Ethical Codes and Executive Coaches

Abstract

While most coaching scholars and professionals focus on the role of codes of conduct in sustaining ethical behavior in the practice of executive coaching, our research answers the call to go “beyond the book.” Our study aims to describe restrictions identified by executive coaches to the application of codes to ethical conflicts. The analysis of 27 coaches’ ethical challenges highlights three main types of restrictions that coaches express: the code is not relevant, the code has shortcomings, and the code is an obstacle to the ethics of the coach. The underlying legitimacy, efficacy, and value issues show that codes do not fit all situations or all practitioners. We recommend altering codes so that they better reflect the subjective, emotional, social, and value-oriented nature of the ethical decision-making process in coaching. In particular, we suggest using an interrogative tone and illustrative case studies written by different stakeholders.