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This chapter presents digital reverse mentoring as a novel kind of human and technological resource management intervention. It presents a case study of digital reverse mentoring at a large metal multinational. It highlights the various design elements of digital reverse mentoring that contribute towards achieving digital transformation and rebuilding of mindsets in the company. Through the case study the chapter also suggests that HRM needs to look beyond adoption of technological tools to actively participate in addressing the strategic concerns of digital transformation in a company.

Reverse mentoring and job crafting are innovative, employee-driven job resources that can lead to positive organizational outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to explore the role of work engagement in mediating the association of these resources with work performance and work withdrawal behavior.

Hypotheses were tested using structural equation modeling on data obtained from 369 software developers in India.

Findings demonstrate that reverse mentoring and job crafting are positively related to work engagement, which, in turn, increase performance and decreases work withdrawal behaviors. Work engagement partially mediates the association of job crafting with both outcomes. In contrast, work engagement fully mediates the relationship between reverse mentoring and withdrawal behavior and partially mediates the relationship between reverse mentoring and work performance.

This study is a cross-sectional, survey design in the understudied technical industry in India, which may limit generalizability. However, the authors also connect the previously unrelated literatures on reverse mentoring and work engagement and develop a scale for use in future reverse mentoring studies.

This study provides evidence to support practitioners in implementing resources for reverse mentoring and job crafting to increase work engagement among employees and subsequent positive outcomes.

Organizations can support reverse mentoring and job crafting as cost effective employee development tools. The research focuses on the mentors, who tend to be the less experienced and younger counterparts in a reverse mentoring pair and a critical part of the workforce for the growing IT industry.

Demographic changes and consequent diversification of teams of employees in organisations require us to change one’s approach to managing human resources and to search for new methods adjusted to contemporary challenges. One of such methods is reverse mentoring. It is a new form of mentoring where the younger employee is the mentor sharing expertise with the older employee. The purpose of this article is to identify advantages that reverse mentoring offers individuals who participate in the mentoring relationship – the younger mentor and the older mentee, and the entire organisation, as well as to identify conditions conducive to revealing desired advantages.

The article presents results of empirical research conducted based on the qualitative method and semi-structured individual interviews. The research focussed on five pairs from five different organisations operating in Poland who applied reverse mentoring as well as managers or human resources managers of these enterprises.

Research results show that reverse mentoring may offer numerous advantages to both individuals engaged in the relation (the mentor and the mentee) and the entire organisation. Thus, reverse mentoring seems to be an efficient tool for sharing knowledge, creating engagement, developing leadership and, first and foremost, building intergenerational relations based on mutual acceptance. Conclusions drawn from the research show that efficacy of reverse mentoring depends on the level of engagement in the mentor/mentee relation and the level of organisational support – engagement of the officers, supportive organisational culture and atmosphere conductive to cooperation.

One of the limitations of the research is the fact that reverse mentoring is not common in Polish organisations, thus the number of the interviews is limited. Furthermore, the data were collected from companies operating in Poland and they refer to one cultural circle. Another limitation is closely connected with the nature of qualitative research, as the research findings may be influenced by the personal perspective of participants.

The paper helps managers to build intergenerational relations. It encourages the use of reverse mentoring by emphasising its various benefits. It also specifies the conditions which need to be taken into consideration in order to increase the chances of enjoying the benefits, especially the necessity to prepare individual development plans adjusted to the needs and expectations of participants, proper selection of pairs for the mentoring relation and sufficient preparation of each party to the relation. This knowledge may be used by practitioners of managing human resources to develop organisational support for mentoring programmes.

The paper presents reverse mentoring as an opportunity for intergenerational knowledge sharing and developing intergenerational cooperation.

The results of the research extend the knowledge in the area of applying reverse mentoring to create intergenerational relationships. So far, this subject has received limited attention in the literature. Since reverse mentoring is not a widespread method, and research in this area is relatively rare, the value of the paper is to fill the gaps in this subject.

