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How does a manager’s coaching behaviour encourage taking charge behaviour among subordinates? Although prior research has found a positive association between managerial coaching behaviour and employee performance, to date few studies have examined its effect on proactive behaviours in the workplace such as taking charge. Drawing on social exchange theory (SET) and social cognitive theory (SCT), this study develops a theoretical model to examine the mediating effects of work engagement and role breadth self-efficacy (RBSE) in the relationship between managerial coaching and subordinates taking charge. Additionally, drawing on social role theory (SRT), we test whether our proposed relationships are contingent on subordinates’ gender.

We tested our proposed moderated-mediation model using empirical data collected across two waves from 196 employees within a large Malaysian services enterprise. Partial least squares structural equation modelling was used to test the proposed hypotheses.

The results revealed that managerial coaching has a significant, positive relationship with taking charge, work engagement and RBSE. However, only work engagement was found to partially mediate the relationship between managerial coaching and taking charge. Subordinates’ gender was found to positively attenuate the direct effect between managerial coaching and taking charge among females. However, the mediating effects of work engagement and RBSE in managerial coaching and taking charge were found to be not contingent on subordinates’ gender.

Finding from this study reveals that managerial coaching is useful in shaping employees' taking charge behaviour through work engagement. Hence, organisations should focus on strategies aiming to enhance managers' coaching capabilities.

This study extends the nomological networks of managerial coaching by highlighting it as a predictor of taking charge. Moreover, drawing on SET and SCT to explain the mechanism of managerial coaching and taking charge, we provide a novel perspective on how managerial coaching can influence taking charge. Specifically, we highlight the critical role of work engagement as a key mechanism that influences the relationship between managerial coaching and taking charge. Finally, we demonstrate managerial coaching as a means through which organisations can improve individual functioning.

Internal workplace coaches are employees who, in addition to their main job, volunteer to provide coaching to work colleagues who are not their direct reports. The purpose of this paper is to explore what motivates these individuals to volunteer to be an internal workplace coach and to continue carrying out the role.

To explore the experiences of internal coaches, a questionnaire was devised and issued; it attracted 484 responses – the largest survey response to date from this population. Following analysis of the questionnaire data, semi-structured interviews were carried out with 20 internal coaches from private, public and not-for-profit UK organisations. The responses were analysed in relation to motivation theory, principally self-determination theory.

Individuals were motivated to volunteer for the role, and to continue to practise as coaches, in the most part to satisfy intrinsic needs for competence, relatedness and autonomy. The research presents rich information about how coaches perceived these needs were satisfied by coaching. In general, there were only moderate or poor levels of support and recognition for individual coaches within their organisation, indicating limited extrinsic motivation.

The practical implications are that organisations can draw on the findings from this study to motivate individuals to volunteer to be internal coaches and to continue to act in that role.

Many organisations use internal coaches, but there is very little research into what motivates these volunteers.

To date, little research has been undertaken to test the effectiveness of team coaching, with past work focusing on models, frameworks and competencies. This study aimed to examine the effectiveness of team coaching within real world organizational teams and its impact on individual perceptions of team cohesion and psychological safety.

A randomized control trial (RCT) using the comparable interventions: (1) team coaching (intervention) and (2) team facilitation (control) was employed with multiple teams and multiple facilitators, measuring the impact on team cohesion and psychological safety.

The data indicate participants engaging in the team coaching intervention made greater gains in terms of their individual perceptions of psychological safety and team cohesion than individuals who received the team facilitation intervention (T1–T2).

Facilitators should apply a team coaching approach when seeking to address issues of cohesion and psychological safety within workplace teams.

This study provides the first evidence, using an RCT method, of the effectiveness of team coaching as a workplace intervention for enhancing individual perceptions of psychological safety and team cohesion.

Language plays a complex role in coaching, facilitating communication, comprehension and meaning construction. Yet, the implications of coaching in a non-native language are uncertain and under-researched. This study explores the role of non-native language (NNL) in dyadic workplace coaching practice. Specifically, it explores how working in a NNL influences the coaching experience from the coach’s perspective.

