The role of personality in mentoring relationships: Formation, dynamics, and outcomes

ditional mentoring relationship1 is an intense interpersonal exchange between a senior, experienced, and knowledgeable employee (i.e., the mentor) who provides advice, counsel, feedback, and support related to career and personal development for a less experienced employee (the protégé) (Kram, 1985; Noe et al., 2002). A recent meta-analysis confirmed earlier qualitative reviews by finding that mentor-ing relationships are related to both objective and subjective measures of career success (Allen, Eby, Poteet, Lentz, & Lima, 2004). More specifically, mentored ver-sus nonmentored individuals reported higher compensation, more promotions, and greater career satisfaction, career commitment, and job satisfaction (Allen et al., 2004). Although such evidence indicates mentoring relationships are benefi-cial for protégés, little research has investigated processes through which mentoring influences career success, and thus we know little about how mentors or protégés can influence the value of mentoring relationships (Day & Allen, 2004). We believe that individual differences, in particular personality characteristics, influence the effectiveness of mentoring relationships, and thus we discuss the role of personal