Study on the Relationship between Nurses’ Mentoring Relationship and Organizational Commitment

The mentoring relationship affects the growth and development of new employees. For nurses, the uncertainty of the influence of the mentoring relationship may be magnified by the unique nature of hospitals as public departments, however it is unclear whether and how nurses’ mentoring relationship influence the outcome. Protean career orientation defined as a tendency of individuals to achieve subjective career success through self-management of their career is crucial to the influence mechanism of the mentoring relationship. The aim of this study was to explore the path and boundary conditions of the influence of the nurses’ mentoring relationship on organizational commitment. As a cross-sectional sample, 371 nurses were investigated. The results showed that protégé career optimism plays an intermediary role in the influence of the mentoring relationship on organizational commitment, and protean career orientation plays a moderating role in the influence of the mentoring relationship on career optimism. The mentor relationship between mentors and protégés facilitates protégés’ career optimism, enhancing the protégés’ organizational commitment, especially for protégés with low protean career orientation. These findings contribute to the improving nurses’ organizational commitment through mentoring relationship. Hospitals should provide space for nurses to exert their abilities, enhance opportunities to improve their team cooperation ability, clearly define the scope of nurses’ work and rights, and give nurses the right to make decisions.