Publications and Research

The IOBC supports and promotes academic research into coaching. Active research into coaching provides a scientific basis for coaching practice and offers new insights for practitioners. It helps to translate knowledge into practice and to expand it. 

Here we present relevant research publications in English.

Some of them are openly accessible.

Authors & title

Diller, S.J., Passmore, J., Brown, H.J. et al. Become the best coach you can be: the role of coach training and coaching experience in workplace coaching quality and quality control. Organisationsberat Superv Coach 27, 313–333 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11613-020-00662-8

Abstract

This paper explores whether coach training or coaching experience leads to better coaching quality and quality control. In two large studies, both coaches (N1 = 2267) and personnel managers who book coaches for their company (N2 = 754) answered questions about coaching quality and quality control. The results show that more coach training leads to not only a better self-perceived coaching quality (Study 1) but also a better other-perceived coaching-quality (Study 2); moreover, more coach training positively affects quality control. It is remarkable that coaching experience showed no significant relation regarding other-perceived coaching quality and quality control. Study 2 further revealed that references lead to more recommendations but not to a better coaching quality or quality control. Thus, coach training is an essential factor when selecting organizational coaches. Further research is needed to understand the impact of different approaches to coach trainings on coaching outcomes.

Authors & title
Diermann, I., Kotte, S., Müller, A., & Möller, H. (2021). Initial exploration in workplace coaching – Coaches' thematic and methodological approach. Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice (RCOA) DOI: 10.1080/17521882.2021.1879188

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.

Authors & title
Kotte, S.*, Diermann, I.*, Rosing, K. & Möller, H. (2020). Entrepreneurial Coaching: A Two-Dimensional Framework in Context. Applied Psychology – An International Review, 1–38. DOI: 10.1111/apps.12264.

Abstract
Coaching is increasingly used to support entrepreneurs across different stages of the entrepreneurial process. Due to its custom‐tailored, active, and reflection‐oriented approach, it has been suggested that it is particularly well suited to entrepreneurs’ complex job demands. However, in the entrepreneurial context, the term coaching lacks a clear definition and is frequently used interchangeably with other types of support. We therefore sought to characterize entrepreneurial coaching (EC) and to position it relative to related interventions. We conducted 67 interviews with coaches (n = 44) and early‐stage entrepreneurs (n = 23) experienced in EC. Using qualitative content analysis, we specify outcomes, input, process, and contextual factors for EC. Among process factors, we identify seven coach functions that reflect specific coach behaviors. Contextual factors include entrepreneurial job demands and institutional boundary conditions of “embedded” EC. Based on our findings, we position EC within a two‐dimensional framework, consisting of the expert‐ versus process‐consultation approach and the individual‐work‐venture focus. We locate the seven coach functions within this framework. Relative to other interventions, EC stands between classical workplace coaching and start‐up consultancy, closer to, yet distinct from, entrepreneurial mentoring and executive coaching. We derive practical implications for coaches, entrepreneurs, and organizational stakeholders and propose directions for future research.

Authors & title

Müller, A. A. & Kotte, S. (2020). Of SMART, GROW and goals gone wild: A systematic literature review on the relevance of goal activities in workplace coaching. International Coaching Psychology Review, 15(2), 69–98

Abstract
Goals are posited to play an important role in coaching. However, concerns have been raised about neglecting potential pitfalls of goal-focused coaching practice. Therefore, we investigate the occurrence of goal activities in workplace coaching and their association with coaching outcomes. We conducted a systematic literature review. We synthesised findings of 24 (quantitative and qualitative) empirical studies. Previously researched goal activities encompass goal setting, setting action/development plans and a goal-focused coach-coachee relationship. Coaches report to work with goals frequently, while coachees report this to occur less. Several studies suggest a positive relationship between goal activities and coaching outcomes, while other studies report no significant association. This lack of association seems to relate to both study design and chosen outcome measures. Initial findings point to possible moderating variables (e.g. coachee characteristics, initiator of goal activity) and potential challenges of involving organisational stakeholders in goal activities. The scarcity of empirical research stands in contrast to the prominent role of goals in the coaching literature. Goal activities take a wide range of different forms in practice and research. Inconclusive findings on the relationship between goal activities and coaching outcomes call for research on influencing factors, particularly contextual factors.

