Worth the investment? An examination of the organisational outcomes of a formal structured mentoring program

Abstract

This study investigated the outcomes of a six‐month formal mentoring program on a sample of 194 white‐collar public sector employees. It focused on a clearly specified program, utilised a control group and a pretest‐posttest design, and examined the effects for both mentees and mentors. Significant increases in organisational commitment, perceived organisational support, job satisfaction, organisational citizenship behaviour, and willingness to mentor were found for those who participated in the program, and a significant reduction in intention to leave. The effect sizes were larger than average sizes reported in organisational mentoring literature, which is likely to have been due to a strong program intervention. The study supports the proposition that formal mentoring programs are beneficial to individuals and the organisations in which they work and that organisations would benefit from implementing similar programs to enhance their organisational effectiveness.

How Does Mentoring Affect the Creative Performance of Mentors: The Role of Personal Learning and Career Stage

“…This study integrates the RCT and COR theory and reveals that mentoring in the workplace can stimulate the creative performance of a mentor through personal learning. Compared with previous studies that either focused on the benefits of mentees obtained from mentoring (Eby et al, 2013;Hu et al, 2020) or largely investigated the in-role performance of the mentors (Fowler et al, 2021), our finding broadens the application of the COR theory into the perspective of mentors to find that mentoring can lead mentors to gain resources as well. Theoretically, mentors can experience positive interactions, including mutual learning and collision of various ideas during mentoring provision (Lentz and Allen, 2009;Ghosh et al, 2020), which serve as valuable resources to promote their creative performance.…”

“…Second, providing mentoring can enhance the abilities of mentors in promoting ideas. Mentors are described as influential individuals with advanced work experience in the workplace (Scandura and Williams, 2001 ; Fowler et al, 2021 ). Having strong ties with others can amplify their influence, contributing to the promotion and implementation of ideas (Yang T. et al, 2021 ).…”

“…By integrating the COR theory and RCT, we claim an integrated framework and argue that mentors are easily increasing resources on self-learning when providing mentoring. Mentoring others give mentors more opportunities to be exposed to others and contact with updated insights (Fowler et al, 2021 ). More resources encourage mentors to be more creative in the workplace.…”

“…Beyond the benefits of mentees, mentors may also broaden their knowledge and get inspiration when they contribute energy and time to help mentees (Ragins et al, 2017 ; Ghosh et al, 2020 ). Several researchers have shifted their focus on the outcome variables of mentors that result from participating in mentoring, for example, job performance (Fowler et al, 2021 ), leadership capacity (Chun et al, 2012 ), and career development (McNall et al, 2010 ; Ghosh and Reio, 2013 ). However, they were largely restricted to the in-role performance of mentors.…”

Lessons Learned from Introducing the Characteristic of an Outstanding Medical Teacher: Its Implication in Role Modeling and Professionalism

“…Based on our results, mentoring is used for guiding and facilitating a learner's, success planning and educational growth. Fowler and O'Gorman in 2019 introduced eight categories of mentoring function: learning facilitation; coaching; personal and emotional guidance; facilitation of career development; advocacy; strategies and systems advice; role modeling; and friendship[15].The main domains of most mentoring functions are based on a Kram mentoring Theory, which recognized two mentoring function categories: career-related function and psychosocial function. Psychosocial functions, which develop self-con dence and self-esteem, include counseling, friendship, and role modeling.…”