**2.3 Informal and formal mentoring**

Informal and formal mentoring are differentiated by how they are initiated. Informal mentoring relationships are established by the mentor and protégé, corresponding to their personal needs and preferences, while formal mentoring is artificially arranged to meet an organization's needs [3, 4, 6]. In the informal model, protégés select mentors who they feel have expertise they recognize as valuable while mentors select protégés who they believe have the potential for success [4]. Informal mentoring relationships, therefore, are more intense as the relationships begin based on personal desires, and they are also broader than formal mentoring relationships as they often include personal and professional development aspects. Informal mentoring relationships are also not bounded by time constraints. While informal mentoring relationships create mutually beneficial arrangements for mentor and protégé, sometimes informal mentoring may not be recognized by both parties as a mentoring relationship, so there can be more ambiguity in the relationship [6, 9].

Overall, the literature has determined that informal mentoring provide greater outcomes than formal mentoring program outcomes [4]. However, formal mentoring programs may achieve similar outcomes [4]. Recognizing the well-established benefits of mentoring relationships, organizations seek to expand these results across a greater number of organizational members by creating formal mentoring programs [4]. By formalizing the process, organizations hope to create opportunities for increased job satisfaction, increased job performance, reduced turnover, and leadership development. Formal mentoring programs provide structure for the matching of mentors and protégés as well as procedures and policies to guide the relationships. Since formal mentoring is prescribed, the outcomes can be less successful in some cases because protégés may not be high performing, career-driven, or willing to listen to their mentors [4]. Additionally, formal mentoring programs tend to produce less career-oriented goals due to the time constraints of such programs [4]. Further, somewhat surprisingly, involuntary formal programs lead to more positive outcomes than voluntary formal programs [4]. This may be because an important contributor to a formal mentoring program's success is institutional support and buy-in, and required programs are symbolic to participants of full institutional commitment [3, 4].
