The Effectiveness of Facilitated Mentoring: A Longitudinal Quasi-Experiment

The initiation of formal mentoring has become a widespread practice in public and private organizations. This paper reports results from a one-year longitudinal quasi-experiment which examined the effectiveness of a formal mentoring program at a Fortune 100 corporation. Employees who participated in the program were compared with a control group who reported never having had a mentor. Results showed that subjects with formal mentors reported significantly higher levels of job satisfaction. While a small to medium effect for participation in the mentor program was observed for organizational commitment, this effect failed to reach statistical significance in the current study. Subjects participating in the mentor program did not differ from their nonmentored counterparts in terms of work-role stress or self-esteem at work. These results suggest that a formal mentor program can have positive effects on individual and organizational outcomes, but its effectiveness may not be as extensive as widely assumed.