Do High Performers Always Obtain Supervisory Career Mentoring? The Role of Perspective-Taking

Abstract

Drawing on social exchange theory, this study examines when and why high performers may fail to obtain supervisory career mentoring (SCM). Although high performance by protégés often makes SCM more efficient and successful, we argue that supervising mentors may be reluctant to offer SCM due to the victimization of high performers that has been shown by recent findings in the supervision literature. We further propose that high performers should be high in perspective-taking, a core relational competence and a key individual factor that moderates the relationship between protégé performance and SCM. Findings from a multi-source multi-time survey (Study 1) and an online experiment (Study 2) consistently show that when high performers are low in perspective-taking, they are less likely to receive SCM. Moreover, the findings from Study 2 also show that low perspective-taking by high performers significantly reduces supervisors’ expected benefits from mentoring them, which in turn leads to the supervisors having low willingness to mentor. Our research therefore highlights the importance of taking into account the interaction between task and relational competence in understanding how protégé characteristics may influence SCM in organizational settings. The paper concludes with theoretical and practical implications.