The Supportive Mentor as a Means of Reducing Work–Family Conflict

The present study investigated the influence of having a mentor on employee perceptions of work–family conflict. Results from a field survey of 502 employees showed that individuals with mentors reported significantly less work–family conflict, particularly family → work conflict, than those respondents who did not have mentors. Other important findings indicated that a mentor's support of a protégé's efforts to balance work and family demands has significant effects on reducing protégés' work–family conflict and that the role modeling function of mentoring significantly reduces family → work conflict experienced by protégés.