Relationship of mentoring functions to expatriate adjustments: comparing home country mentorship and host country mentorship

Abstract

This study examines the relationship of mentoring functions to expatriate adjustments and further compares the differences in the aforementioned relationship between home and host country mentorship. On the basis of an analysis of 281 expatriates who were assigned both home and host country mentors during their expatriation, this study found that the mentors' psychosocial support, role modeling and career development functions were positively related to the protégés' general adjustment, office interaction adjustment and work adjustment, respectively. Moreover, the home country mentors' psychosocial and role modeling functions accounted for more variance in the expatriates' general and interaction adjustment than those of the host country mentors, and the host country mentors' career development function accounted for more variance in the expatriates' work adjustment than that of the home country mentors. The results are interpreted and the implications are discussed in terms of incorporating home and host country mentors in expatriate mentoring programs for multinational corporations.