Authors & title

Müller, A.A.; Kotte, S. & Möller, H. (2020) Coach and no regrets about it: On the life satisfaction, work-related mental strain, and use of supervision of workplace coaches. Coaching: An International Journal of Theory, Research and Practice, 13:1, 16-29, DOI: 10.1080/17521882.2019.1636841.

Abstract

Previous research indicates that coaches frequently experience negative effects for themselves from their work and therefore live with potential stressors due to their work. This study examines whether or not workplace coaches are satisfied with their life. Data were gathered from 110 coaches (75% of which were self-employed) from Germany, Austria, and Switzerland via an online survey. Coaches were asked about different aspects of life satisfaction (concerning their job, financial situation, and leisure time) and work-related mental strain (i.e., cognitive and emotional strain). Compared to German population norm scores (including both employed and self-employed working individuals), coaches show higher satisfaction with their job and leisure time, and less work-related mental strain. Moreover, the vast majority of coaches would choose to be a workplace coach again in retrospect. Coaching supervision had a significant buffer effect on coaches’ job satisfaction when they experienced a high amount of work-related mental strain. Findings imply that coaches are able to counterbalance the possible negative effects on life satisfaction of their work as coaches. The use of coaching supervision appears to be a successful measure to maintain high satisfaction with their work as coaches despite an elevated level of mental strain.

Authors & title
Kotte, S.; Oellerich, K.; Hinn, D.E and Möller, H. (2017). The Ambivalent Relationship Between Coaching Research and Coaching Practice: Discreetly Ignoring, Critically Observing or Beneficially Cooperating? In: A. Schreyögg & C. Schmidt-Lellek: The Professionalization of Coaching. A Reader for the Coach, p. 23-46. Heidelberg: Springer.

Abstract
The article argues that it is necessary to take seriously the inherent logic of the two systems “research” and “practice” in the area of coaching in order to come to a realistic assessment of the ambivalent relationship between these two “worlds” and to identify concrete steps for moving towards a more sustainable working alliance between coaching practice and coaching research. For this purpose, we first elaborate on characteristics of both systems. In the main part, we provide an overview of the scientific publication landscape and of the current state of coaching research. We then deduce key challenges concerning the relationship between research and practice and conclude with an appeal to action for both researchers and practitioners.

Authors & title 

Graf, Eva-Maria & Frédérick Dionne (2021). Knowing ‘That’, Knowing ‘Why’ and Knowing ‘How’ – Aligning Perspectives and Assembling Epistemes for a Transdisciplinary Analysis of Questioning Sequences in Executive Coaching. A Research Journey. AILA Review 34/1 (Special issue: “Developing shared languages: The fundamentals of mutual learning and problem solving in transdisciplinary collaboration”), 56-77. 

Abstract

Our contribution maps the journey towards setting up a transdisciplinary, interprofessional collaboration between coaching practitioners and coaching researchers from the fields of Applied Linguistics and Applied Psychology. The goal of such a project is to build a community of interest around a common cause, i.e., a practically relevant, language-based coaching problem (in our case, questioning practices in executive coaching), and to collaboratively solve the problem on the basis of assembling and integrating the various epistemes. The purpose of our contribution in the form of a travel report is twofold: firstly, to theoretically and conceptually discuss the challenges and affordances of aligning perspectives and assembling epistemes for such a transdisciplinary research project; Secondly, to present the available epistemic bases and offer first empirical results from our applied linguistic research and our cooperation with Applied Psychology that served as the basis for conceptualising the project Questioning Sequences in Coaching (Graf, Spranz-Fogasy, & Künzli, 2020). We end this travel report by critically assessing the transdisciplinary character of the current project and by envisioning another kind of cooperation between coaching practice and coaching research as the future destination of our research journey.

Authors & title 

Mai, V., Neef, C. and Richert, A. (2022). “Clicking vs. Writing”—The Impact of a Chatbot’s Interaction Method on the Working Alliance in AI-based Coaching. Coaching | Theorie & Praxis. Online-first.

