Nineteenth International Conference on Knowledge, Culture, and Change in Organizations

Abstract

The notion of coaching culture has recently emerged in the academic literature as an integration of the disparate disciplines of workplace coaching and organizational culture. To date, few studies have been done on what a coaching culture is and how it aligns with the organizational culture literature. Study 1 focused on identifying the shared values, beliefs, assumptions and artifacts that make up a coaching culture, from the perspective of coaching subject matter experts (SME’s) and organizations that actively invest in coaching. Semi-structured interviews and thematic analyses were used for the SME and focus group interviews. Study 2 focused on the creation and qualitative validation of a coaching culture pilot measure drawn from both the data derived in Study 1 and the existing literature on coaching culture. Implications of this work include bridging the gaps in the coaching culture literature by drawing on the robust organizational culture literature, developing a measure of coaching culture that is grounded in both the theory and the felt experience of a coaching culture, and enabling organization to integrate coaching principles and practices into their own organizational fabric.