A qualitative approach was chosen to explore the way coaches view coaching in a NNL. Twenty-three semi-structured interviews were conducted with coaches experienced in coaching in NNL. Reflexive thematic analysis (RTA) was applied for data analysis.

NNL coaching presents a paradoxical mix of negative and positive tensions for the coach and coachee in communication, relationship and insight. NNL coaching is nuanced and may be accommodated using coaching competencies to mitigate the potential for misunderstanding and relationship rupture. It offers alternative perspectives to existing worldviews, eliciting deeper insights. Coaches’ confidence in coaching in a NNL varies from a challenging struggle that perceptually hinders performance, through ambivalence, to a sense of greater resourcefulness.

The study contributes to the stream of literature on language in international business, sociolinguistic research and how meaning is constructed in a coaching process. First, the work develops a distinction between coaching in a native language (NL) and a NNL. Second, study results indicate that the context of NNL creates challenges as well as opportunities in a dyadic coaching process, particularly regarding aspects of the coach–coachee relationship and insight elicitation via alternative perspectives. Moreover, several practical implications of the study for the coaching practice are discussed.

This study explores factors that influence the initiation of leadership coaching relationships that include externally employed coaches and school administrators.

This qualitative research study includes semi-structured interviews, observations and documents collected across three academic years within the context of a university-based leadership coaching program. Participants included six leadership coaches and six school administrators who participated in the program.

Qualitative analysis indicates that gender and race, prior professional experience, pre-existing professional relationships and the complexity of the district’s organizational structure influence the initiation of the coaching relationship.

Confidentiality restrictions imposed by the program limit opportunities for member checking and other forms of triangulation. Additional data collection using more expansive research methods would help address this limitation.

This study contributes to the sparse literature about leadership coaching with school administrators by describing how different factors influence initiation coaching relationships.

This case study, within the context of boundaryless and protean career development frameworks, investigates linguistic profiling and how code-switching is used to mitigate its impact on Black leaders during their careers. The experiences of Black women coaches and the coaching support they offered Black women clients in code-switching, leadership and career advancement are described. The value of leadership coaching when used to navigate these career progression challenges is emphasized.

The study employed a multiple-case study approach of two Black women leadership coaches.

The findings of this study illustrate the understanding of code-switching and the coaching techniques employed by two Black women leadership coaches. Sage focused on educational strategies, offering historical contexts and resources, while Khadijah leaned on empathy-driven methods, using storytelling to evoke reflection. Both coaches emphasized creating safe spaces for open dialog, encouraged clients to reconsider their actions and values regarding code-switching challenges and sought to prompt clients towards authenticity while navigating career spaces effectively.

Additional strategies for coach practitioners include cultivating trust and a safe environment; active listening; challenging biases and assumptions; contextual understanding; empowering authentic self-expression; fostering skill development; challenging stereotypes; promoting autonomy and flexibility and adopting cross-cultural sensitivity, humility and competence. These practical coaching strategies bridge the gap in career development research by demonstrating how race-conscious strategies can promote workplace inclusivity and promulgate career development.

The study underscores the problem of linguistic profiling, the complexity of code-switching and implications for Black women navigating their career journey within professional spaces. It highlights the significance and value of tailored leadership coaching strategies to promote career advancement. This study addresses the gap in career development research related to linguistic profiling avoidance strategies for workplace inclusivity.

Leaders are role models and through social influence processes, they shape the behaviour of their followers. We build on social learning, social identity and person-environment (P-E) fit theories of leadership to explore the association between leaders’ and followers’ resilient behaviours.

In a three-wave, multisource study amongst 269 Dutch leaders and their followers, we investigate the mediating role of coaching in the relationship between leaders’ resilient behaviour and followers’ resilient behaviour and the moderating role of regulatory focus in this mediation path.

Our results show that coaching is a key relational vehicle through which leaders’ resilient behaviours shape employees’ resilient behaviours, and this indirect association is stronger for employees scoring low on promotion focus. In addition, our results show that resilient employees attract more coaching from their leaders, which further strengthens their resilient behaviours.

