Quantity, Quality, and Satisfaction With Mentoring: What Matters Most?

According to Kram’s mentor role theory, satisfaction with mentoring and mentorship quality are key indicators of effective and successful mentoring. We contribute to mentoring research by demonstrating the relative importance of mentorship quantity, mentorship quality, and satisfaction with mentoring to the prediction of job satisfaction, affective commitment, and turnover intentions. Survey data from 472 faculty members revealed the importance of that satisfaction with mentoring in that it mediated the effect of mentorship quality on job satisfaction and turnover intentions, and it explained variance in three job attitudes above and beyond mentorship quantity and quality. Implications for organizational mentoring are discussed.