The Role of Mentoring in Protégés’ Subjective Well-Being

Abstract

Although the benefits of mentoring for protégés’ career-related outcomes have been largely confirmed, little research has examined whether this benefit can extend to the protégés’ life domains outside of work. In this study, we investigate the impact of the extent of workplace mentoring support on protégés’ subjective well-being (SWB). Based on data that were collected from a two-wave survey of 253 protégés in ongoing mentoring programs in China, the results showed that the extent of the mentoring support was significantly related to the protégés’ SWB (i.e., satisfaction with life, positive affect, and negative affect) through their psychological safety. Furthermore, the perceived mentor status of protégés moderated the relationship between the extent of mentoring support and the protégés’ psychological safety, such that the relationship was stronger when the perceived mentor status was higher rather than lower. The theoretical and managerial implications of our findings are also discussed.

Formal mentoring support and protégé creativity: A self‐regulatory perspective

“…Our research answers the call of previous scholars to examine the boundary conditions of individual differences in prot eg es during the implementation of mentoring programs (Chen & Wen, 2016;Hu et al, 2020). This study contributes new empirical evidence to the body of research on perspectives of individual difference and the theory of regulatory focus (Wen et al, 2019), and also identifies the important individual characteristics of chronic promotion focus that provide a more accurate portrayal of the boundary conditions through which mentors exert an impact on prot eg es' behaviours.…”

“…Mentors may also use approaches such as assigning challenging work to develop their prot eg es' creative thinking skills and abilities to explore ideas from different perspectives (Amabile, 1988;Liu et al, 2015). From a psychosocial function perspective, support from formal mentors encourages prot eg es to challenge the status quo and not to be afraid of setbacks and negative expectations during the creative process (Chen et al, 2014;Wen, Chen, Dong, & Shu, 2019). By doing so, this support tends to increase prot eg es' sense of security and self-confidence, which also enhances their intrinsic motivation to participate in creative activities.…”

Workplace Mentorship: A Critical Review

“…Mentoring has received a great deal of research attention since Kram’s (1985) seminal work 35 years ago (e.g., Eby et al, 2013; Kammeyer-Mueller & Judge, 2008; Scalise et al, 2019; Turban et al, 2017; Wen et al, 2019). This substantial body of literature has typically focused on the positive outcomes of workplace mentoring for protégés and organizations and the mentor–protégé dyad.…”

Learning to Love, Work, and Live Your Best Life: Mentoring in Emerging Adulthood Predicts Later Flourishing and Subjective Well-Being

“…By avoiding the ill-effects of a poor working experience, and gaining psychological resources from doing work that is meaningful and engaging, mentors may help protégés foster a positive worklife spillover which promotes well-being (Pierce et al, 2016;Sirgy et al, 2019). While our results do not allow us to investigate the specific mentoring functions provided by career mentors, they build upon existing literature demonstrating that workplace mentoring predicts career satisfaction (Allen et al, 2004) and well-being (Wen et al, 2017), revealing the potentially broad reach of career mentoring for flourishing. That is, emerging adults complete their education and enter the workforce they may be well positioned to receive career mentoring that not only helps them to develop professional skills in a new work environment, but also develop a set of professional values and practices to promote longer-term happiness.…”