Page 1 of 23 ANZAM 2009 Mentoring and Employee Job-induced Stress: An Examination of the Cultural Context on Mentoring Effects in China Jing Qian School of Management, Marketing and International Business, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia Email: [email protected] Dr Jay Hays School of Management, Marketing and International Business, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia Email: [email protected] Dr George Chen School of Management, Marketing and International Business, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia Email: [email protected] Xiaosong Lin School of Management, Marketing and International Business, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia Email: [email protected] ANZAM 2009 Page 2 of 23 Mentoring and Employee Job-induced Stress: An Examination of the Cultural Context on Mentoring Effects in China ABSTRACT From social support and social exchange perspectives, we used a sample of 241 protégés from a large company in China to examine two boundary conditions under which the negative mentoring- stress relationship is attenuated or strengthened. Results of moderating regression tests revealed that: 1) traditionality moderated the negative relationship between mentoring and job-induced stress in such a way that the relationship was stronger for protégés who were higher rather than lower in traditionality; 2) reciprocity norms moderated the negative relationship between mentoring and the protégés' job-induced stress in such a way that the relationship was weaker for protégés holding more, rather than less, reciprocity norms. Implications of these results for future research are discussed. Keywords: Organisational Behaviour; Human Resource Management & Development; International Management 1 Page 3 of 23 ANZAM 2009 INTRODUCTION By focusing on one of the most important work relationships, mentoring research has become a rapidly growing area of investigation, with researchers documenting many positive outcomes for protégés, including objective outcomes such as compensation and promotion, along with subjective outcomes such as career and job satisfaction, a renewed intention to stay and greater organisational commitment (Allen, Eby, Poteet, Lentz & Lima 2004; Waters 2004). Given the high costs and deleterious effects associated with job-related stress, the topic of managing stress reduction has drawn great attention from researchers in recent years (e.g., Harris & Kacmar 2006; Ganster & Schaubroeck 1991). As one of the most important interpersonal relationships at work, workplace mentoring has been hypothesised as negatively related to job-related stress in mentoring literature (e.g., Allen 1999). According to social support theory, individuals tend to seek out and count on supportive relationships to prevent, reduce, and cope with stress (House 1981). Thus, it would seem straightforward to expect employees who have being involved in mentoring relationships to experience less job-related stress. Contrary to this expectation, literature on the relationship between mentoring and job related stress has yielded rather mixed and inconclusive results. While some research has found that mentoring can lower the levels of job-related stress (Sosik & Godshalk 2000), other studies have discovered that mentoring has no significant effect on stress levels (Allen, McManus & Russell 1999), or in some cases it even increases stress levels (Kram & Hall 1989). This ambiguity clearly shows how the relation between mentoring and stress is much more complicated than it has previously been taken to be. For example, it is possible that under certain circumstances such negative relationships could be enhanced or buffered. Thus, more research is needed to understand the relations between mentoring and stress, with particular attention paid to the conditions under which such a negative relationship becomes stronger or weaker . Our research aims to tackle these difficult issues while contributing in several ways to the mentoring literature. First, we are unaware of any published field study that has examined possible moderators for the negative relationship between mentoring and protégés’ job-related stress. In the current study, 2 ANZAM 2009 Page 4 of 23 we examined the moderating role of two individual level cultural values, that of traditionality and reciprocity (Yang, Yu & Yeh 1989; Uhl-Bien & Maslyn 2003). Examining the moderating effect of individual differences on mentoring relationships should provide a more complete understanding of the conditions under which it influences employee job-related stress. Second, we conducted the present study in China. Whereas mentoring has made considerable progress in Western counties, a recent review of the mentoring literature shows that research conducted in other cultures has lagged behind (Allen, Eby, O’Brien & Lentz 2008). These deficiencies have prompted Allen et al. (2008) to call for more research on workplace mentoring in other cultures so that the generalisability of mentoring theories developed in the West can be examined and enriched. In addition, although a few studies (e.g., Aryee & Chay, 1994; Aryee, Waytt & Stone 1996) have examined mentoring in other cultures, we are not aware of any research that has examined the unique influence that cultural values have on protégés. We have therefore answered these calls by theorising and examining the moderating effect of the individual cultural value of power distance and reciprocity on the mentoring- protégé relationship outcomes in a Chinese sample. Finally, ours is the first study that seeks to reconcile the conflicting implications of past research in order to further our understanding of the relationships between mood and creativity in organisations. The theoretical framework that guides the present study appears in Figure 1. THEORY AND HYPOTHESES Workplace Informal Mentoring and Job-induced Stress Stress is defined in this thesis as an individual’s belief that the demands from the environment are important to satisfy yet exceed their coping abilities (Edwards 1992). In a workplace context, an employee may feel stress when the perceived job demands exceed his or her capability to accomplish them. Job-induced stress may affect the employee’s feelings about work, such as job satisfaction, and this is termed as job-related strain (LaRocco, House & French 1980). Consequently, the employee’s physical and psychological health, together termed as well-being , will be affected (Parker & DeCotiis 3 Page 5 of 23 ANZAM 2009 1983). Although many empirical findings have suggested that mentoring can serve this function in youth mentoring studies (Rhodes, Ebert & Fischer 1992; Rhodes, Contreras & Mangelsdorf 1994) and in academic settings (House & Kahn 1985; Jacobi 1991), few studies have been conducted to test this hypothesis in a work environment. To date, just two pieces of research have investigated this relationship in an organisational setting, and only one of the studies’ hypotheses were fully supported by their findings. Kram and Hall (1989) found that individuals with a low job challenge and job involvement believe that mentoring can ease stress during a time of “corporate trauma.” Allen, McManus and Russell (1999) investigated the mentoring-stress relationship by measuring two scales of stress, work-induced stress and perceived help with stress . The results indicate that mentoring is not significantly related to a protégé’s work-induced stress, although protégés believe that mentoring can help to reduce their stress levels. The relationship between workplace mentoring and protégés’ job-induced stress has clearly not been tested enough; even the two existing studies have mixed results. The present study therefore addresses this shortfall by continuing the investigation into the influence of workplace mentoring on job-induced stress. To prevent, decrease or cope with stress, individuals may seek ways to limit the perceived threats from the environment. Researchers have found that social support can serve this purpose (House 1981). Specifically, social support provides a society member with the opportunity to gain more sources of information, increased communication, and emotional comfort, which signals to the member that in a certain context (such as in an organisation) there are sources available for their personal and career development. The incorporation of positive messages into the member's effort to use these resources can help to alleviate feelings of uncertainty and to lower stress levels. Indeed, empirical studies have provided convincing evidence that social support is very effective in easing stress (e.g., Beehr & McGrath 1992; Himle, Jayaratne & Thyness 1991; Terry, Neilsen & Perchard 1993). 4 ANZAM 2009 Page 6 of 23 House (1981) identifies four broad categories of social support: (1) emotional support (e.g., esteem, trust, care, and empathy); (2) appraisal support (e.g. affirmation, feedback, and social comparison); (3) informational support (e.g., information, directives, advice, and suggestions; and (4) instrumental support (e.g., money, labour, time, energy and modifying the environment). These categories of social support can be reduced to the two types of mentoring functions described by Kram (1985). These are psychological mentoring, which is similar to the emotional and appraisal functions of social support, and career mentoring, which can be operationalised as informational and instrumental support (Allen et al. 1999). As a form of social support, the influence of