The "Ripple Effect": The Effect of Family-Work Conflict on Mentor-protégé Relationship

Drawing from conservation of resources theory, this research examines how and when mentors' family - work conflict is related to prot & eacute;g & eacute;s' work outcomes (i.e. job performance and career satisfaction). We proposed mentors' family - work conflict depleted their resources, thus had a negative influence on prot & eacute;g & eacute;s' work outcomes. Further, we addressed the mediating role of mentoring functions (i.e. career support, psychosocial support, and role modeling) and the moderating roles of mentors' core self-evaluation and mentor - prot & eacute;g & eacute; relational quality. We tested the hypothesized moderated mediation model using time-lagged data from 162 mentor - prot & eacute;g & eacute; dyads in a large Chinese pharmacy chain company. The results demonstrated that (a) mentors' family - work conflict was negatively associated with prot & eacute;g & eacute;s' work outcomes; (b) mentoring functions mediated this relationship; (c) mentors' core self-evaluation and mentor - prot & eacute;g & eacute; relational quality moderated the main effect of mentors' family - work conflict on mentoring functions and the indirect effect of mentors' family - work conflict on prot & eacute;g & eacute;s' work outcomes via mentoring functions; and (d) the indirect effect was significant when mentors' core self-evaluation or mentor - prot & eacute;g & eacute; relational quality was low. Important implications for management research are discussed.