Coaching executives as tacit performance evaluation: a multiple case study
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine organizational perceptions regarding the coaching process as an evaluation tool.
Methodology
The research method used is a multiple case study based on the author’s work with coached executives in eight organizations in Israel. Texts of 79 coaching encounters with executives, their directors and human resource personnel, were analyzed. Text analysis was performed through a qualitative method.
Findings
The research findings provide evidence of the intensity of the coaching practice as a tacit evaluating tool for organizational functioning, in relation to five focusses: the selection of executives for the coaching meetings, the participants’ perception of their participation in the coaching process, the organizational control wishes, how participants deal with organizational supervision and confidentiality.
Research limitation
Research findings are discussed from a perspective of power relations in the organization, and their significance is presented.
Practical implication
The usage of the coaching tool, not only for its original purpose, but also for evaluating and controlling executives tacitly, can hurt the coaching process, and its authenticity.
Originality value
The concept of “tacit evaluation” was developed for this research, and the concept of the coaching process as a tacit tool of control and supervision can help us to better understand the coaching process, and its covert and overt components.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank Dr Geoff Sheard, the journal editor, and the anonymous reviewers for their feedback and support. The author thanks all the coached executives and the organizational functions that the author have worked with. The author thanks the colleagues: Guy Bruker, for his help that gave shape to this research and Meytal Eran-Jona, for her valuable comments and sociological viewpoint.
Citation
Ben-Hador, B. (2016), "Coaching executives as tacit performance evaluation: a multiple case study", Journal of Management Development, Vol. 35 No. 1, pp. 75-88. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMD-08-2014-0091
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited