Investigating the effects of work-family spillovers, gender, and formal mentoring on career goal of managers

The purpose of this paper is to identify whether work-family spillovers significantly affect company managers’ determination of career goals by examining the importance of gender and formal mentoring to these managers.

The study sample consisted of 4,222 Korean managers compiled from a large-scale data set (Korean Women Manager Panel) that was collected by the Korea Women Development Institution in two waves (2009 and 2011).

Positive work-family spillover is positively related to managers’ career goals, whereas negative work-family spillover is negatively related to such goals. In the presence of positive work-family spillover, formal mentoring is more effective in helping male managers establish and develop career goals.

The mentoring programs company managers are willing to engage in should be consistent with the gender role. Mentoring programs for female managers are moderately related to the importance of positive work experiences in establishing and developing their career goals. Therefore, to promote the career success of female managers, companies and societies must take actions to change the female managers’ perceptions of their management potentials.

Gender and formal mentoring programs influence the salience of company managers’ work and family roles, which determines the relationship between positive and negative work-family spillovers and career goals.