Giorgos Bozionelos

Playfulness: its relationship with instrumental and expressive traits

Abstract The relationship of instrumental and expressive traits with playfulness among adults was investigated. Questionnaire data from 182 women and 166 men who were university students were analysed. The results provided support for the additive model rather than for the balance or the emergent models. In general, scores on instrumentality and expressiveness made significant additive contributions to scores on playfulness, or to scores on the playfulness factors, above any contributions that were made by sex. The contributions to scores on playfulness that were made by scores on instrumentality were greater than the contributions that were made by scores on expressiveness. The Instrumentality×Expressiveness interaction made a significant contribution only in one model. The findings provide support for the validity of the Adult Playfulness Scale.

Mentoring received by protégés: its relation to personality and mental ability in the Anglo-Saxon organizational environment

Dispositional characteristics, including personality and mental ability, play a substantial role in interpersonal relationships. However, their connection with mentoring, which is a form of interpersonal relationship, has received limited attention. The study empirically investigated the association of mentoring received with the Big-Five of personality and general mental ability in the Anglo-Saxon organizational environment. Furthermore, it integrated the relationship between dispositional traits, mentoring received and career success in a causal path model. Analysis of data collected from 272 white-collar workers suggested no relationships of logarithmic form between mentoring received and personality traits or general mental ability. Hierarchical linear regression indicated that scores on openness and agreeableness made significant contributions to scores on mentoring received over and above the contributions of the demographics and human capital controls. Causal path modelling suggested that the total effects of openness and agreeableness on extrinsic career success were negative while the corresponding effects on intrinsic career success were positive; largely due to the fact that the benefits of mentoring received were stronger for intrinsic than for extrinsic career success. The results were discussed with respect to their contribution to our understanding of the development of mentoring relationships, and their implications for practice and research across national cultural contexts.

Employability and job performance as links in the relationship between mentoring receipt and career success: a study in SMEs

This study developed and tested a model that posited employability and job performance as intervening variables in the relationship between receipt of mentoring and career success. Participants were 207 information technology (IT) professionals employed in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in three European countries. Mentoring receipt was related to both employability and job performance. Employability mediated the relationship of mentoring receipt with objective and subjective career success, as well as its relationship with job performance. The findings indicate that receipt of mentoring is connected to job performance, a link that has hitherto lacked empirical evidence. In addition, they suggest a pivotal role for employability in the relationship of mentoring receipt with job performance and career success. Overall, this study helps unveil the mechanism through which mentoring affects career outcomes. Moreover, it shows that the benefits of mentoring hold outside the context of large corporations.