Lecturer-Student Mentorship and Engagement in Student's Organisational Citizenship Behaviour among University Students: Mediating Role of Supportive Institutional Policies

This research explores the relationship between lecturer-student mentorship and organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB), examining the potential mediating impact of supportive institutional policies on this relationship. The study evaluates three distinct dimensions of lecturer-student mentorship, namely academic mentorship, career mentorship, and personal development mentorship. We adopted a cross-sectional design and purposively selected 331 undergraduate students [males =53.2 %, females = 46.8 %; Age (mean) = 29 years] in Ghana to respond to our survey. The face-to-face survey consisted of demographic information and standardised scales: Student Mentorship Scale, Students' OCB Scale, and Supportive Institutional Policies Questionnaire. The findings indicate a positive influence of each form of lecturer-student mentorship (academic, career, and personal development) on students' OCB. Using mediation modelling through the JASP software, supportive institutional policies partially mediated the relationship between all the dimensions of lecturer-student mentorship and students' OCB. These results suggest that institutions should recognise the importance of creating policies that support and reinforce positive mentoring relationships to enhance students' OCB. The findings from the study serve as a pioneering effort to explore the dimensions of student mentorship within the specific context of Ghana. Higher educational institutions should consider developing policies that encourage mentorship programmes, allocate resources for mentoring activities, and establish a conducive environment for mentorship to flourish.