Providing strategic leadership for learning: optimizing managerial coaching to build learning organizations

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper and the contribution to this Special Issue is to build on Kim and Watkins’ (2018) recent finding that “leaders mentor and coach those they lead” is the item in the Dimensions of the Learning Organization Questionnaire (DLOQ©) that is most highly correlated with performance. Given the criticality of providing strategic leadership for learning and, more specifically, the consistent associations between leaders who mentor and coach and work-related performance outcomes, a better understanding of the associations between the learning organization concept and managerial coaching is warranted. Watkins and Kim (2018, p. 22) contend that “future directions for learning organization research include a search for the elusive interventions that would create a learning organization.” In response to this call for research, a research agenda for assessing managerial coaching as a learning organization (LO) intervention is proposed. Design/methodology/approach This conceptual paper briefly reviews literature on the learning organization and the DLOQ© instrument, followed by a more in-depth review of the managerial coaching literature and suggestions for how future research could be conducted that more closely integrates these two concepts. Findings Existing literature suggests that “provide strategic leadership for learning”, a dimension in the DLOQ, is one of the most pivotal dimensions for creating learning cultures that build learning organizations. Specifically, an item within this dimension, “leaders who mentor and coach” has been recently identified as one of the most critical aspects associated with strategic leadership for learning. Originality/value The extant managerial coaching literature offers a solid foundation for more closely integrating and mainstreaming the developmental intervention of managerial coaching into learning organizations. Directions for future research that identifies fine-grained perspectives of the discrete facets of managerial coaching in learning organization contexts are suggested.

Intrinsic Competencies: A Leverage Tool for The Performance of Learning Organization (Case Study: Wasit University)

“…Learning organization, thus, represents an appropriate vehicle for operationalizing the original moral contract binding employees to their organizations. Hence, normative commitment endowed with power enhances competitiveness and learning and ensures outstanding performance (Ellinger & Ellinger, 2021).…”

Development and validation of the coaching-based leadership scale and its relationship with psychological capital, work engagement, and performance

“…Furthermore, previous researchers have considered managerial coaching to be a similar term to CBL (Milner et al, 2018;Pousa et al, 2018). This participative style of management has been defined as a leadership practice that supports and provides constructive feedback designed to get the most out of people (Ellinger & Ellinger, 2020). Recently, DiGirolamo and Tkach (2019) proposed that coaching skills could be adopted by managers, as part of a participative style of management, and by leaders, to align employees with a vision and to inquire how they see themselves working toward that vision.…”

Implementing dimensions of a learning organization questionnaire: new insights

“…Leaders mentoring and coaching was therefore found to be the most significant determinant of work performance. Ellinger and Ellinger (2021) warn that the terms mentoring and coaching are often used interchangeably, and yet they are not synonyms. Coaching is a process in which an individual acquires or improves skills related to immediate work performance.…”

“…Mentoring, on the other hand, is related to career development of a person in which a mentor provides guidance and support. In this issue, Ellinger and Ellinger (2021) especially address the process of managerial coaching within the context of strategic leadership for learning. In that way, managers as coaches stimulate certain employee behavior that enables their learning and growth.…”

“…Stothard (2021) investigated how learningoriented leadership affects hierarchical teams. Ellinger and Ellinger (2021) continue by emphasizing the importance of managerial coaching in the context of strategic leadership for learning. Kim (2021) examined the relationship between learning organizations and different aspects of performance: financial, knowledge and adaptive performance.…”