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Purpose – To be the first study to consider the difference between men's and women's perceptions of most important mentoring functions. Design/methodology/approach – Survey recipients identified the three most important things that mentors can do for their protégés. Two independent coders categorized the behaviors listed by the 637 respondents. Findings – There was little difference between men's and women's perceptions of important mentoring behaviors. Women more than men reported championing and acceptance and confirmation behaviors to be in what they consider the top three for importance. Additionally, the lists respondents generated under‐represented the mentoring behaviors commonly identified in the extant literature, whereas some of the behaviors most frequently identified are not well represented in the mentoring literature. Research limitations/implications – Respondents were graduates of a top‐tier MBA program, although from multiple years. Future research should examine perceptions of mentoring behaviors by employees with different educational backgrounds and across cultures, particularly to explore perceptions of mentoring behaviors where cultural and gender stereotypes are present. Practical implications – The design of mentoring programs and fostering of cross‐sex mentoring are discussed in lieu of managing protégé expectations and educating mentors about actual expectations versus the expectations they might associate with the other sex. Originality/value – The findings here extend existing research by first asking men and women to generate a list of what they perceive to be the three most important mentoring behaviors and then showing that, for MBAs at least, there is little difference across the sexes.

First, using the task-relationship dichotomy as a framework, the purpose of this paper is to examine the direct effects of team personality level and team personality diversity on new venture growth. Second, the study examines the interaction effects of team personality level and diversity on venture growth.

The sample consisted of 154 teams in a technology incubator in China. Data were collected through an online survey.

Results indicate that high level but low diversity of team task-oriented personality was beneficial for new venture founding teams. Diversity of team task-oriented personality would hurt the new venture growth more when the level of task-oriented personality was low. Relationship-oriented personality diversity, but not the level of relationship-oriented personality, influenced new venture growth.

These findings advance research in entrepreneurship, groups, and teams, and provide practical policy implications as well.

This study provides practical implications for policy makers regarding what supports should be provided in incubators and for entrepreneurs regarding team member selection.

This is one of the first papers to study the personality composition of new venture founding teams.

Addresses the process of mentoring, the utility of planned or facilitated mentoring programmes and the infrastructure necessary for the delivery of such programmes. Argues that mentoring, which is characterized by a one‐to‐one developmental relationship based on temporary inequality, is a powerful process. Also indicates that mentoring is not a cheap and easy remedy for shortfalls in social planning. It is, however, a process worthy of investment, which can provide new horizons and opportunities for the development of capability in young people.

This paper assesses the incidence and contribution that mentoring has to the career development of retail managers. Previous research has identified the benefits that mentoring relationships have for the protégé, the mentor and the organisation, although none have compared the experiences and attitudes towards mentoring within the retail environment. Drawing on a sample of 132 UK retail managers, this research found that half the sample had experienced being a protégé in a mentoring relationship. No significant differences were found between a respondent’s sex, age, position in the organisation and whether they have been mentored. Mentoring was found to play an important role in the development of a protégé’s current job, career and self development. It was less apparent whether the incidence of mentoring affected retail managers’ ultimate career ambitions. However, it appears that the advantages of mentoring as a management development tool far outweigh any disadvantages for the protégé.

The value of mentoring is gaining a growing appreciation among managers today. Despite scepticism in some quarters that the mentoring relationship if ‘just a chemical thing’ or people just ‘clicking’, there is an accepted view that mentoring is a valuable tool of management and organisation development and that the relationship can be replicated to the benefit of all concerned.

This study aims to investigate the relationship of mentoring provided with career success and organizational commitment in the general managerial population.

Participants were 194 native British who were employed in a variety of jobs, professions and industries in the United Kingdom.

Mentoring provided was positively associated with objective and subjective career success and with mentoring received. Furthermore, mentoring provided mediated the relationship between mentoring received and both aspects of career success. However, although career‐related mentoring provided was positively associated with mentors' career success and affective organizational commitment, socio‐emotional mentoring provided was unrelated to mentors' career success and was negatively related to their affective commitment.

The study adds to the literature by indicating that, at least in the Anglo‐Saxon organizational environment, mentoring provided, and especially its career‐related dimension, is associated with positive outcomes across occupational, professional and organizational boundaries, and that mentoring receipt increases the likelihood of mentoring provision later in the career.

Encouraging organizational members to provide mentoring for junior colleagues establishes and perpetuates a mentoring cycle, which entails benefits for mentors, protégés and the organization.

This is the first study to investigate the relationship of mentoring provision with career success and organizational commitment in the general working population; hence, to yield generalizable conclusions. In addition it informs on the relative contribution of career‐related and socio‐emotional mentoring provided to mentor's career outcomes.

Organizations have become increasingly interested in developing their human resources. One tool that has been explored in this quest is mentoring. This has led to a surge in mentoring research and an increase in the number of formal mentoring programs implemented in organizations. This review provides a survey of the empirical work on mentoring that is organized around the major questions that have been investigated. Then a conceptual model, focused on formal mentoring relationships, is developed to help understand the mentoring process. The model draws upon research from a diverse body of literature, including interpersonal relationships, career success, training and development, and informal mentoring. Finally, a discussion of critical next steps for research in the mentoring domain is presented.

There has been a steady decline in beef consumption in Ireland for over a decade, although 1997 data show that this decline has been reversed. A cognitive representation of perceived meat quality based on prior to purchase considerations, point of purchase considerations and consumption stage considerations was used as a conceptual framework to investigate which quality factors have influenced the decline of beef consumption in Ireland. A representative sample of Irish beef consumers was surveyed in 1997. After measuring the determinants of perceived beef quality, an attribute level factor analysis was used to examine inter‐dependence between the variables. In all, seven factors, accounting for 58 per cent of the variance, were derived. Discriminant analysis found that two of the factors, safety and meat status, differentiated significantly between those who had maintained and those who had reduced beef consumption.

Mentoring is a concept that originated between 800 and 700 BC and which is still in existence in organisations irrespective of size, nature of ownership, type of industry or geographic location. In its most primal form it is regarded as a method according to which a less experienced employee (protégé or mentee) is guided and advised by a more experienced and skilled employee (mentor) in terms of life as well as professional skills. However, this definition has developed over time as organisations applied mentoring in a more structured manner and institutionalised it within formal organisational processes. Mentoring was, therefore, regarded as a method to “systematically develop the skills and leadership abilities of less experienced members of the organization” (SPA Consultants, 1995, p. 14). Mentoring has been in use within the library and information science profession from the mid-1980s and various publications have discussed the use of mentoring from an American, Australian and British perspective. However, relatively few publications are available regarding the use of mentoring within the South African contexts, and therefore an extensive discussion on the implementation of a structured mentoring scheme at the National Library of South Africa (NLSA) is included in the article. This study draws particularly on recent literature on the knowledge economy and more specifically knowledge management to suggest ways in which the concept of mentoring should be revised. Mentoring should henceforth be seen as a knowledge management technique to support the creation and sharing of tacit knowledge rather than merely a technique to develop less experienced individuals. This revised view of mentoring is of particular importance to ensure the sustainability of library and information service organisations in the knowledge economy.