Ethics‐Related Mentoring: A Scale Development and Test of its Role in Promoting Protégé Ethical Behaviour

Abstract Our research examines the importance of ethics‐related mentoring, its measurement and potential role in promoting protégé ethical behaviours. In Study 1, 25 interviews with mentoring experts generated 40 items for a new measure of ethics‐related mentoring. Across studies 2 and 3, exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, using data collected from 114 and 152 protégés, respectively, reduced these to 15 items and supported its confirmatory and discriminant validity. Study 4, a scenario‐based experiment, confirmed that protégé perceptions of their ethics‐related mentoring increases their organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) whilst reducing their counterproductive work behaviour (CWB). Drawing on social learning theory and moral identity theory, we demonstrate that both moral identity and moral self‐efficacy mediate the relationship with CWB, but only moral identity mediates the relationship with OCB. We found limited support for a moderating role of mentor prototypicality. Overall, we present strong evidence for the reliability and validity of our new ethics‐related mentoring measure and a new theoretical framework explaining its potential role in promoting protégé ethical behaviours.