Has the Mentoring of Accountants Been Oversold: An Empirical Study

• In Event: Accounting Behavior and Organizations / Information Systems / Management Accounting
  In Paper Session: Accounting, Behavior and Organizations / Information Systems / Management Accounting

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. Also, performing path analysis using data from the 72 respondents who currently had a mentor finds that the quality of the mentoring relationship provides mainly a direct effect on performance, but very little indirect effect on job satisfaction and organizational commitment. When looking at the effect of quality of the mentoring relationship on turnover intentions, we find that job satisfaction and organizational commitment completely mediate the relation. Thus, we provide support for the efficacy of mentoring as a means of reducing turnover in the accounting field.

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