The Role of Mentoring and Supervisor Support for State IT Employees' Affective Organizational Commitment

Abstract

This article assesses the effects of psychosocial and career mentoring, leader—member exchange (LMX), and gender on the affective organizational commitment (AOC) of information technology (IT) employees working in one state government. Few studies have examined the relationship between mentoring and associated antecedents of the AOC of IT employees, and none has examined these relationships for public-sector workforces. The research finds that when both psychosocial and career mentoring are considered, only psychosocial mentoring was significant in predicting the AOC of state government IT employees. When considering just LMX, it was significant in predicting AOC. Neither psychosocial mentoring nor career mentoring was significant in predicting AOC if LMX is also considered. No gender differences were found for any of the variables examined.