Abstract

Coaching has become an important didactic tool for reflecting learning processes in higher education. Digital media and AI-based technologies such as chatbots can support stimulating self-coaching processes. For the use case of student coaching on the topic of exam anxiety, the working alliance between a coaching chatbot and a human coachee is investigated. Two coachbot interaction methods are compared: A click-based chatbot (implemented in a rule-based system), where the coachee can only click on one answer, and a writing-based chatbot (implemented in a conversational AI), which allows the coachee to freely type in their answers. The focus is on which coachbot interaction method enables a stronger working alliance between coach and coachee: a click-based or a writing-based chatbot. The working alliance and the technical realization of the chatbot systems were investigated in an exploratory quantitative study with 21 engineering students. The results indicate that the working alliance in both study conditions can be classified as medium to high overall. The results further show higher values for bonding on a writing-based platform than when using a click-based system. However, click-based systems seem to be more helpful as a low-threshold entry point to coaching, as they guide coachees better through the process by providing predefined answers. An evaluation of the technical realization shows that self-reflection processes through digital self-coaching via chatbot are generally well accepted by students. For further development and research, it is therefore recommendable to develop a “mixed” coachbot that allows interaction via clicking as well as via free writing.

Authors & title 

Traut-Mattausch, E., Zanchetta, M. and Pömmer, M. (2021). A Cognitive-Behavioral Stress Management Coaching. Coaching | Theorie & Praxis, 7:1, 69-80.

Abstract

In this article, we present a theoretically well-founded coaching concept, which can be assigned to the cognitive-behavioral area and which aims to optimally deal with stress. The coaching concept is based on Lazarus’ transactional theory of stress and coping. The three coaching sessions based on this theory are described in as much detail as possible. We explain which exercises can be used and how – both during and between the coaching sessions – in order to provide the best possible support for stress management and goal attainment. The specific procedure is illustrated with the case study “Mr. Smith” and reflected from the coach’s perspective. The description of the cognitive-behavioral stress management coaching (abbreviated to CBSM coaching) and the case study therefore offer both suggestions for experienced coaches and a good guide for newcomers to the field. The effectiveness of the CBSM coaching has already been empirically proven. The results of this already published evaluation study will be presented in the overview. With the theory-based development and the practical presentation of the CBSM coaching concept, a contribution should be made to further close the gap that sometimes arises between coaching research and practice.

Authors & title 

Schlüter, J. H. (2021). Impact of Intergenerational Patterns on Coaching Effectiveness. Coaching | Theorie & Praxis 7:1, 81-97. 4

Abstract

This exploratory study examined the influence of intergenerational family patterns and transgenerational transmissions on coaching effectiveness. It specifically focused on the potential impact of coaches’ intergenerational patterns on their countertransference risks and development of coaching resources. Fifteen executive coaches were socioanalytically interviewed with a focused genogram and a self-as-instrument approach to understand the impact of intergenerational patterns and underlying family dynamics on coaching effectiveness. Results indicated a relationship between these factors and coaching effectiveness. This was especially the case with regard to the development of functional and adaptive coping behaviour rather than transmitting dysfunctional, maladaptive behaviour only. Analysing and debriefing live coaching situations with a focus on potential countertransference reactions would further validate these findings in future research. Given the results of this study, it seems essential to integrate the reflection of intergenerational patterns and related countertransference risks into the training and supervision of coaches.

Authors & title 

Graf, Eva-Maria (2019). The Pragmatics of Executive Coaching. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Abstract

The Pragmatics of Executive Coaching is the first linguistic monograph on executive coaching, a recent, not fully professionalized, yet booming helping professional format in the organizational realm. The book is positioned at the interface between applied linguistic analysis and the activity of coaching, coupled with its structuring professional theory. It presents the Basic Activity Model of coaching, a model for the qualitative analysis and description of the discursive co-construction of coaching by coach and client within and across individual coaching sessions and whole processes. The analysis is based on 150 hours of authentic data from the coaching approach Emotionally Intelligent Coaching and presents coaching as hybrid and interdiscursive helping professional format. The gained insights into the discursive layout of coaching interactions advance our linguistic understanding of helping professions as such, contribute to the theoretical and methodological underpinning of coaching and help promote the coaching practice.

