This article presents the basic elements and purposes of coaching psychology in work organisations. Business coaching psychology will first be discussed in the context of other employee development techniques and defined from the perspective of the recipients, while the article will also explain why it has become an integral part of the workplace. Coaching psychology will further be defined from the perspective of the organisation, highlighting what it can bring to an organisation, both in positive and negative terms. The article concludes with a brief reflection on the role of coaching psychology in identifying, defining and developing organisational values.
Historically, changes in organisations show that in the 1960s and 1970s organisational planning was mainly conducted from the top down. Senior management made decisions and middle management structures ensured that these decisions were carried out By the 1970s and 1980s, the need for flexibility had proven to be essential for the survival of companies and the hierarchical control of employees, which marked the 1960s, began to give way to trust and collaboration with employees, at least in terms of what was being written in management text books. As a result, training at all levels of the organisation had to be fundamentally changed, with the aim of getting all employees to think and behave like leaders, with the emphasis being on business performance as defined by the term TQM (total quality management). Over time, this training came to be supplemented by seminars on teamwork and empowerment, which made the focus shift more towards the individual needs of employees, although the training was nonetheless still focused on immediate corporate issues.
The use of consultants heralded the movement towards the use of coaching in training. These consultants worked with key corporate figures, while also focusing on system interventions. All these approaches to change had one common drawback: they occurred only sporadically and were consequently not permanent. This led to the realisation that if organisations were going to make lasting changes, the individuals working in them must change first. Stephen Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, was one of the leading advocates of moving from corporate conversations to training highly effective individuals in organisations (Grajfoner, 2020a).
First, corporate coaching emerged in the late 1980s, which foresees coaching psychologists working with both individuals and organisational systems over a period of time. The role of the coach was to change behavioural patterns in individuals and the associated lasting changes in the general working practices of the individual concerned. Some of the new emphases that coaches contributed were visionary leadership training, executive coaching, renewal coaching, and transition management.
The field of leadership, particularly entrepreneurial leadership, has influenced and shaped the new profession of coaching. The trend towards using coaching in the workplace was accelerated by the need for human caring and daring during the corporate convulsions of downsizing, mergers, acquisitions, and outplacement that occurred during the 1980s. Out of these fast processes of change, the professional field of coaching was born – a field promoting continuous resilience and performance in employees and organisations as a whole. A major need was to help individuals and corporate entities formulate scenarios for the future, given the complexities and speed of change in organisations. As Hudson (1999) notes, in the early days coaches were often asked about personal development, succession planning, career shifting, work performance, high-performance teams, outplacement, burn-out, scenario building, leadership training, work-home balance, and psychological resilience of individuals and adaptability of organisations.
One of the working definitions of coaching (Law, Ireland & Hussain, 2007) is that coaching is a process of support offered to an individual focusing on work and personal performance and goals. It is important to note that the role of a coach differs from that of a mentor. Coaching is a client-centred and client-directed process, and the mentor, unlike the coach, is a critical friend who encourages and monitors the development of the mentee. These pragmatic definitions are not merely pedantry, as they instead enable both coaching and mentoring to interact with relevant psychological theories, particularly in respect to learning, change and development.
Drawing on the early writings of Hudson (1999), we can outline the functions of a coach and the purposes of coaching for the individual being coached. The coach works from what is possible, promoting clients’ imagination, vision and motivation, using them as resources. A coach works with persons, groups and organisations; searches for bridges to the future; connects what is to what might be; links intrinsic motivation to external factors; inspires others to be more effective, and encourages for the design of organisational models for the future. A coach guides clients to high performance, questions the status quo, and seeks creative and transformative results. A coach can critically analyse corporate culture and foster emerging scenarios with long-term visions and action plans. A coach supports clients and organisations through necessary change and transitions, encourages networking through alliances and linkages with common goals, and is a catalyst for renewal and resilience. A coach motivates, seeks deeper results, explores new directions, innovates, and invests in the future. The process of facilitating change in individuals or organisations includes recognising and identifying values, beliefs and purpose in the work life and personal lives of individuals and in the organisation as a whole. A coach also helps identify key social roles and promotes successful performance in all of these roles within a balanced daily schedule. Another coaching task is to locate any emergent developmental challenges that might exist, and to assist in considering and planning vital learning processes for individuals, teams and organisations.