Existing studies have shown the occurrence of trickle-down effects of various leader behaviours, moods and work states on those of their followers. However, it remained obscure whether leaders’ resilient behaviour could trickle down to followers’ as well. Our study shows that such a link indeed exists and that coaching is a relational vehicle that embodies two key mechanisms to (1) foster social learning through behavioural entrainment and contagion and (2) facilitate support provision through which leaders promote resilient behaviour in their followers.

Teamwork is necessary for engineering to address today’s complex challenges. Therefore, team members must improve their teamwork competencies for more significant team development and effectiveness. This study aimed to analyze how a non-directive coaching intervention model for an entire team influences the individual team members’ teamwork competencies.

Action research was used in this study with a quasi-experimental design featuring control and experimental groups comprising final-year engineering students from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. The sample included 168 students, with 132 in the control group and 36 in the experimental group. The experimental group underwent a non-directive team coaching intervention involving three sessions. Competencies were evaluated using the teamwork competency test (TWCT), administered at the course’s beginning and end to measure progress.

The results show that the individuals who participated in the team coaching significantly increased their competencies, particularly “conflict resolution” and “feedback.”

This study’s value contributes to identifying the positive impacts of non-directive team coaching interventions on individual teamwork competencies, fostering collaborative skills and supporting collective goals.

A specific area of interest in the coaching literature is focused on exploring the intersection of personality and coaching; however, research has yet to explore whether coaching exerts reciprocal effects on personality traits (i.e. if personality trait change can accompany coaching). Utilizing the explanatory theoretical framing of the Demands-Affordances TrAnsactional framework (Woods et al., 2019), we propose that coaching may indirectly facilitate personality trait change by firstly enabling the coachee to reflect on their behaviors, second, implement desired behavioral changes which consequently facilitate personality trait change.

A quasi-experiment was conducted to explore coaching and personality trait change. Students participating in a demanding, work-based team simulation (N = 258), were assigned to either an intervention group (and received one-to-one coaching) or a control group (who received no intervention). Personality traits were measured before and after coaching and positioned as the dependent variable.

Results indicate that participants in the coaching group exhibited significant changes in self-reported agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion and core self-evaluations, which all significantly decreased after coaching; however, no change was observed for the control group.

We provide the first exploration of coaching and personality trait change, contributing to both the coaching literature, by providing evidence regarding the efficacy of coaching to facilitate personality trait change in coachees, and the personality literature, by highlighting coaching as an important tool for those interested in personality trait change. Our research also has implications for other interventions such as mentoring, as we provide support for the notion that interventions can support personality trait change.

This study aims to investigate the influences of perceived and preferred coaching behaviors and the discrepancy between them on job satisfaction, mediated by the quality of the relationship with the immediate supervisor and adaptive performance.

The research adopted a cross-sectional survey design. A total of 220 Korean employees, small-sized team members, were recruited from the automotive industry for the study. This research explored the relationship between perceived and preferred coaching behaviors using the Pearson correlation. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the relationships among perceived and preferred managerial coaching behaviors, the discrepancy between them, the quality of the relationship with the immediate supervisor, adaptive performance and job satisfaction.

Perceived and preferred coaching behaviors exhibited a weak correlation. Perceived coaching behaviors indirectly influenced job satisfaction through the quality of the relationship with the immediate supervisor and adaptive performance. The discrepancy between perceived and preferred coaching behaviors directly and indirectly influenced job satisfaction via adaptive performance. However, all paths related to preferred coaching behaviors were found to be insignificant.

Although the results of this research may be generalized to the Korean automotive industry, the findings highlight perceived and preferred coaching behaviors and the discrepancy between them as independent variables. The findings shed light on the influences of managerial coaching on the quality of the relationship with the immediate supervisor within Korean workplace cultures and how coaching behaviors contribute to triggering subordinates’ adaptive performance. In addition, the study provides how managerial coaching influences job satisfaction in the workplace.

Based on the findings, an organization should cultivate self-directed learning environments to enhance employees’ adaptive performance. The coaching training session should be added to the leadership development program for new managers. Team leaders need to consider their members’ preferences during managerial coaching.

The variables, such as preferred coaching variables and the discrepancy between perceived and preferred coaching behaviors, along with the research framework, represent a novelty in managerial coaching, as well as within the Korean context.