Dealing with negative mentoring experiences: the roles of 'can-do' and 'reason-to' factors

Academics and practitioners have long worked to reduce negative mentoring experiences. Drawing on social cognitive theory and expectancy-value theory, we examined the link between mentors' perceived organizational support and proteges' negative mentoring experiences, shedding light on the mediating effect of mentoring self-efficacy and the moderating effect of mentors' self-enhancement motives. Results based on data from 260 proteges and 214 mentors in Chinese organizations supported our proposed hypotheses. Mentoring self-efficacy mediated the negative relationship between mentors' perceived organizational support and proteges' negative mentoring experiences. In addition, mentors' self-enhancement motives intensified both the negative relationship between mentoring self-efficacy and negative mentoring experiences and the indirect impact of mentors' perceived organizational support on proteges' negative mentoring experiences via mentoring self-efficacy. A discussion of the theoretical and managerial implications of these findings is included.