Mentoring and creativity: Resources for working women to thrive in a challenging workplace after COVID-19

This study investigated the association between mentoring and creativity among male and female office workers. A web survey was administered to individuals aged 20–59 years using the survey monitors of an internet company; 2106 valid responses (1048 men and 1058 women) were analyzed to examine the association between mentoring and creativity. A three-way analysis of covariance was conducted using mentoring, gender, and managerial status as the independent variables, which were adjusted for occupation. The analysis of the main effects showed that mentored individuals had higher creativity than nonmentored individuals, regardless of gender or managerial status. In addition, managers had significantly higher creativity than nonmanagers. There was no significant difference in creativity between men and women. The interaction effect of gender and managerial status was significant, and the analysis of the simple main effects indicated that male nonmanagers had higher creativity than female nonmanagers, whereas no significant gender difference was found between male and female managers. The difference in the creativity score between mentored and nonmentored female managers was 0.467, whereas the difference between mentored and nonmentored male managers was 0.357; this suggests that mentoring is critical, particularly for female managers. The primary focus of mentoring research has been the role of mentoring in promoting career-related behaviors and attitudes. This study illustrates the potential to enhance creativity, which is an asset for working women in managing challenges after COVID-19.