Everyone who succeeds has had a mentor," said Donald S. Perkins, former chairman and CEO of Jewel Companies (Roche, 1979, p. 14). Mentoring dates back as far as 800 B.C. when Mentor, a character in Homer's Odyssey, served as an adviser to the son of King Odysseus (Ensher and Murphy, 1997). Although mentoring roles have not changed drastically since then, the prevalence of mentors in the workplace certainly has. Roche (1979) reports that two-thirds of 1,250 top executives surveyed had mentors early in their careers. Some believe, as evidenced in the opening quote, that succeeding in the workplace requires a mentor. Yet with the extensive use of mentoring in the corporate world and all of the information available on the topic, little has been written about its link to human resource development (HRD), training, or organizational development. Looking through the top journals in the field of HRD over the last several years, such as Human Resource Development Quarterly and Pufor-mance Improvement Quarterly, one would be hard pressed to find more than an article or two devoted to mentoring, though the topic has boomed in corporate popularity. Mentoring exists everywhere in the working world, but finding information on its connection with HRD can prove challenging.
HRD occupies an important role in the effectiveness of formal menloring programs, however. Allen, Poteet, and Burroughs (1997) found that the top two facilitating dimensions of mentoring include organizational support for employee development and the existence of company training programs. Organizations are realizing the benefits of mentoring as an HRD strategy and are investing in formal programs to serve as career development and management training tools (Burke, McKeen, and McKenna, 1993). Public organizations like the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the IRS, as well as private ones such N o w I would like to thank Dr. K. Peter Kuchiiike for his insightful commcnts and suggestions FORUM i j u nonrefereed section inviting readers' reactions and apinions.