Understanding attraction in formal mentoring relationships from an affective perspective

Despite the critical role affect can play in mentoring, a type of close relationships in the workplace, affect has not received much attention in existing mentoring research. Drawing upon Byrne's affect-centered model of attraction, we examined the relationships among mentors' moods during their interaction with protégés, mentors' liking of protégés, and mentoring support received by protégés. Moreover, we also examined the moderating effect of protégés' emotional intelligence (EI) on the relationship between mentors' moods and liking. Based on data collected from 237 ongoing formal mentoring dyads, we found that mentors' positive moods were positively related, and negative moods were negatively related, to mentoring support received through mentors' liking. Furthermore, protégés' EI only moderated the positive relationship between mentors' positive moods and liking such that the positive relationship was stronger for protégés low on EI. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.