Coaching Context, Coachee Regulatory Focus and Pre-Coaching Motivation: An Experimental Study

Abstract

This study responds to the call for a closer look at the role that contextual and individual factors play in workplace coaching as a context-sensitive intervention. Drawing on and integrating theories of regulatory focus and training we proposed and examined a model that explains the impact of organizational coaching context on coachee pre-coaching motivation using coachee situational regulatory focus as an underlying mechanism. Results of a scenario-based experimental study (N=175) demonstrated that organizational coaching context affects coachees’ situational regulatory foci beyond chronic dispositions. Further, the indirect relationship between developmental organizational coaching context and pre-coaching motivation was mediated by coachee situational promotion focus. However, we did not find the hypothesized indirect relationship between remedial organizational coaching context and coachee pre-coaching motivation via coachee situational prevention focus. The study highlights the important role that organizations’ management and human resource personnel play in the ‘kick-off’ of a workplace coaching intervention by shaping the context of coaching assignments prior to coaching. Furthermore, this study emphasizes the importance of including the organization’s informal feedback for the employee prior to coaching as a key contractual element that contributes to coachees’ pre-coaching motivation. We conclude with implications for future workplace coaching research and practice.