Examining Some Effects of Mentoring on Accountants’ Job Performance and Turnover Intentions

• In Event: Public Interest/Taxation/International Accounting

Abstract

The accounting literature has long discussed the importance of mentoring in the production of positive behavioral outcomes, generally reporting enhanced organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and performance. Mentoring has also been associated with reduced employee turnover. However, most of these effects have been tested 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 over job satisfaction and organizational knowledge needs to be more directly considered. PLS analysis is performed using survey data from 72 accountants, mostly in public accounting, who currently had a mentor. This testing finds that the effect of the career development aspect of mentoring on increased job performance is greatly mediated through its effect on measures of person- organization fit, organizational understanding, and job satisfaction. Mentoring’s social aspect is negatively associated with organizational fit and organizational fit is positively associated with job satisfaction. However, satisfaction has no statistical association with job performance. We find similar results when examining the effect of mentoring on turnover intentions. The social and career development aspects of mentoring are associated with higher levels of perceived organizational fit which are in turn associated with higher levels of job satisfaction. In this model, job satisfaction is strongly negatively associated with decreased turnover intentions while the direct effects of the mentoring variables on turnover intentions are insignificant statistically and as to effect size. Thus, we provide support for the efficacy of mentoring as an indirect means of increasing performance and reducing turnover in the accounting field.

Authors

• Timothy J Fogarty, Case Western Reserve University

• Alan Reinstein, Wayne State University

• Rebekah Annette Heath, Middle Tennessee State University

• David H Sinason, Northern Illinois University