Coaching in a Diverse World: Coaches’ perceptions of culture and intercultural competence in coaching

Abstract

The current study employed a mixed method approach to explore two research questions: How do coaches, at various stages of intercultural competence development (i.e., Monocultural, Transitional, and Intercultural), perceive the role of culture in their work? How do coaches, at various stages of intercultural competence development (i.e., Monocultural, Transitional, and Intercultural), perceive intercultural competence and its relevance to their work? To explore these questions, data were collected from 21 participants, using the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) and individual qualitative interviews. The interviews yielded 1,137 minutes (18 hours and 57 minutes) of transcribed data. Through inductive analysis of these data and creating groupings using the IDI scores, 46 themes under 13 domains emerged. The results presented a general trend in each domain and throughout the domains that the coaches with more interculturally developed orientations viewed and talked about culture with more interest and rigor as well as considered intercultural competence to play an important role in coaching and discussed it with more complexity.