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Effects of mentoring on work engagement: Work meaningfulness as a mediator
Author(s) -
Lin Ligui,
Cai Xuejing,
Yin Jun
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
international journal of training and development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.558
H-Index - 26
eISSN - 1468-2419
pISSN - 1360-3736
DOI - 10.1111/ijtd.12210
Subject(s) - work engagement , psychology , perception , work (physics) , perspective (graphical) , affect (linguistics) , mediator , meaning (existential) , social psychology , role conflict , applied psychology , mechanical engineering , medicine , communication , neuroscience , artificial intelligence , computer science , engineering , psychotherapist
This study examined the relationship between career mentoring and work engagement from the mentor perspective, by estimating work meaningfulness as a mediator. The research model used quantitative survey data from 309 employees who mentored their junior colleagues in the on‐the‐job training programmes of Japanese companies. The results demonstrated that career mentoring had an indirect effect on the work engagement of mentors by enhancing the psychological meaningfulness of their work. In addition, learning goal orientation positively influenced career mentoring; this may subsequently facilitate the work engagement by increasing the perception of the meaning of work. Learning‐oriented individuals who act as mentors find psychological meaningfulness in their work, which in turn enhances their work engagement. By setting acceptable meaningful goals for mentoring programmes, practitioners can minimize the negative outcomes of mentoring. The results contribute to the existing literature by examining how mentoring experiences affect the behaviour of mentors.