What and how do mentors learn? The role of relationship quality and mentoring self‐efficacy in mentor learning

Abstract Drawing on the relational mentoring perspective and social cognitive theory, the purpose of this study is to understand how mentoring relationship quality relates to mentor knowledge acquisition and to refine and identify the types of knowledge mentors gain from their mentoring relationships. We hypothesize that relationship quality positively relates to mentor knowledge acquisition (mentoring‐specific, relational, and self‐knowledge) through career and psychosocial mentoring self‐efficacy. We tested our model and research questions in a mixed methods study of 199 professor mentors. Our qualitative results provided a more in‐depth understanding of what mentors learn from their mentoring relationships with respect to mentoring‐specific knowledge, relational knowledge, and self‐knowledge. Furthermore, we identified occupational‐specific knowledge as an additional type of mentor knowledge acquisition. In our quantitative analysis, contrary to our hypothesis, we found that career mentoring self‐efficacy mediated a negative relationship between relationship quality and mentoring‐specific knowledge acquisition. Further, relationship quality had a direct, negative, effect on relational knowledge acquisition. Finally, career and psychosocial mentoring self‐efficacy positively related to occupational‐specific knowledge acquisition and together mediated the relation between relationship quality and occupational‐specific knowledge acquisition. From our post hoc analysis, we found that behavioral change intentions mediated the negative relationships between relationship quality and mentoring‐specific, relational, and self‐knowledge. Our study contributes to the mentoring literature by focusing on the mentor's learning and provides practical implications for how organizations can better foster effective mentoring outcomes.