Building Psychological Capital and Employee Engagement: Is Formal Mentoring a Useful Strategic Human Resource Development Intervention?

The popularity of formal mentoring has grown substantially in recent years. Literature has demonstrated individual-level benefits such as learning, career planning, and enhancement of leadership as well as the acquisition of managerial skills from formal mentoring programs within work organizations. The primary purpose of this study was to examine whether and how formal mentoring programs could impact psychological capital and employee engagement, two key business drivers that can directly affect an organization's bottom line. A mixed-methods design was employed to address the research questions through collecting data at multiple time points from a sample at a national franchise chain with more than 300 franchisee locations across the United States. Findings indicated that frequency of contact between the mentors and mentees was a key factor for engaging in mutually beneficial learning, which was instrumental for building psychological capital and employee engagement. Limitations and implications for research and practice within the context of our findings are discussed.