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Summary
We investigated the relationship between anticipated costs and benefits of being a mentor, mentoring experience, and intentions to mentor among a sample of 275 executives. Individuals lacking mentoring experience anticipated greater costs and fewer benefits than experienced individuals. Anticipated costs and benefits were related to intentions to mentor, and this relationship varied by mentoring experience. The results suggest that mentoring may be an intergenerational process. Copyright #1999 John Wiley &Sons, Ltd.
Introduction
The mentoring relationship is clearly an important developmental relationship. Mentoring has been found to be related to proteA geA s' career mobility (Scandura, 1992), promotions (Dreher and Ash, 1990), compensation (Whitely, Dougherty and Dreher, 1991) and career and job satisfaction (Fagenson, 1989; Koberg, Boss, Chappell and Ringer, 1994). In recognition of the benefits associated with mentoring relationships, organizations are taking measures to develop potential mentors (Burke and McKeen, 1989). Given this recent focus, it is important to understand what influences an employee's intention to assume a mentoring role. What are the expected costs and benefits associated with becoming a mentor? Do these expectations affect future decisions to become a mentor?What role does prior mentorship experience, as a mentor or a proteA geA , have on cost-benefit expectations and the decision to become a mentor?
These questions are intriguing and important, but their answers remain elusive. While there has been a virtual deluge of studies on mentoring from the proteA geA 's perspective, the mentor's side of the relationship has remained largely ignored. Nevertheless, mentorship theorists predict that there are a number of specific costs and benefits associated with being a mentor, and suggest that the decision to mentor may be influenced by the expectations associated with the relationship (Erikson, 1963; Kram, 1985; Levinson, Darrow, Klein, Levinson and McKee, 1978) and prior experience in mentoring relationships (Hunt and Michael, 1983; Ragins and Cotton, 1993). While it is important to understand the complex dynamics involved with the decision to mentor, there has been a lack of research on these relationships. Our study attempts to fill this gap in three ways. First, we examine the specific costs and benefits of mentoring, and the relationship of these expectations to future intentions to be a mentor. Second, we expand on prior research (Ragins and Cotton, 1993)...