What about coaching from the perspective of an organisation? From a more systematic point of view, coaching can be characterised as a constructive process that helps to find balanced solutions. This process involves positive conversations that encourage those being coached to explore crucial moments in potential or actual organisational change. This might include exploring whether the organisation can be moved in a direction which provides a competitive advantage, strengthens major culture-change initiatives, and/or provides stronger alignment between an individual’s objectives and the overall strategic objectives of the organisation. A coach may seek to explore issues that lead to greater self-awareness of the impact an individual (mainly managers and leaders) is having, both on the success of the business and on the people with whom they work (Ellam-Dyson, Grajfoner, Whybrow & Palmer, 2019). It is also possible that opportunities will arise for the coach to provide feedback to the organisation in a confidential and anonymous form concerning issues that need to be addressed. For example, the coach may have identified a situation in which it is possible to deploy the skills of an individual to greater effect within the organisation; may have identified a specific need for succession planning and talent development; or might be able to help a team as a whole to operate more in sync with the organisational strategy.
Shaw and Linnecar (2007) have showcased potential disadvantages of coaching for organisations. They find that coaching takes a lot of time and, as a result, costs more money. From the standpoint of the organisation, coaching is a worthwhile practice only if it produces results that can be clearly identified in terms of an improvement in the individual’s working practices, employee well-being and mental health, and organisational growth and development. Shaw and Linnecar further note that coaching can be financially costly, as it involves one-on-one meetings and employing coaches with top-level business experience. One side effect of coaching is that those being coached often become more assertive and confident in their own judgements and decisions. If higher level managers do not react positively to this (by, for example, paying greater heed to the employee’s views) then the individual may become demotivated and even move to a different organisation. Similarly, individuals receiving coaching will often question their values, life priorities, and in some cases realise that these are not consistent with their current priority tasks.
This again raises the possibility of greater employee turnover, as these aforementioned tasks may not be aligned with employment status, opportunities and future prospects, or even their chosen vocation (Grajfoner, Rojon and Eshraghian, 2022). Despite these possible negative outcomes, it remains in the organisation’s best interests to learn more about what motivates its employees, albeit in the safe, controlled environment of the coaching session.
Providing a safe environment for exploring issues is a key aspect of the coaching process discussed in this article. The coach must maintain confidentiality throughout the process and provide opportunities for the expression of the range of emotions that may emerge when personal issues and organisational challenges are confronted. Confidentiality and the provision of a safe, open environment are perhaps the most important defining characteristics of coaching in professional practice.
Organisations have core values and purposes that typically include a small number of basic principles or beliefs that have stood the test of time and best represent what the organisation stands for. These basic beliefs may be derived from the organisation’s historical roots and usually define the organisation’s identity. Core values inform the members of the organisation about what is important (Grajfoner, 2020b). Toys manufacturer Lego, for example, has clear values about the importance of family, and Disney has clear values about integrity and imagination. These values define the nature of businesses and are embedded in all forms of organisations. Although most organisations are very well aware of their values, these are not usually determined or designed: rather, they are usually discovered and described through a process of inquiry. The process of coaching must itself be consistent with these organisational values, as they can influence the approach to the coaching process itself, as well as the strategies and goals that employees want to achieve through coaching. As such, it is important that the coach and those being coached explicitly understand the organisation’s values, and how these affect the coaching session.
Dr Daša Grajfoner is the Director of Coaching Lab and Assistant Professor in Psychology at Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh. She holds three courses at DOBA Business School in bachelor and master’s programmes. With PhD in Psychology (University of Edinburgh), Dr Grajfoner is a Registered Coaching Psychologist (BPS), Chartered Psychologist, Chartered Scientist, Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society, Accredited Coaching Psychologist (ISCP) and a Past Chair of the Special Group in Coaching Psychology. Daša has worked as a Practitioner Coaching Psychologist since 2007, and is enthusiastic about building strong connections between coaching psychology research, practice and teaching.