Authors & title 

Graf, Eva-Maria & Frédérick Dionne (2021). Coaching Research in 2020 – About Destinations, Journeys and Travelers (Part I). International Coaching Psychology Review 16/1, 36-50. 

Graf, Eva-Maria & Frédérick Dionne (2021). Coaching Research in 2020 – About Destinations, Journeys and Travelers (Part II). International Coaching Psychology Review 16/2, 6-21.

Abstract

The growing international importance and professionalization of coaching shows in a substantive gain in high-quality research. The aim of our contribution (in the form of two consecutive papers) is to take stock of coaching research in the year 2020 both as regards its history, its major findings and its current trends. This has been done repeatedly over the last few years, which in itself attests to the growing importance and relevance of coaching research. The added value of this contribution is its specific focus on eight international meta-analyses on outcome research published since 2010 and on relevant primary studies from the German-based outcome coaching research in the context of negative effects of coaching. The second part of this overview (see Graf & Dionne, Part II) will take the reader beyond coaching outcome research into the more recent paradigm of coaching process research, particularly into qualitatively operating linguistic analysis of coaching processes.

After Part I of Coaching Research in 2020 (Graf & Dionne, Part I under review) summarized research on the destination(s) of coaching in the context of quantitative psychological outcome research, Part II will look beyond outcomes and effectiveness. It calls for more research on the coaching process itself, that is, on the journey of coaching and its travelers. To this end we first explore the different research foci in the change-process-research paradigm of coaching (Wegener et al., 2018). Next, the paper argues for the necessity to engage more in qualitative process research to carve out how coach and client locally interact with each other on a moment-to-moment basis along individual coaching sessions and entire coaching processes. We introduce qualitative linguistic coaching process research (Graf, 2015, 2018, 2019). This research paradigm addresses the coaching micro-level und investigates how the local effectiveness of coaching emerges from the turn-by-turn verbal- (and non-verbal) interaction between coach and client on the basis of the sequentiality and the intersubjectivity of the coaching conversation. While coaching research and practice will benefit immensely from such an in-depth, qualitative linguistic analysis of authentic coaching interaction, this paper ends with a call for research that addresses and relates both the global effectiveness and the interaction of coaching. The TSPP (turn – sequence – phase – process) Model (Deplazes et al.,2018) is presented that integrates concepts from quantitative psychological outcome research and qualitative linguistic process research. This model allows for relating coaching effectiveness and interaction and also underlies a very recent interdisciplinary, mixed-methods research project on questioning sequences in coaching (Graf, Spranz-Fogasy & Künzli, 2020), which will be briefly sketched out in the final part.

Authors & title 

Graf, Eva-Maria & Frédérick Dionne (2021). Knowing ‘That’, Knowing ‘Why’ and Knowing ‘How’ – Aligning Perspectives and Assembling Epistemes for a Transdisciplinary Analysis of Questioning Sequences in Executive Coaching. A Research Journey. AILA Review 34/1 (Special issue: “Developing shared languages: The fundamentals of mutual learning and problem solving in transdisciplinary collaboration”), 56-77. 

Abstract

Our contribution maps the journey towards setting up a transdisciplinary, interprofessional collaboration between coaching practitioners and coaching researchers from the fields of Applied Linguistics and Applied Psychology. The goal of such a project is to build a community of interest around a common cause, i.e., a practically relevant, language-based coaching problem (in our case, questioning practices in executive coaching), and to collaboratively solve the problem on the basis of assembling and integrating the various epistemes. The purpose of our contribution in the form of a travel report is twofold: firstly, to theoretically and conceptually discuss the challenges and affordances of aligning perspectives and assembling epistemes for such a transdisciplinary research project; Secondly, to present the available epistemic bases and offer first empirical results from our applied linguistic research and our cooperation with Applied Psychology that served as the basis for conceptualising the project Questioning Sequences in Coaching (Graf, Spranz-Fogasy, & Künzli, 2020). We end this travel report by critically assessing the transdisciplinary character of the current project and by envisioning another kind of cooperation between coaching practice and coaching research as the future destination of our research journey.

The IOBC supports and promotes scientific work on the topic of coaching. Active coaching research enables the scientific foundation of coaching practice and provides impulses for practice. It contributes to transferring and expanding knowledge into practice.