MENTORS AS BUFFERS TO AMBIENT RACIAL DISCRIMINATION
Employees do not have to be the direct target of discrimination to feel its pernicious effects.
Indirect exposure to discrimination, also called ambient discrimination, can have a profound effect on
workers (Glomb et al., 1997; Hitlan, Schneider, & Walsh, 2006). Ambient discrimination involves the
knowledge or awareness of discrimination aimed at others in the workplace (Chrobot-Mason, Ragins,
&Linnehan, 2013; Glomb et al., 1997). Mentoring theorists have long held that mentors can buffer
employees from the negative effects of a discriminatory workplace (Blake-Beard, Murrell, & Thomas,
2007; Ragins, 1989, 2002, 2007), but have not tested this hypothesis or examined its underlying
processes. Addressing this need, we integrate theoretical work from the relationships literature (Kahn,
1998, 2001), to examine the buffering effect and explain how it occurs. We also examine whether
mentors are unique in their ability to buffer, or whether other work relationships can also buffer
employees from the negative effects of ambient discrimination. Drawing on relational systems theory
(Kahn, 1998), we view mentoring as a type of anchoring relationship. Anchoring relationships are
positive work relationships that attach employees to organizations in times of stress (Kahn, 1998,
2001). These relationships provide a unique set of skilled therapeutic holding behaviors that can
buffer employees from adverse experiences and help them maintain their commitment to the
organization, even when faced with emotionally disturbing, confusing or anxiety-producing events
(Kahn, 1998, 2001).
Holding behaviors extend well beyond basic forms of social support or traditional mentoring
functions. They involve a set of skilled behaviors that help receivers recover their ego integrity when
faced with situations marked by anxiety. Integrating theory and research from clinical psychology,
group relations, and family systems theory, Kahn (2001) presents a framework of holding behaviors at
work. According to this framework, providers can offer three types of holding behaviors: 1) they
provide containment by signaling their accessibility and by offering receivers a safe space to share
their experiences, feelings and reactions; 2) they provide empathic acknowledgement by accepting and
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validating receivers’ feelings of conflict, confusion and inadequacy; and 3) they offer enabling
perspectives that help receivers make sense of the situation and rebuild their ego integrity within a nonjudgmental and validating context.
Using Kahn’s (2001) framework of holding behaviors, we first developed and validated a 9-item
measure of relational holding behaviors at work using a sample of 262 employees. We then used this
measure to test the hypothesis that holding behaviors would moderate the negative relationship
between ambient racial discrimination and work outcomes involving organizational commitment and
stress. Our hypotheses were tested in a national sample of 557 workers. Since our measure was
designed to assess holding behaviors provided by mentors, supervisors and coworkers, we also
explored whether supervisors and coworkers could also buffer employees from the negative effects of
a discriminatory workplace. We found that mentors buffer employees from the adverse effects of
ambient discrimination by providing holding behaviors. Protégés who received higher levels of
holding behaviors from their mentors were less likely to experience the negative effects of ambient
discrimination on organizational commitment. This finding held for those with formal as well as
informal mentors, despite the fact that formal mentors provided lower levels of holding behaviors.
Mentors’ holding behaviors also buffered employees from the effects of ambient discrimination
on stress-related outcomes, although this effect was stronger for those with informal mentors.
Employees exposed to racial discrimination at work reported more physical symptoms of stress at
work, more insomnia, and higher rates of stress-related absenteeism, but they reported less of these
effects when they had informal mentors who provided holding behaviors. Formal mentors providing
holding behaviors were also able to buffer protégés from the effects of ambient discrimination on
physical symptoms of stress, but this effect did not extend to insomnia or stress-related absenteeism.
We found that these buffering effects held across protégé race for all of the outcomes examined.
We also found that buffering is unique to mentoring relationships. Supervisors and close
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coworkers were unable to buffer employees from the effects of ambient discrimination. Supervisors
provided lower levels of holding behaviors than both informal and formal mentors, and their holding
behaviors did not moderate the relationship between ambient discrimination and any of the outcomes.
Close coworkers offered comparable levels of holding behaviors as formal and informal mentors, but
coworkers’ holding behaviors also failed to moderate the relationships between ambient discrimination
and outcomes. In short, irrespective of their level of holding behaviors, supervisors and coworkers
were unable to deflect the detrimental effects of ambient discrimination.Our exploratory analysis
revealed that conceptually related mentoring functions, (i.e., friendship) generally failed to buffer
employees from the negative effects of ambient discrimination. Traditional functions may reflect the
behaviors mentors routinely use, but may fail to capture the more skilled set of behaviors that mentors
can employ to help their protégés cope with confusing or anxiety-producing experiences at work.
Holding behaviors may therefore offer a useful complement to traditional mentoring functions.
General forms of social support also failed to buffer, supporting the idea that effective buffering
requires a match between the demands of the situation and the type of support provided in the
relationship (Cohen & Wills, 1985; Thoits, 2011). Our finding that holding behaviors were only
effective when they were provided by mentors offers the idea that, like a “Rubik’s cube”, effective
buffering requires a combination that matches not only the type of support with the demands of the
situation, but also the source of support. In sum, these results suggest that mentors may provide more
than traditional mentoring function. Mentoring theorists have long contended that mentoring is more
than just a supportive work relationship (Allen & Eby, 2007; Kram, 1985; Ragins & Kram, 2007), and
these results support this assertion. Our results also point to the importance of incorporating relational
quality in comparisons of formal and informal relationships. Formal mentors who provided holding
behaviors were able to buffer their protégés from the negative effects of ambient racial discrimination
which suggests that mentoringprovides an important relational refuge in discriminatory workplaces.
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