Undesired side effect? The promotion of non-commitment in formal vs. informal mentorships

Abstract

This article deals with the ‘promotion of non-commitment’ from mentor to protégé, that is the process by which mentors may provide their protégés with a discourse encouraging them to distance themselves from their organizations rather than commit themselves to them. It is based on two surveys of managerial-level employees, one using a mentor sample and the other one using a protégé sample. Results of the first study indicated that mentor promotion of non-commitment was negatively related to mentor affective organizational commitment. The second study showed that the mentor promotion of non-commitment was negatively related to protégé affective organisational commitment. However, this relationship was weaker in the case of formal mentorships than in that of informal mentorships.

Keywords:

• dysfunctional mentoring
• mentoring
• organizational commitment