Navigating values tensions in organisational life : coaching as values work

Values feature prominently in coaching, where they are widely used to support clarity, motivation, and purposeful action. Yet coaching literature has paid far less attention to what happens when values themselves become sources of tension. In contemporary organisational settings, marked by shifting demands, competing priorities, and gaps between espoused and enacted values, individuals frequently encounter conflicts between their values and the values practices they observe around them. The client’s experience of such values tensions, and the role of coaching in supporting them to navigate these moments, remains largely unexplored. This study addresses that gap through a qualitative inquiry involving interviews with 10 coaching clients and 11 coaches, analysed using reflexive thematic analysis, to explore the nature of values tensions and how coaching supported their navigation. Three central findings emerged. First, clients often experienced values tensions as breaches in a values-oriented psychological contract, characterised by an expectation of mutual respect, integrity, and shared purpose. Such breaches disrupted their sense of coherence, trust, and confidence in navigating organisational life. Second, coaching supported clients through intentional values work across two domains: inner work focused on clarifying and interpreting what mattered to them, and relational work centred on understanding organisational values practices and making informed choices about engagement. Third, rather than pursuing full alignment between personal and organisational values, clients developed values congruence, a flexible, situated capacity to act in ways that remained coherent with their values, while negotiating ambiguity and difference. Together, these insights conceptualise coaching as a distinct form of values work, in which clients and coaches engage dynamically with values as practices, lived and negotiated within the organisational context. The study contributes a coaching model capturing this process which will be of use for coaches working with personal and organisational values tensions.

Grantor dc:publisher

Oxford Brookes University

Author dc:creator

• Townshend, Helen

Contributors dc:contributor

• Ciuk, Sylwia
• Iordanou, Ioanna

Statement dc:rights

• All rights reserved

Language dc:language

en

DOI dc:identifier

https://doi.org/10.24384/d7hb-cs93

OAI identifier oai:identifier

tle:51b1004c-fa78-48b9-ae8a-756cfc758d96:d6bd9758-527a-46cd-bfe2-c433766e8fca:1