The impact of mentoring quality on protégés' organization‐based self‐esteem and proactive behavior: The moderating role of traditionality

Allyship, authenticity and agency: The Triple A Model of Social Justice Mentoring

This conceptual review explores the full potential of mentoring for diversity initiatives. Using a positive relationships lens, I describe how focusing on average relationships obscures the benefits of high-quality mentoring and how traditional views of mentoring as hierarchical, one-way relationships limit our understanding of its role in advancing social justice. Addressing these limitations, I extend relational mentoring and diversified mentoring theories to introduce the Triple A Model of Social Justice Mentoring. This model holds that the effects of high-quality mentoring extend beyond the relationship to influence social justice outcomes. Both members can learn about diversity and experience relational dynamics that foster allyship, agentic empowerment and authentic identities. Implications for formal mentoring, diverse friendships, mentoring episodes and high-quality connections are discussed.

Influence of mentoring on the proactive behavior of new employees: moderated mediation effect of agreeableness

Objective

In recent years, faced with a complex economic development environment and the evolving dynamics of the Chinese workplace, talent has become a precious resource that is invaluable yet scarce for every enterprise. As Generation Z employees have gradually entered the labor market, they contribute new perspectives and energies to various enterprises and pose unique challenges. The traditional step-by-step approach no longer meets the needs of today's businesses. Companies require more proactive talents to drive superior performance. Individuals with proactive behavior can effectively plan their career paths and are better equipped to fulfill core organizational tasks. Therefore, it is crucial for organizations to effectively mitigate the perceived negative impacts of proactive behavior, encouraging individuals to exhibit more positive proactive actions.

Methods

Based on the proactive motivation model, this study investigates the effects of mentoring, balanced psychological contract, proactive behavior, and agreeableness on the proactive behaviors of new employees. The research surveyed 417 new employees from Guangdong Province, China, who had graduated within the last three years, with a gender distribution of 49.4% male and 50.6% female.

Results

Structural Equation Modeling was used for data analysis, and the following results were obtained: First, mentoring positively affected the balanced psychological contract and new employees' proactive behavior. Second, mentoring positively affected the new employees' proactive behavior through the balanced psychological contract. Third, agreeableness played a moderating role in the relationship between mentoring and new employees' proactive behavior, and in the relationship between mentoring and the balanced psychological contracts. Finally, the positive indirect effect of mentoring through the balanced psychological contract on new employees' proactive behavior is positively moderated by agreeableness.

Conclusion

The results of this study offer new insights into mentoring research for new employees and provide practical guidance for fostering the balanced psychological contract and proactive behavior among new employees. This research enriches the existing literature on mentoring for new employees by demonstrating the integral roles of agreeableness and a balanced psychological contract in fostering proactive behavior, offering valuable insights for organizational practices aimed at enhancing employee proactivity.

Formal Mentoring and Protégés’ Leadership Development: The Roles of Protégés’ Informal Mentoring Networks, Political Skill, and Gender

We seek to better understand how formal mentoring may impact protégés’ leadership development by arguing that protégés’ informal mentoring networks help explain the relationship between formal mentoring and two protégé leadership development outcomes: motivation to lead and promotability. We also argue that protégés’ political skill and gender serve as boundary conditions of these mediated relationships. Using 100 South Korean mentor-protégé dyads in four organizations across three points in time, we find that a higher level of formal mentoring is positively associated with the quality of protégés’ informal mentoring networks, which, in turn, is positively associated with protégés’ motivation to lead, but not protégés’ promotability. We also find that the relationship between a higher level of formal mentoring and the quality of protégés’ informal mentoring networks is strengthened when protégés have a higher level of political skill. In addition, we find that female protégés obtain more informal mentoring networking benefits from their formal mentors than male protégés. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

The relation between Self-Esteem and Productivity: An analysis in higher education institutions

Background

Due to the importance of academic training, allowing upward socioeconomic mobility, and being key to getting out of poverty, as indicated by the United Nations in its 2030 Agenda, investment in quality education is key. The objective of this study is to analyze the impact of Self-Esteem in the work environment on Teaching and Research Productivity within the field of higher education in Spain.

