P: +61 7 4781 4254Professor Gianna Moscardo has qualifications in applied psychology and sociology. Her qualifications in applied psychology and sociology support her research interests in understanding how communities and organisations perceive, plan for, and manage tourism development opportunities and how tourists learn about and from their travel experiences. CHALLENGES FOR THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF BUSINESS COACHING: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW OF EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE AbstractUntil recently there has been little published systematic empirical research into business coaching. This paper reports on a systematic, critical review of 111 published empirical papers investigating business coaching theory, processes and outcomes. The present paper identifies a significantly larger body of empirical research than covered in previous reviews and uses a Systematic Review method (SRm) to conduct a comprehensive review of the available empirical evidence into business coaching effectiveness focusing on implications for theoretical development, practice (within human resource development) and further research in this area. This review identifies convergence around factors that contribute to perceived effective coaching practice but nevertheless highlights a number of issues to be resolved in further research. These include determining the primary beneficiaries of coaching, the factors that contribute to coach credibility, and how the organisational and social context impacts on coaching. Weaknesses in coaching research methodology and research gaps are also noted.

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Many firms spend substantial resources in their efforts to recruit the best graduates, and recruitment advertisements can be a critical medium for potential employees deciding on whether to apply for jobs. It is important, therefore, that recruitment advertisements attract the attention of potential applicants and encourage them to apply. The purpose of this study was to examine the variables that influence attention to advertisements and the intention to apply for advertised positions among final-year commerce students. A quasi-experiment was conducted to investigate the relative impact of three factors in a recruitment advertisement: the use of the word graduate in the heading, the use of pictures in the advertisement, and the mention of a career path or opportunities for development and promotion. The results highlight the importance of a heading with the word graduate and support a proposed three-step model for designing a recruitment advertisement.

Studies on coaching have largely explored effectiveness from the perspective of a coach or employing organization rather than that of the employee or coachee. There has also been a focus on ‘successful’ coaching, but little is known about unsuccessful coaching or the hindrances to achieving coaching success. Many empirical studies on training interventions have found that support and help for employees from managers and others within the workplace enhances training effectiveness and there is an assumption in coaching studies that this will also be true for coaching interventions. This study addresses the gap in academic literature by exploring survey responses from 296 industry professionals in 34 countries who had been, or were currently being, coached. The study found that facing barriers during the period of coaching engagements was common and we present a categorization framework of six barrier categories. Our analysis suggests that three of these barrier categories may be predictive of coachee perceptions of limited coaching effectiveness: difficulties with a coach; coaching relationships and overall coaching experience. The study also provides empirical evidence that suggests a lack of support from within an employing organization is not predictive of limited coaching effectiveness.