Supervisory mentoring and newcomers’ work engagement: The mediating role of basic psychological need satisfaction

We aimed to determine the extent to which the 3 dimensions of basic psychological need satisfaction (i.e., autonomy, competence, and relatedness) explain the association between supervisory mentoring and newcomers’ work engagement. Participants were 438 work newcomers living in a large coastal city in eastern China. We assessed supervisory mentoring, basic psychological need satisfaction, and work engagement in 3 time waves, each spaced 1 month apart. Findings indicated that supervisory mentoring was positively related to newcomers’ work engagement, and that this relationship was mediated by the 3 dimensions (need for autonomy, competence, and relatedness) of basic psychological need satisfaction. This provides a perspective for supervisors to improve newcomers’ work engagement by enhancing the satisfaction of their basic needs.