A Longitudinal Examination of the Influence of Mentoring on Organizational Commitment and Turnover

Abstract

Over 1,000 U.S. Army officers responded to two surveys over a two-year period. Results indicated that mentoring was positively related to affective commitment and continuance commitment and negatively related to “turnover behavior.” The relationship with affective commitment was moderated by the conditions of mentorship (supervisory versus nonsupervisory) but not by the type of mentoring support provided (career-related versus psychosocial). Affective commitment partially mediated the negative relationship between mentoring and actual turnover behavior ten years later.