The coaching continuum: power dynamics in the change process

Abstract

This paper builds on the literature that explores the renewed form of power in postmodern organisations. Specifically, it explores the practice of executive coaching. Using an interpretive approach and an adbuctive method, the article confirms and illustrates the critical literature that analyses coaching as a practice for organisational control. However, by uncovering acts of affirmative resistance generated by the active engagement of the coachee in the coaching process, our analysis nuances the totalitarian dimension of coaching. Rather we identify a juxtaposition of power dynamics represented along a continuum that are navigated through the coachee's acts of resistance. The concept of the continuum portraying coaching as a malleable space adds to the literature that positions coaching as an 'uncertain process' by articulating its ambiguity with its malleability.