Why and When Does Mentoring Work: The Mediating and Moderating Effects on the Mentoring Functions-Job Satisfaction Relationship

Past studies found that mentoring significantly influences protégés’ attitudinal outcomes (e.g., job satisfaction). The purpose of this study is to further understand why and when mentoring effectively impacts protégés’ job satisfaction. A total of 454 mentoring dyads participated in the current study, and the results indicated that resilience is a mechanism underlying the relationship between mentoring functions (i.e., career development and psychosocial functions) and job satisfaction. Moreover, protégés in cross-gender mentoring relationships reported higher levels of role model function. This finding suggested that the relationship between role modeling function and resilience was more positive in cross-gender mentoring relationships than in same-gender mentoring relationships. Furthermore, protégés with supervisor mentoring demonstrated higher levels of reception of mentoring functions (i.e., career development, psychosocial, and role modeling function) and job satisfaction than those with non-supervisor mentoring. Finally, the present study showed that the relationship between role modeling function and job satisfaction is stronger in supervisor mentoring than in non-supervisor mentoring.