Research Information System
32nd International Congress of Psychology, Praha, Czech Republic, 18 - 23 July 2021, vol.58, no.5033, pp.196, (Summary Text)
Objective: The current study aims to extend research on the rising star hypothesis, which proposes that employees would receive informal mentoring when they show high potential for career success. Using three-wave data collected from lawyers over ten years, this study examines time-lagged associations among protégé’s career potential, mentoring received, and career performance. Specifically, the study investigates whether novices with strong pre-career potential would receive informal mentoring support in a wider range of aspects in early career years, compared to weak potential novices. Besides, the study examines whether initial mentoring received accounts for additional variance in future career outcomes beyond rising stars’ potential. Methods: The study utilized secondary data from a project of the American Bar Foundation and the NALP Foundation for Law Career Research and Education. Pre-career potential indicators (i.e., undergraduate GPA, law school GPA, law school ranking) and informal mentoring received were measured at Time-1 (two-three years following admission to the bar). Future career outcomes were salary and performance at Time-2 (year 7 in career) and performance and partnership at Time-3 (year 12 in career).Results: Regression analyses supported the rising star hypothesis given that mentoring received was significantly predicted by law school GPA (β=.24,p<.01) and law school ranking (β=.11,p<.05). Initial mentoring did not explain variance in future salary or performance beyond pre-career potential. The only significant finding related to the effect of mentoring on success was that the probability of becoming a partner in a private firm at Time-3 was higher for mentoring recipients. Conclusions: Findings suggest that informal mentoring support received by high-potential individuals in initial career years fail to add significant benefit over their existing potential. Because lower academic performers were found to receive less informal mentoring, it is important to understand whether these low performers would actually benefit more from mentoring support.