ABSTRACT

Coaching is increasingly used as an HRD intervention. Initial research suggests the importance of coaching behaviour, especially at the beginning of a coaching engagement, for coaching success. However, findings are scarce as to how coaches proceed during the initial phase in coaching and recent reviews therefore call for research that investigates how coaches determine the focus of the coaching intervention. Therefore, our study aimed to answer the questions of what and how regarding coaches’ approach to the ‘initial exploration’. We conducted 20 semi-structured interviews with workplace coaches. Qualitative content analysis revealed a broad range of contents addressed, methods applied, and principles that guide coaches during the initial exploration. Moreover, we identified specific patterns for categorising coaches’ approaches. Concerning the content coaches address, we identified three dimensions: coachees’ areas of life (private vs. professional, with the latter including individual vs. social vs. organisational aspects), temporal focus (past, present, future), and perspective (solution- vs. problem-orientation). We integrate our findings into a taxonomy of the initial exploration in coaching and thereby provide a basis for future research as well as a guide for reflection and decision-making for coaches, coachees, and organisational sponsors.

摘要

教练越来越多地被用作 HRD 的干预措施。初步研究表明，教练行为对教练成功的重要性，尤其是在教练参与开始时。然而，关于教练在教练的初始阶段如何进行的研究结果很少，因此最近的评论要求研究教练如何确定教练干预的重点。因此，我们的研究旨在回答什么和如何的问题关于教练对“初步探索”的态度。我们对职场教练进行了 20 次半结构化访谈。定性内容分析揭示了在初始探索期间指导教练的广泛内容、应用方法和原则。此外，我们确定了对教练方法进行分类的特定模式。关于教练解决的内容，我们确定了三个维度：教练对象的生活领域（私人与专业，后者包括个人与社会与组织方面）、时间关注点（过去、现在、未来）和观点（解决方案- 与问题导向）。我们将我们的发现整合到教练初步探索的分类中，从而为未来的研究提供基础，并为教练的反思和决策提供指导，