Abstract

Mentorship quality is an important aspect of mentorship effectiveness, yet we know little about its predictors. Using social identity theory, we examined the relationship between mentor alcohol use norms and mentorship quality as perceived by proteges. Our study also considered the mediating role of protege identification with the mentor and the moderating role of protege traditionality. The findings, based on mentor-protege dyadic data collected through a three-wave survey in China, indicate that mentor alcohol use norms are negatively related to mentorship quality, and that this relationship is mediated by protege identification with the mentor. Furthermore, the traditionality of proteges alleviates not only the negative relationship between mentor alcohol use norms and protege identification with the mentor, but also the indirect relationship between mentor alcohol use norms and mentorship quality via protege identification with the mentor. The results underscore the value of focusing on mentor behavioral norms that are not directed toward the protege. We conclude with a discussion of the theoretical and practical implications for mentoring research.

Keyword

alcohol use norms ;  identification ;  mentoring ;  mentorship quality ;  traditionality

Abstract

Drawing on the work-home resources model, this study examines how and why empowering leadership influences followers' work-family conflict (WFC) and work-family positive spillover (WFPS). We focus on the mediating roles of leader-member exchange (LMX) and organization-based self-esteem (OBSE) and the moderating role of followers' political skills. The results from a two-wave field survey of 272 employees in a state-owned enterprise in China indicate that LMX mediates the relationship between empowering leadership and WFPS and that OBSE mediates the relationship between empowering leadership and WFC. Moreover, political skills strengthen the main effects of empowering leadership on LMX and OBSE and the mediating effect of LMX on the relationship between empowering leadership and WFPS. Our findings have theoretical and managerial implications and indicate new research directions for leadership and work-family issues.

Keyword

Empowering leadership ;  leader-member exchange ;  organization-based self-esteem ;  political skill ;  work-family conflict ;  work-family positive spillover

Abstract

This paper extends the understandings of the contextual antecedents of employee creativity at work by examining what can happen when employees are ostracized by loved ones at home, a phenomenon referred to as family ostracism. Drawing on insights from the conservation of resources (COR) theory, we examine the moderated multiple mediation relationships between family ostracism and an individual's creativity at work through strain-based family-to-work conflict (FWC) and creative process engagement (CPE), moderated by the need for affiliation. Using time-lagged data collected from working adults in the United Kingdom, our results demonstrate that the relationship between family ostracism and creativity is negatively and serially mediated by both strain-based FWC and CPE. These results hold even when controlling for the time- and behavior-based dimensions of FWC, workplace ostracism, family undermining, harmonious passion, and Time 1 creativity. Furthermore, individuals with a higher need for affiliation react more strongly to their experiences of family ostracism than those with a lower need. The implications for research and practice are also discussed.

Keyword

creative process engagement ;  creativity ;  family work conflict ;  family ostracism ;  need for affiliation ;  work conflict