Cross-lagged relations between mentoring received from supervisors and employee OCBs: Disentangling causal direction and identifying boundary conditions.

Abstract

Although mentoring has documented relationships with employee attitudes and outcomes of interest to organizations, neither the causal direction nor boundary conditions of the relationship between mentoring and organizational citizenship behaviors (OCBs) has been fully explored. On the basis of Social Learning Theory (SLT; Bandura, 1977, 1986), we predicted that mentoring received by supervisors would causally precede OCBs, rather than employee OCBs resulting in the receipt of more mentoring from supervisors. Results from cross-lagged data collected at 2 points in time from 190 intact supervisor-employee dyads supported our predictions; however, only for OCBs directed at individuals (OCB-Is) and not for OCBs directed at the organization (OCB-Os). Further supporting our theoretical rationale for expecting mentoring to precede OCBs, we found that coworker support operates as a substitute for mentoring in predicting OCB-Is. By contrast, no moderating effects were found for perceived organizational support. The results are discussed in terms of theoretical implications for mentoring and OCB research, as well as practical suggestions for enhancing employee citizenship behaviors.

Variations in coaching style and their impact on subordinates' work outcomes

“…For example, although subordinates' assessments of coaching style were obtained prior to their performance evaluations, reciprocal causation cannot be ruled out. On the other hand, at least with regard to contextual performance, mentoring leads to enhanced citizenship behavior, rather than the reverse (Eby, Butts, Hoffman, & Sauer, ). Similarly, in terms of reverse causation, the possibility that decrements in AP and/or task performance causes job‐related anxiety cannot be ruled out.…”

The future of employee development

“…For example, research has sought to answer questions concerning formal development initiatives delivered through e-learning rather than traditional classroom learning (Schmidt & Ford, 2003;Sitzmann, Kraiger, Stewart, & Wisher, 2006). Also, recent research continues to examine how employees learn from job experiences (e.g., Billett, 2001;Courtright, Colbert, & Choi, 2014;Dragoni, Oh, Vankatwyk, & Tesluk, 2011;Eby, Butts, Hoffman, & Sauer, 2015;McCall, 2004), assessments (e.g., Noe, 2017;Smither & Walker, 2004), and mentoring and coaching (e.g., Allen, Eby, Chao, & Bauer, 2017;Allen, Eby, Poteet, Lentz, & Lima, 2004;Payne & Huffman, 2005).…”

Creative leaders create ‘unsung heroes’: leader creativity and subordinate organizational citizenship behavior

“…organizational formalization and cohesion, interactional fairness and organizational constraints), and leadership behaviors (e.g. transformational leadership, leader-member exchange, emotional expressions of leaders and supervisor mentoring) (Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Paine, & Bachrach, 2000;Britt et al, 2012;Gonzalez-Mule, Mount & Oh, 2014;Koning & Kleef, 2015;Eby, Butts, Hoffman & Sauer, 2015;Lam, Liang, Ashford & Lee, 2015;Matta, Scott, Koopman & Conlon, 2015;Badawy, Shaughnessy, Brouer & Seitz, 2016;Collins & Mossholder, 2017).…”