The effects of academic mentoring perceptions of research assistants on their organizational commitment

Abstract

Mentoring can be expressed as a supportive relationship in which an experienced person transfers his or her expertise and knowledge to someone else. Universities are one of the most appropriate environments that this process, the samples of which can be seen in many sectors, is experienced. Academicianship is one of the professions in which the mentoring process is the most intense and most-needed. This study was aimed to investigate how research assistants perceive the academic mentor and mentee relationship, how these perceptions are related to the desired working behaviour, performance, and organizational effectiveness, and how these relationships affect “organizational commitment,” which has an increasing importance. Thus, both a sample based on the academic mentoring process was obtained and the academic mentoring process, as a factor affecting the organizational commitment, was studied. As a result of the research, it was found that there was a positive relationship between perceived mentoring and organizational commitment, affective commitment from subcategories of commitment. The relationship between normative commitment and organizational commitment were also found to be positive and meaningful. However, no relationship between perceived mentoring and continuance was found, and the established regression model did not make sense either.