Mentoring: the Mentor's Perspective

Mentoring is a general term used to describe behavior that is beneficial to the career of another individual. Mentoring has been described in terms of specific roles a mentor might play, but there is no definitional list of things an individual must do in order to be considered a mentor. Mentoring has also been described as a kind of "special " relationship, but again there is no clear understanding of the specific ways in which a mentoring relationship differs from other relationships. The purpose of this research is to look more closely at this elusive phenomenon, and by comparing mentoring relationships with other relationships, to gain a better understanding of this "special " relationship