The mentor-protégé affinity on mentoring outcomes: The mediating effect of developmental networking

Abstract

Despite increasing role of mentoring in public organizations, mentoring and its outcomes have been under-investigated in public management. The purpose of the study is to fill the void by focusing on the mentor-protege relationship and its effect on mentoring outcomes. Given the complexity of psychological interactions between mentor and protege, this study examined the influence of the mentor-protege affinity on mentoring outcomes both directly and indirectly through developmental networking. The results found that the mentor and protege affinity did not have a direct impact on mentoring outcomes. Instead, its effects were fully mediated by internal and external developmental networking, which were the direct predictors of mentoring outcomes. This implies that finding a good match between mentor and protege is important, but it is effective to mentoring outcomes only through the establishment of developmental networking.