The Work Context and Mentoring: Do Job Characteristics Influence Mentoring Received?

The study explores how different aspects of the day-to-day work of kindergarten employees affect the amount of guidance they receive at work. The purpose is to identify which of these aspects have the greatest influence on how much guidance employees receive.

The results show that social support at work, especially feedback from colleagues, increased the likelihood of receiving guidance. This suggests that supportive work environments can promote guidance. Older employees received less guidance than their younger colleagues, which may indicate the need to adapt guidance programmes to different age groups.

284 kindergarten employees (a response rate of 65.3%) completed questionnaires on a five-point Likert scale. The questionnaires investigated the guidance received and various aspects of the job, such as cognitive tasks, task variation, feedback, and social support. Age was also included as a control variable to assess its impact on guidance processes.

Waaland, T. (2021). "The Work Context and Mentoring: Do Job Characteristics Influence Mentoring Received?". Nordic Studies in Education, 41(4):349-364