The purpose of this study is to systematically review the practice of reverse mentoring and draw a timeline of the research over the past two decades. Considering the novelty of this intervention, this paper proposed an agenda for future research on this burgeoning topic.

By adopting narrative literature review and Gregory and Denniss’ (2018) four-step process, this paper reviewed 54 studies grounded in conceptual, literature review and empirical research published between 1998 and 2020.

The articles included in the literature review on reverse mentoring research were summarized according to journal publications, research methodologies, contextual settings, theoretical framework, purpose and outcomes. Reverse mentoring studies are dominantly published in educational journals using primarily qualitative and conceptual approaches to explore both academic and business contexts within the USA and Europe. Theories frequently used to frame and examine the need of reverse mentoring included social exchange theory and leader-member exchange theory. The fundamental purpose of reverse mentoring research is to transfer knowledge and to bridge the technology divide between intergenerational groups. Reverse mentoring has been used to promote inclusivity between multiple generations in relation to gender, ethnicity and culture.

As per the knowledge, this is the first-ever comprehensive English summary of reverse mentoring research done in the past two decades. Findings from this research can be used to better understand reverse mentoring research trends and directions.

This paper examines whether employee-driven practices of reverse mentoring and job crafting lead to work engagement and, in turn, to higher levels of prospective mental and physical health.

Integrating social exchange theory and the job demands and resources model as theoretical frameworks, survey data were collected from 369 Indian software developers to test the research model. Latent variable structural equation modeling was used to empirically test the hypothesized associations.

The findings reveal that both reverse mentoring and job crafting are significantly associated with work engagement. Work engagement fully mediated the negative relationship between 1) reverse mentoring and mental ill-health and 2) job crafting and physical ill-health, while it partially mediated the negative relationship between 1) reverse mentoring and physical ill-health and 2) job crafting and mental ill-health.

The results demonstrate that by implementing the practices of reverse mentoring and job crafting, managers can achieve desired levels of engagement among employees and sustain organizational productivity by promoting employee health and well-being.

This study is one of the early attempts to empirically demonstrate the associated health outcomes of reverse mentoring and job crafting.

This chapter dwells upon reverse mentoring as a specific kind of mentoring practice. This chapter draws upon a consulting assignment on reverse mentoring at a global metal company in India. Presented in the form of a case study, this chapter highlights the possible conditions under which reverse mentoring becomes a strategic HR initiative in an organization. It does this by drawing attention to various contextual dimensions such as organizational culture of the firm, the socio-cultural and economic context of the firm. After describing the process of setting up a reverse mentoring program, it also suggests the manner in which reverse mentoring addresses some of concerns arising from such a context, as well as the manner in which efficacy of the practice is likely to be impacted by those conditions such as high power distance.

Management education has received an immense amount of attention from both scholars and practitioners in the last few decades. Most research efforts have aimed at improving classroom education processes, programs and outcomes. Only a limited amount of research has focused on extracurricular activities such as mentoring top talented students for international business case competitions. This paper aims to examine the knowledge flow between mentors and strategic management undergraduates while they prepare for international business case competitions. This flow provides the opportunity for the development of phronetic skills, knowledge and leadership potential of undergraduates.

To understand the flow, 55 mentors worldwide were examined to provide evidence of their mentoring practices, perceived development of undergraduates and reverse learning of the business schools' top talents. For the analysis, the study used partial least squares–structural equation modeling.

The results of the study indicate that extracurricular mentoring of business case competitors strongly affects their development and creates recursive effects on the development of mentoring activities.

Given the parsimony of mentors for premier global case study competitions, the findings of this study cannot easily be generalized to mentoring as such.

Despite the importance of the topics, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, a study of this kind has never been conducted before. For the construct of the authors’ model, the study was inspired by the multistage mentoring process theory.