Method

The research is carried out among the teaching staff of the Rey Juan Carlos University of Madrid (Spain). A structured questionnaire was used to ask about Self-Esteem and Productivity. Data analysis is conducted using 272 valid questionnaires analyzed with R-commander software. The validity of the variables is analyzed to check the quality of the questionnaire. Linear regression analysis is used to examine the relationship between Self-Esteem and Productivity and is completed with ANOVA analysis to study the most significant differences between these variables.

Results

We identified a positive correlation between Self-Esteem and Productivity, where significant differences have been observed depending on the age and seniority of the teaching staff.

Conclusion

This research contributes positively to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals 3 (SDG3) (Good Health and Wellbeing) and 4 (Quality Education), in addition to highlighting the importance of universities ensuring the Self-Esteem of their teachers, having a very positive impact on the education received by the students, on the quality and prestige of the teaching center, and society, increasing academic research and educational quality. Similarly, the results achieved can be extrapolated to other sectors.

A within-person examination of the effect of mentors' daily ostracism on protégés' displaced aggression and in-role performance

Purpose

Drawing on social information processing theory and social comparison theory, we test how mentors' daily ostracism triggers protégés' envy, thus leading to decreased in-role performance and increased displaced aggression.

Design/methodology/approach

Using an experience sampling study across three work weeks, the study provided theoretical and empirical examinations of dynamic, within-person processes related to mentors' ostracism.

Findings

Mentors' daily ostracism triggers protégés' envy, which mediates the effect of mentors' daily ostracism on protégés' displaced aggression and in-role performance. Our findings supported our hypothesis of the buffering effect of mentorship quality on the negative effect of mentors' ostracism on protégés' envy but did not show a significant moderating effect on the mediating effect of protégés' emotions between mentors' daily ostracism and protégés' behaviors.

Research limitations/implications

Our study focused on the victims of mentors' ostracism on a daily basis. We constructed an overarching theoretical model to investigate how, why, and when mentors' daily ostracism leads to protégés' emotional and behavioral variability.

Practical implications

The study provided how to cope with ostracism and envy.

Originality/value

We discuss the theoretical implications of our findings for research on mentors' ostracism, protégés' emotions, and protégés' behaviors.

An analysis of the trickle-down effect of supervisor knowledge hiding on subordinate knowledge hiding based on displaced aggression theory

The harm of horizontal knowledge hiding behavior (colleague-colleague) to individuals and organizations has been discussed and confirmed by many studies. The negative consequences of top-down (supervisor-subordinate) knowledge hiding have now emerged as a new focus of research. This study aims to enrich the understanding of the consequences of supervisor knowledge hiding by exploring its trickle-down effect and mechanism. Based on the displaced aggression theory in psychology, this paper analyses and examines the cognitive psychological process and mechanism informing employee knowledge hiding from colleagues when faced with their supervisor's malicious knowledge hiding behavior. Using a three-stage time-lag questionnaire survey strategy, we collect 233 valid samples of full-time employees from representative provinces and cities in China, covering multiple industries. The following findings are observed: (1) Supervisor knowledge hiding from subordinates (SKHS) positively affects subordinate knowledge hiding from colleagues (SKHC); (2) Revenge motivation plays a mediating role; (3) Traditionality weakens the influence of supervisor knowledge hiding on a subordinates' revenge motivation. This study confirms the trickle-down effects of supervisor knowledge hiding behavior, extends research on the consequences of top-down knowledge hiding and its mechanism and provides new insights for organizational practice.

Mentoring and Career Success: An Examination of Management Aspirations and Lengthy Career Interruptions

Mentoring is a valuable resource that enhances outcomes like career success. Applying conservation of resources theory, we examine the interaction effects of workers’ management aspirations and lengthy career interruption(s) on the mentoring-career success relationship. Utilizing 259 older professional workers, we test these relationships with both cross-sectional and time-separated data. Although the pattern of results was similar when comparing the cross-sectional data to the time-separated data, we found that relationships were stronger within the cross-sectional data, resulting in the support of two additional hypotheses. With the time-separated data, we found evidence of a three-way interaction. Specifically, mentoring is more valuable for the perceived career success of workers with higher management aspirations who had not experienced a lengthy career interruption than it is for workers with higher management aspirations who had experienced a lengthy career interruption or for workers with lower management aspirations regardless of whether they had experienced a career interruption.

