Knowledge that Transforms

Mentoring provides career guidance and psychological support to employees. However, women may have difficulty establishing a mentoring relationship. This paper describes the individual and organizational factors that may inhibit the development of mentorships for women. An agenda for research on the development and dynamics of mentoring relationships is proposed.

In an attempt to identify those qualities that make a task complex, four fundamental task attributes are identified and are distinguished from other attributes usually associated with this concept. A typology of complex tasks is derived from the identified attributes. Finally, the implications of the analysis for both basic and applied research are considered.