Has the Mentoring of Accountants Been Oversold: An Empirical Study

• In Event: Accounting, Behavior and Organizations 1

Abstract

The accounting literature has long discussed the importance of mentoring in the production of positive behavioral outcomes. These results have included enhanced organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and performance. Mentoring also is believed to reduce employee turnover. However, most of these effects have been based as univariate relationships. A more comprehensive approach should consider that mentorship usually comes after in time the other elements of this nomological network. As such, mentorship’s incremental impact needs to be more directly considered. This paper presents the results of a survey of 186 accountants, most in public practice, about these matters. We found that having a mentor, as well as the number of mentors, relates positively to organizational commitment, job satisfaction and performance, and negatively to turnover intentions. However, in a turnover intention model that also considers organizational commitment and job satisfaction as possible antecedents, the mentorship variables are not significant. On the other hand, mentorship does not relate directly to performance even after considering the separate roles of satisfaction and commitment. When path analysis is performed, the indirect effect of Number of Mentors on performance is almost four times the size of the direct effect. However, the number of mentors still does not significantly effect performance.

Authors

• Alan Reinstein, Wayne State University

• Timothy J Fogarty, Case Western Reserve University

• David H Sinason, Northern Illinois University

• Rebekah Annette Heath, Middle Tennessee State University