Abstract: As organizations face the dual challenges of workforce aging and rapid digital transformation, facilitating effective knowledge exchange and mutual development across generations has become increasingly important. Reverse mentoring, in which younger employees mentor older colleagues, has emerged as a promising approach for integrating complementary forms of human capital. While existing research has highlighted its potential benefits, current understanding remains fragmented. Prior studies have largely focused on role reversal itself, providing limited insight into how reverse mentoring relationships are initiated, how they generate mutual developmental outcomes, and how their benefits extend beyond individual participants to the broader organization.
To address these gaps, this research develops a multilevel theoretical framework of reverse mentoring grounded in relational mentoring theory. Specifically, we conceptualize reverse mentoring as a dynamic process that unfolds across three interconnected stages: relationship initiation, relationship development, and benefit diffusion. Through this framework, we seek to explain how intergenerational employees overcome initial resistance, establish high-quality mentoring relationships, achieve mutual growth, and ultimately contribute to organizational-level development.
Study 1 examines the initiation of reverse mentoring relationships. Existing mentoring schemas are typically rooted in age-based assumptions that position older employees as mentors and younger employees as learners. Reverse mentoring challenges these assumptions by introducing a role reversal between generations. Drawing on relational mentoring theory and age-related stereotypes research, we propose that this role reversal creates distinct psychological threats for both parties. Older employees may experience fear of status loss when learning from younger colleagues, whereas younger employees may experience fear of losing face when guiding more senior coworkers. These emotional reactions reduce willingness to participate in reverse mentoring relationships. We further identify age-inclusive human resource management as a critical organizational condition that weakens the translation of age stereotypes into these defensive emotional responses.
Study 2 investigates how reverse mentoring relationships evolve into high-quality developmental relationships and generate mutual growth. Existing mentoring research often assumes that developmental benefits flow primarily from mentors to mentees. In contrast, relational mentoring theory suggests that high-quality mentoring relationships emerge when both parties’ needs are fulfilled. Integrating relational mentoring theory with socioemotional selectivity theory, we identify distinct developmental needs among younger mentors and older mentees. Younger mentors seek growth-related outcomes, including leadership development, professional identity formation, and competence validation. Older mentees, in contrast, seek socioemotional fulfillment, including social connectedness, respect, and recognition. We propose that older employees’ active receptivity satisfies younger mentors’ growth needs, whereas younger employees’ collaborative mentoring behaviors satisfy older mentees’ socioemotional needs. These complementary processes foster high-quality mentoring relationships characterized by mutual trust, shared influence, and communal norms. Furthermore, we argue that high-quality relationships generate reciprocal feedback loops that promote bilateral skill development and reshape participants’ intergenerational mentoring schemas.
Study 3 extends the analysis from the individual level to the organizational level. Although reverse mentoring is often implemented as an organizational practice, existing research has rarely examined how its effects diffuse beyond individual mentoring dyads. Drawing upon multilevel emergence theory, we propose a “cognitive diffusion-behavioral diffusion-structural diffusion” mechanism. Specifically, positive intergenerational mentoring schemas developed through reverse mentoring are expected to encourage employees to engage in broader intergenerational networking behaviors. As increasing numbers of employees establish such cross-generational ties, organizational network structures gradually become more interconnected across age groups. This structural transformation facilitates knowledge exchange, reduces generational silos, and enhances organizational learning. We further propose that organizational age diversity and innovation demands strengthen the translation of positive intergenerational schemas into networking behavior.
Overall, this research makes three primary contributions. First, it extends relational mentoring theory into the context of intergenerational role reversal, demonstrating how mentoring processes operate when traditional age-based assumptions are challenged. Second, it develops a process-based explanation of reverse mentoring by integrating relationship initiation, relationship development, and organizational diffusion into a unified theoretical framework. Third, it shifts the focus of mentoring research from unilateral knowledge transfer toward mutual development and collective human capital growth. By revealing how reverse mentoring emerges, functions, and diffuses within organizations, this research provides a novel theoretical foundation for understanding intergenerational collaboration and offers practical insights for managing age-diverse workforces in the digital era.

Key words: intergenerational employee, reverse mentoring, relational mentoring, mutual growth