Organizations must be resilient to be agile and sensitive to numerous shifting situations due to the pandemic. There is limited research on how to bring the disparate perspectives and requirements of different generational cohorts in companies together to achieve outcomes that encourage organizational development and sustainability. Therefore, the purpose of the present study is to explore how Gen Z’s competencies can be banked upon to foster organizational learning to sustain.

Considering the constantly changing scenario in business organizations and the growing need for organizational learning to sustain, the authors have conducted an extensive review of the literature to understand how to sustain organizational learning for and through Gen Z. An integrative secondary search was carried out for specific and relevant work on the topic. The authors have considered both empirical and qualitative studies in their review to highlight the various themes that emerge from the extant literature.

The study indicates that much of the knowledge and experience is filtered through a generational lens, and organizations must encourage the development of Gen Z employees through e-learning, psychological contract, intrapreneurship and reverse mentoring. Based on the findings, the authors have proposed an ICES model which unifies the above four factors. The proposed ICES model encompasses specific interventions of having an Integrated 360 degrees learning experience (I), Coaching leadership for enabling intrapreneurship (C), revamping EVP for Gen Z-specific psychological contract (E) and building a Skill-will inventory for reverse mentoring (S).

There is limited research on how to bring the disparate perspectives and requirements of different generational cohorts in companies together to achieve outcomes that encourage organizational development and sustainability. This study will enable organizations to break down generational barriers, enhance organizational harmony, foster initiative and innovation and boost organizational performance through sustained organizational learning.

In view of the pandemic situation, organizations need to adapt not just their systems and processes but also to look for ways to engage their talent. The proposed ICES model will enable the sustainability of organizational learning for and through the Gen Z workforce by fostering individual development and organizational performance.

The aim of the article is to explore how mentoring can act as a strategy for developing talent of the emerging young workforce, which predominantly comprises Gen Y and Gen Z.

This briefing is authored by an independent writer who provides insightful commentary and contextualizes the articles.

To gain a competitive edge, firms must adapt to modern ways of Talent Development that foster a passion for work among new hires. Modern ways of mentoring such as Reverse Mentoring, Group Mentoring, Distance Mentoring or Anonymous Mentoring, Flash Mentoring or Speed Mentoring, Peer Mentoring can enable employers to be proactive in managing talent and foster better intergenerational relationships at the workplace.

As Gen Y and Gen Z are redefining workplace norms, it is crucial for HR partitioners to find out new ways to align the entire HR function with the needs of these tech-savvy generations and ensure they can perform to their potential. This study sheds light on various Mentoring methods, which managers can use to transform conventional approaches to Talent Development.

The briefing streamlines the reading process for busy executives and researchers by curating the most relevant information and presenting it in a concise and user-friendly format, allowing them to save time and quickly absorb key insights.

The case was written from secondary materials.

This case is designed to support learning objectives in a Human Relations class of a university management course. The case explores how the UK Metropolitan police, working with the Girls’ Network, piloted a reverse mentoring programme for six months in 2021. Three senior officers were mentored by a trio of teenage girls from disadvantaged London boroughs. The aim of the programme was to address falling trust in the police by creating more understanding and empathy in the mentees for the issues facing the communities where the mentors lived, and to give the mentors more confidence from the experience of representing their communities. Each mentor–mentee pair focused on a specific policing issue that was relevant to the mentor’s neighbourhood: knife crime, domestic abuse or social inequality. Through the process, the senior Met police officers gained a deeper understanding of the challenges in the communities they served. Now that the pilot had been completed, the Met faced a decision point. Should the programme be spread further through the Met?Through reading and discussing the case, students are expected to explore the importance of empathy in the workplace and how reverse mentoring, when having the right support and overall intent, could be used in organisations.

This case is appropriate for university management courses. This case has a difficulty level appropriate for undergraduate and postgraduate courses. This case could be incorporated into a unit on human behaviour, leadership or coaching.