overall company’s productivity in general. For this reason a vast number of mentoring programs, formal or informal, developed and implemented accordingly. United States Army, being a nonprofit organization with a specific mission and structure, realized the benefits that can derive from mentorship and in 2005 implemented a formal mentoring program in order to ensure its availability and benefits to all personnel. This formal program along with informal mentoring that is prevalent to Army’s History since First World War (WWI) or even prior, ensures the continuity of the Leadership and the passing of values, knowledge and experience to the upcoming generations. Greek (Hellenic) Army operates today in a versatile environment characterized by the global financial crisis that has deteriorated the resources’ availability. The aim of this paper is to examine the ways that mentorship can be implemented by the Hellenic Army, according to its special needs and characteristics, based on the respective program that has been adopted in the U.S. and the experiences that has been gathered since 2005 and not only. In addition will be examined the benefits that can derive from mentorship for both the personnel and the organization. Finally, will be scrutinized the preconditions that have to be set prior to any attempt for implementation of a program, in order to ensure its success and effectiveness.