Co-creating successful mentoring relationships? Investigating mentor and protégé perceptions of dyadic fit and relationship quality

PurposeTo examine how perceptions of complementary and supplementary fit and relationship quality contribute to successful mentorship co-creation.Design/methodology/approachData were collected via cross-sectional survey of 145 mentor-protege dyads within institutions of higher education in the USA. Mentors evaluated their perceptions of supplementary and complementary fit and relationship quality with their proteges and vice versa. Additionally, mentors evaluated their proteges' performance, whereas proteges reported on their own learning. Data were analyzed using the actor-partner interdependence model.FindingsResults suggest that one's own fit perceptions are most important in predicting one's evaluation of relationship quality. Additionally, for both mentor and protege, complementary fit and supplementary fit predict evaluations of relationship quality to a similar degree. Finally, each person's perceptions of relationship quality mediated the relationships between their own perceptions of fit and mentor-rated protege performance, but not the relationships between perceptions of fit and protege-rated learning.Originality/valueResearch has often studied mentorships from the perspective of one party, which limits our understanding of mentorship co-creation. This study investigates how both parties simultaneously contribute to mentorship success, as indicated by protege learning and performance. Additionally, the authors clarify the extent to which perceptions of different types of fit are instrumental in co-creating successful mentorships.