Date of Award
8-2018
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Psychology
Committee Member
Dr. Marissa L. Shuffler, Committee Chair
Committee Member
Dr. Jennifer Bisson
Committee Member
Dr. Jennifer Bragger
Committee Member
Dr. Heidi Zinzow
Abstract
Long hours, in addition to a heavy workload, lack of control over the environment, and inadequate recognition are some factors that have been described as contributing to healthcare workers developing burnout (Ahlin, Ericson-Lidman, Norberg, & Strandberg, 2015), decreasing their job performance, and ultimately leading them to leave their jobs. It is critically important that preventive methods of buffering burnout are studied in this context, and mentoring may be one such method. Drawing on bodies of research related to motivation and stress, this study examined a mentoring intervention using a healthcare population who had engaged in an 8-month mentoring program. This study wanted to investigate the outcomes of mentoring, contextual influences on mentoring success, and the mechanism through which mentoring produced positive outcomes. The results of this study indicated that the outcome of meaningful work was increased in mentors, protégés, and the subordinates of protégés as compared to control groups. The contextual factors of dyad matching and organizational learning climate additionally influenced outcomes as a result of engaging in this program. The mechanism through which mentoring operated did not produce significant results, but did open possible lines of future research. This study, therefore, filled several gaps in the mentoring literature and can inform future mentoring interventions to ensure wide applicability and ultimate success.
Recommended Citation
Farago, Pamela, "Caring for Caregivers: Mentoring and Its Effects on Affective and Behavioral Outcomes" (2018). All Dissertations. 2223.
https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/all_dissertations/2223