Editorial

Peer Reviewed Papers - Coaching

We begin with a group of three coaching papers that focus on aspects of assessment in coaching. The first is from César Fernández-Llano and colleagues from the Department of Business, Universitat de Barcelona in Spain.  In their paper entitled “Assessing the impact of executive coaching on business results applying a Balanced Scorecard Framework” the authors examine the influence of executive coaching on business results using the Balanced Scorecard framework. Using a single case design of an Industrial Director, the study reveals the mechanism underpinning organisational results of executive coaching and suggests a method for future application of the assessment of executive coaching outcomes. 

Our second paper is from colleagues at Oxford Brookes University in the UK, and is also a single case design.  In their paper titled “Challenging traditional approaches: 360° feedback and theories of the multiplicity of self,” Paul Lawrence and Tatiana Bachkirova explain how the use of multi-rater feedback instruments, such as 360°, is established practice in organisations but question whether their use adds value. After presenting reviews of the literature relating to multi-rater instruments and developments in theories of the multiplicity of self, a case study design helps them question the underlying assumptions behind the design of 360° feedback and the value of multi-rater feedback in principle.

The third paper, by Joanna Jarosz who is also working in Spain, explores coaching effectiveness.  Her paper introduces the ‘Cube of Coaching Effectiveness’ and through a conceptual analysis she defines the determinants of coaching effectiveness, suggesting the coaching competencies or outcomes that allow measurement of effectiveness. Recommendations are made on how to measure coaching effectiveness. 

Our next two papers are concerned with types of coaching.  In the first of these James Gavin and Nicolò Francesco Bernardi, from Concordia University, Montreal, look at whether some types of coaching are more beneficial in certain organisational cultures.  Exploring this topic from the coach’s perspective, they surveyed 115 professional coaches and examined four types of coaching (leadership, performance, life/personal, third generation) believed to result when coaching occurs within four distinct organisational cultures (hierarchical, market, clan, and adhocracy). All types of coaching were seen to have higher benefits within clan and adhocracy cultures with leadership coaching viewed as most beneficial.

Our fifth paper from Patricia Neill and Jeremias de Klerk from University of Stellenbosch Business School in South Africa focuses on a team coaching approach. The authors describe the development of a team coaching framework to enhance employee experience. Their qualitative study with team practitioners validated a conceptual framework developed from academic literature, resulting in the development of the “SOUL” (Settle, Offer, Unite and Learn) team coaching framework. This framework provides enhancement interventions through its foundations in constructivist and social constructionist sense-making, and Frankl’s existential principles of meaning-making. 

Two papers relating to coaching in higher education in the UK, are up next. The first concerns the personal tutoring of university students  and is from Saquifa Seraj and Ruth Leggett from Newcastle University. In their qualitative study the authors explore the lived experiences of personal tutors in the higher education sector in order to understand the effectiveness of a coaching approach to personal tutoring. Findings suggest that adopting a coaching approach to personal tutoring enables development of resilient, self-confident and self-reliant individuals.

Our seventh paper, the second focusing on higher education, is called “Publish or perish: Coping with peer-review processes through coaching.” Here, Yi-Ling Lai from Birkbeck College, London, and Caroline Strevens from the University of Portsmouth, in the UK, explore how self-coaching can help academics cope with prolonged peer-review processes. A training workshop was conducted with 22 academics and then qualitative methods were used to  track and understand changes in their attitudes to peer-review. Findings shed light on coaching practice by indicating that constructive self-reflection can help individuals to appreciate peer-review as a positive challenge instead of a threat. 

Relationship building is also a key area for coaching research and we have two papers on this topic.  The first of the two is from Stephanie McCarthy working in Canada, and Candan Ertubey from University of East London, UK.  These authors explore relationships in online group coaching for leaders who are working remotely in Canada. Through their interpretative phenomenological analysis, the authors analyse data gathered from semi-structured interviews with each of their seven participants. The findings are presented through four themes: being with others, a safe haven, exchanging support, and developing group bonds. 

In our ninth and final coaching paper, Kati Koskinen and Kazia Anderson from the School of Psychology, University of Leicester, UK, undertake an integrative literature review of the managerial mind-set and behaviours shaping relationship building in employee coaching. Findings indicate that effective relationships build on compassion, mutual trust, respect and collaboration, and the authors present these in a new applied model, aptly titled the “Co-ROUTE to Coaching Partnership.” 

Peer Reviewed Papers - Mentoring

Our four mentoring papers all focus on aspects of mentoring for career progression. The first explores the influence of job characteristics on mentoring.  Here, Torbjørn Waaland from the University of Stavanger in Norway explores the relationship between three categories of job characteristics and mentoring. A cross-sectional design based on a survey questionnaire was sent to employees from 29 preschools in Norway. The results identified that cognitive tasks, plus interaction outside the organisation and feedback from others all have a significant influence on the mentoring provided.

For the second mentoring paper, Sirppa Kinos from Turku University of Applied Sciences, Finland and other colleagues working at universities in Finland, Belgium and Scotland, surveyed the cultural aspects of multicultural mentoring-to-work relationships.

Mentors and migrant mentees were surveyed on the role that cultural factors have in labour market integration and the mentoring relationship. Findings revealed that cultural similarity, local language proficiency and the ability to build up trust were experienced as supportive. Since mentoring can promote cultural competences, the authors recommend using local languages, recruiting mentors from the same professional field and including culture as a topic in mentoring trainings. 

Our third mentoring paper is also concerned with culture. For this paper Christopher Lanval Ekron, Brendon Knott, and Mogammad Sharhidd Taliep from Cape Peninsula University of Technology, South Africa, examined the role of mentorship in the professional progression of elite youth cricketers in South Africa. Their qualitative study explored the experience of mentorship by 15 young cricketers and findings suggest that mentoring played an important role in their career development. The study provides a nuanced understanding of mentorship in professional sports development and career progression from the athlete’s perspective, where the unique context of diversity in sport and society in South Africa also impacts the mentorship experience.

Our final mentoring paper looks at the mentoring relationship and the mentoring model of micro, small, medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Indonesia. Nunuk Suryanti and colleagues from Universitas Islam Riau, Pekanbaru, Indonesia, report how mentoring relationships play an essential role in supporting the success of the Batik MSMEs learning group which is part of the creative sub-economy in the fashion field in Indonesia. Through their qualitative case study, the authors found that mentors and mentees had the same values during the process, namely cooperation, friendship, mutual help, and complementarity and that sustainability tends to exist when the mentor has a close relationship with mentees. 

Reflections from the field

The very last paper in this 20th birthday issue is a Reflection from the Field looking at how the application of coaching has moved beyond individuals towards teams and organisations, and requires practitioners to better understand themselves and their clients within systems and complex adaptive systems. In their paper, “Spiralling the field,” Michelle Lucas from Greenfields Consulting in the UK, and Tammy Turner from Global Team Coaching Institute in Australia share how their model recognises congruence between the complexity of the coaching work and the complexity of the reflective field. Through discussion of their model, the authors propose that engaging with a broad range of reflective partners is critical to increasing reflective maturity and capacity. 

Dr Elaine Cox

Oxford Brookes University

1 February 2023