Is Workplace Coaching a Generic or Goal Specific Intervention? An Examination of Predictors of Goal Progress in Workplace Coaching Engagements

Abstract

Workplace coaching is a rapidly growing industry. Despite its rapid growth, little formal research has explored how and why coaching relationships produce individual goal progress. The following manuscript proposed and explored two competing theories. One theory is that coaching is a goal specific intervention where successful coaching is contingent upon selecting coaching content that is in accord with individualized coaching goals. Another theory is that coaching is a generic intervention where there are coaching content that are generally associated with coaching goal progress. To explore and evaluate these theories, 351 individuals who had participated in workplace coaching (i.e. “coachees”) reported their coaching goals, the activities they participated in to address their goals, and their goal progress. The coachee reported activities were used to create a coaching activity factor structure as well as a coaching activity cluster model. Overall findings suggest that in practice, coaching has a tendency to be applied generically across goals rather than being tailored to each coachee’s specific needs. However, results were far from conclusive and should be explored further in more controlled research settings.