Change agent or neutral bystander? : an exploration of how the coaching practices of internal coaches in higher education institutions support organisational change

Internal coaches are enmeshed in the same organisational system that their coachees inhabit and are affected by the same organisational changes. Their insight into the organisational context, and into the challenge of aligning individual goals with organisational goals, means that internal coaches are uniquely placed to support their coachees to make sense of these changes. Recognising the triadic coaching relationship between coach, coachee and the organisation, internal coaches potentially have the agency, knowledge and mandate to use their coaching practices to support organisational change, including addressing any tensions arising from misalignment of goals. This indicates a role of ‘coach as change agent’: connecting change at an individual level with change at an organisational level, facilitating coachees to navigate organisational change more effectively. The emerging interest in the interplay of individual and organisational level change draws on an Organisational Development (OD) perspective that organisations are improved by how their people respond to and assimilate change, not simply by developing people in organisations to improve their work performance. It aligns with a dialogic model of OD, giving prominence to the concept of change agency, where coachees are encouraged to use the coaching space to co-construct their future and the actions required to achieve it. The professionalisation of internal coaching has created a distinction between internal coaching undertaken by line managers with their teams and that provided by an internal coaching service, situated outside the management chain. This remains largely unexamined in the research literature as a separate and distinct category of coaching. Therefore, this study explores how internal coaches navigate their accountability towards both the organisation and the coachee, and how their coaching practices support organisational change. Given the limited research into this topic, the study employs an exploratory qualitative methodology, using a constructivist grounded theory (CGT) approach. This facilitated an exploration of the experiences and viewpoints of a range participants, to generate a rich, robust and deep level of understanding of the topic. The methodology aligns with the researcher’s ontological stance, which asserts the existence of multiple, socially constructed realities through shared narratives, both at an individual level and an organisational level, and with an epistemological stance of pragmatism. The study explores how internal coaches working in the Higher Education (HE) sector manage the interplay of individual change and organisational change, and the implications for undertaking a change agency role during the coaching process. There were 18 participants recruited to the study, drawn from internal coaches, coach supervisors and sponsors of internal coaching and mentoring services, operating across 15 Universities. The organisational context is that of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) experiencing strategic change, such as changes to organisational culture, internal processes, or people structures. The contribution to knowledge is threefold. Firstly, the research illuminates the underexplored area of the coaching practices of internal coaches in HEIs experiencing organisational change, confronting the presumed neutrality of the coach. Secondly, it focuses on how internal coaches work with those impacted by organisational change at middle management level and below, in contrast to working with the strategic change leaders. Thirdly, the research culminates by offering a conceptual framework of how internal coaching supports organisational change. The framework integrates three models constructed from the findings: the wayfinding organisational change model, indicating how coachees navigate organisational change; the coaching fulcrum model, which describes bringing competing tensions into equilibrium to facilitate the agency of the coachee; and the coach as mediator model, setting out the sub-roles which support organisational change at the individual level. The framework can be applied to enhance the coaching practices of internal coaches working with coachees during periods of organisational change, and to contribute to coach development and coach training provision.

Grantor dc:publisher

Oxford Brookes University

Year dc:date

2024

Author dc:creator

• Maclean, Amanda

Contributors dc:contributor

• Myers, Adrian

Statement dc:rights

• All rights reserved

Language dc:language

en

DOI dc:identifier

https://doi.org/10.24384/69wm-8095

OAI identifier oai:identifier

tle:48eaf3d9-766a-4b9a-b9cb-00be9ad16c85:d6bd9758-527a-46cd-bfe2-c433766e8fca:1