Is a Bad Mentor Better than No Mentor?

International Journal of Learning and Change, Forthcoming

45 Pages Posted: 2 Dec 2019

See all articles by Jiwon Jung

Jiwon Jung

Arizona State University (ASU) - School of Public Affairs; Graduate School of International Relations; Arizona State University (ASU) - Center for Organization Research and Design

Barry Bozeman

University of Georgia

Date Written: November 17, 2019

Abstract

Mentoring is generally touted as beneficial, yet not all mentoring is good, and the literature gives scant attention to the effects of quality of mentoring on career outcomes. Our study aims to close the gap by providing a comparison among three groups – employees with a good mentor, a bad mentor, and no mentor at all. The study finds that for more than 3,000 respondents, those with a mentor, even a bad one, enjoy the benefits of mentorship. However, the idea that having a bad mentor is better than no mentorship is only partly correct- it is contingent on just how bad and bad in what ways. The quality of the mentoring experience influences job satisfaction more while a mere presence of a mentor is important for the salary of the protégés. Furthermore, mentored public sector workers, unlike workers in the private and nonprofit sectors, have a lower salary and job satisfaction compared to those who have no mentor. We provide suggestions about what may account for this unexpected and curious finding.

Keywords: mentoring; bad mentoring; quality of mentoring; work outcomes; mentoring outcomes; mentoring experience; sector difference

Suggested Citation

Jung, Jiwon and Jung, Jiwon and Bozeman, Barry, Is a Bad Mentor Better than No Mentor? (November 17, 2019). International Journal of Learning and Change, Forthcoming , Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3488731 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3488731

Jiwon Jung (Contact Author)

Arizona State University (ASU) - School of Public Affairs

411 N. Central Ave. Suite 480
Phoenix, AZ 85004
United States

Graduate School of International Relations ( email )

Yamato-machi
Niigata-ken 949-7277
United States

Arizona State University (ASU) - Center for Organization Research and Design ( email )

411 N. Central Ave. Suite 480
Phoenix, AZ 85004
United States

Barry Bozeman

University of Georgia ( email )

Athens, GA 30602
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
130
Abstract Views
685
Rank
395,045
PlumX Metrics