Marginal mentoring: The effects of type of mentor, quality of relationship, and program design on work and career attitudes

Employing a national sample of 1,162 employees, we examined the relationship between jab and career attitudes and the presence of a mentor, the mentor's type (formal or informal), the quality of the mentoring relationship, and the perceived effectiveness and design of a formal mentoring program. Satisfaction with a mentoring relationship had a stronger impact on attitudes than the presence of a mentor, whether the relationship was formal or informal, or the design of a formal mentoring program.