How do mentors influence the career satisfaction of protégés: dual processing mechanism of cognition and emotion
Career Development International
ISSN: 1362-0436
Article publication date: 4 August 2023
Issue publication date: 29 August 2023
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate how mentors affect the career satisfaction of protégés. Drawing from the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), the authors propose a dual processing model that considers both cognition and emotion in the relationship between mentoring and the career satisfaction of protégés.
Design/methodology/approach
The study employed a three-stage questionnaire survey to collect data from employees in Chinese enterprises, resulting in a total of 329 valid responses.
Findings
The results showed that mentoring had a significant positive impact on protégé career satisfaction. Additionally, role clarity and positive affect of protégés played dual-mediating effects between mentoring and protégé career satisfaction. Moreover, as a non-mentoring behavior, mentor advice-seeking behavior strengthened the positive impact of mentoring on role clarity and positive affect.
Originality/value
In the study, the authors utilize the ELM as a new perspective to construct a dual-mediating model of protégé role clarity and positive affect to illuminate the mechanism of mentoring on protégé career satisfaction, advancing the literatures of mentoring relationship and career development. Further, the authors put forward the moderating effect of mentor advice-seeking behavior by considering it as a non-mentoring behavior of mentors to deepen the understanding of mentorships. Moreover, the authors attempt to propose the long-term cumulative effect of the dual processing to expand the application of the ELM in interpersonal processes.
Keywords
Citation
Wei, X. and Yu, G. (2023), "How do mentors influence the career satisfaction of protégés: dual processing mechanism of cognition and emotion", Career Development International, Vol. 28 No. 5, pp. 572-585. https://doi.org/10.1108/CDI-09-2022-0248
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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