Distributed Leadership and New Generation Employees' Proactive Behavior: Roles of Idiosyncratic Deals and Meaningfulness of Work

New generation employees have become the main force of the organization, and their proactive behavior directly affects the organization’s future development. How to effectively stimulate the proactive behavior of new generation employees has become a hot topic in the field of organizational management. Based on the integrated perspective of social exchange and self-enhancement, we constructed a multistep mediation model to explore the influence mechanism of distributed leadership on the proactive behavior of new generation employees. We designed a three-stage research method of supervisor-employee pairing to collect data from 26 supervisors and 304 new generation employees in a new energy vehicle company in East China. Results indicated that (a) distributed leadership is positively related to proactive behavior of new generation employees; (b) idiosyncratic deals and meaningfulness of work mediated the linkage between distributed leadership and new generation employees’ proactive behavior; (c) idiosyncratic deals and meaningfulness of work play a multistep mediation role between distributed leadership and new generation employees’ proactive behavior. These findings have theoretical implications for the proactive behavior literature and managerial implications for practitioners.

Coachability and the development of the coachability scale

Purpose

The purpose of this research was to develop a conceptualization and measure of workplace coachability.

Design/methodology/approach

Using four independent samples of employed adults, we developed a short and long version of the Coachability Scale. We followed standard scale development practices, presenting evidence of the scales’ factor structure, reliability and validity.

Findings

With the first two samples, we derived an initial three-dimensional version of the Coachability Scale and provided evidence of convergent validity. With Samples 3 and 4, we expanded the scale with additional dimensions related to coaching feedback processes and accumulated additional evidence of the scale's validity, and provided evidence of convergence between the two versions of the Coachability Scale.

Research limitations/implications

We encourage continued research on the Coachability Scale, as well as research on coachability in formal coaching relationships and with more diverse populations and cultures. It is also important to examine how coachability relates to specific coachee behaviors and outcomes. Although common method bias may be a limitation, we used temporally separated measurements to minimize method bias in Sample 4.

Practical implications

Knowledge about coachability can inform coaching practice decisions and help tailor the coaching engagement to better fit the coachee's needs.

Social implications

Measuring how individuals respond to coaching and coaching relationships has important implications for managerial behavior and the quality of work life.

Originality/value

This is one of the first studies to develop valid scales for assessing workplace coachability.

How Does Mentoring Affect Protégés' Adaptive Performance in the Workplace: Roles of Thriving at Work and Promotion Focus

The question of how to improve employees’ adaptive performance in dynamic environments has become a hot issue in organizational management. Although previous research has focused on the antecedents of adaptive performance, less attention has been paid to the impact of mentoring. Based on the conservation of resources theory and regulatory focus theory, this study examines the impact mechanism and boundary conditions of mentoring on protégés’ adaptive performance. In addition, through an empirical analysis of 269 samples, this study finds that mentoring has a significant positive impact on protégés’ adaptive performance. Thriving at work plays a full mediation role between mentoring and protégés’ adaptive performance, and protégés’ promotion focus moderates the relationship between mentoring and thriving at work such that the relationship is stronger among protégés with a higher promotion focus. Furthermore, the indirect relationship between mentoring and adaptive performance is stronger when protégés have a high level of promotion focus.

Feeling Capable and Worthy? Impact of Employee Silence on Self-Concept: Mediating Role of Organizational Citizenship Behaviors

While existing research findings have highlighted the consequences of employee silence at the interpersonal and organizational levels, little is known about how employee silence influences an employee's inferences of self. Drawing on a cross-organizational sample of 142 employees, we test the impact of employee silence, in the forms of acquiescent, quiescent, prosocial, and opportunistic silence, on employees' job self-efficacy and organization-based self-esteem. In addition, we examine how organizational citizenship behavior toward the organization and toward individuals mediates the direct effects. Results indicate that quiescent silence negatively affects organization-based self-esteem, and that opportunistic silence has a negative impact on job self-efficacy. In addition, organizational citizenship behavior toward the organization and organizational citizenship behavior toward individuals fully mediate the relationship between opportunistic silence and organization-based self-esteem, whereas organizational citizenship behavior toward individuals and organizational citizenship behavior toward the organization partially mediate the relationship between opportunistic silence and job self-efficacy. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.