A longitudinal study of mentor and protégé outcomes in formal mentoring relationships

TLDR

The study examined how mentoring functions influence transformational leadership, affective well‑being, and organizational commitment for mentors and protégés, and discusses the resulting theoretical, practical, and methodological implications. A longitudinal field study collected 111 matched mentor–protégé reports at three time points over seven months from nine Korean companies running a standardized formal mentoring program. Mentoring functions measured at Time 2 were positively linked to mentors’ and protégés’ post‑mentoring outcomes at Time 3, even after controlling for baseline levels, and the strength of these effects varied by mentoring function type. © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Abstract

Summary This study examined relationships between mentoring functions offered and transformational leadership as a mentor outcome and affective well‐being and organizational commitment as mutual outcomes for both mentors and protégés. For this examination, we conducted a longitudinal field study by using 111 matched reports from both mentors and protégés collected at three different points in time over seven months in nine Korean companies that administered a standardized formal mentoring program. Study results showed that mentoring functions assessed at Time 2 were positively associated with mentors' and protégés' post‐mentoring outcomes at Time 3 after controlling for pre‐mentoring initial levels of those outcomes at Time 1. Study findings also revealed that relative effects of mentoring on the mentor and protégé outcomes differed by the types of mentoring functions. We discuss the theoretical, practical, and methodological implications from these results. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.