The impact of mentorship quality on mentors' personal learning and work-family interface

Yina Mao*, Ho Kwong Kwan, Randy K CHIU, Xiao Zhang

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articlepeer-review

    19 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    The present study represents the first efforts to empirically examine the impact of mentoring on mentors' work-family interface. Drawing on work-family enrichment theory, this study investigates the impact of mentorship quality perceived by mentors on their personal learning (i.e. relational job learning and personal skill development) and work-family interface (i.e. work-family conflict and work-family enrichment). Results from a two-phase field survey of 117 mentors in China indicate that mentorship quality is positively associated with relational job learning but not personal skill development. Relational job learning was found to be positively related to work-family enrichment and negatively related to work-family conflict; it also mediates the relationships of mentorship quality with work-family conflict and work-family enrichment. Meanwhile, personal skill development positively relates to work-family enrichment, but does not relate to work-family conflict. These findings provide evidence that mentoring is beneficial for mentors' family lives, thereby encouraging senior employees to become mentors. Key points: The findings provide evidence that a high-quality mentoring relationship promotes mentors' relational job learning. Relational job learning enriches mentors' family lives and reduces their work-family conflict. Personal skill development also enriches mentors' family lives.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)79-97
    Number of pages19
    JournalAsia Pacific Journal of Human Resources
    Volume54
    Issue number1
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2016

    Scopus Subject Areas

    • Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management

    User-Defined Keywords

    • China
    • Mentoring
    • Work-family conflict

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