Can Organizations Benefit from a Supportive Mentoring Climate?

Keywords: mentoring, mentoring climate, mentoring outcomes

Abstract: Conceptual work on mentoring has identified three potential beneficiaries of mentoring relationships—the protégé, the mentor, and the organization in which the relationship takes place. Most research has focused on the first two parties, with little attention paid to the organization within which the relationships are developed. Further, almost no empirical attention has been directed toward features of the organizational setting that can enhance the benefits of mentoring relationships for the organization. The present research was conducted in a small fire station in the Southwest region of the US. We identified protégé outcomes that can also benefit the organization and explored their relationship to three functions of mentoring (instrumental, psychosocial, and role modeling). Using moderated regression analysis, results showed expected relationships between the mentoring functions and mentoring outcomes and confirmed that mentoring climate within the organization can enhance those outcomes. Future directions for mentoring research were identified.