A review of research into business coaching supervision

Stephen Joseph

doi:10.1080/17521882.2016.1210187

Abstract

ABSTRACTA systematic search of the coaching literature for original peer-reviewed studies into business coaching supervision yielded seven research reports. Evaluation of these studies showed them to be low in the reporting of methodological rigour. However, as an emerging area of research with great importance for the development of the profession of business coaching these studies provide valuable insights into the functions of supervision and its benefits. Gaps in knowledge and directions for future research are identified. There is a need for future research to be more rigorous in its reporting of methods and analytic procedures, small-scale qualitative research that can provide insight into the issues and challenges of coaching supervision in specific contexts, and large-scale quantitative research which can provide broader and generalisable understandings into the uses and benefits of supervision.

Highlights

The field of business coaching has developed over the past two decades to become firmly established within leadership and management contexts in the UK, the USA, Australia and other G20 markets, and is developing apace in emerging economies
As we look to the future of business coaching it is clear that its continued development as a field of practice will be dependent on how the industry faces up to the challenges of professionalism, with calls for the benchmarking of skills (LinderPelz, 2014), academically more rigorous educational programs, and more sophisticated theoretical offerings and evidence based research and scholarship (Doggett & Kauffman, 2013; Kauffman & Bachkirova, 2009)
In Australia where much of the leading work has been conducted, the Standards Australia Handbook for Coaching in Organisations (2010) proposed that coaches should be in regular supervision that is subject to a formal agreement and that the supervisor should be an experienced and competent coaching practitioner familiar with the process of supervision

Summary

Introduction

The field of business coaching has developed over the past two decades to become firmly established within leadership and management contexts in the UK, the USA, Australia and other G20 markets, and is developing apace in emerging economies. Over this time business coaching interventions have become more complex and clients more sophisticated in their expectations of what coaching can offer (Brockbank, 2008; Kauffman, Joseph & Scoular, 2015; Scoular, 2011). The aim is to provide an up to date review of peerreviewed quantitative and qualitative research studies on supervision in business coaching

Background

Developing Coaching Supervision Practice

Findings

Conclusions and recommendations