The Effects of Coachee Personality and Goal Orientation on Performance Improvement Following Coaching: A Controlled Field Experiment

Abstract

This study presents a field experiment to test the question: What are the individual characteristics that influence whether coaching is beneficial for people’s performance? We focus our attention on the Big Five personality traits, core self‐evaluations, and goal orientation. Using a control group for comparison, coaching was provided to a sample of working adults (N = 84) and both self‐ratings and supervisor‐ratings of performance (N = 74) were measured over three time points. Our analysis indicates that individuals high in Openness, who avoid goal orientation and are low in core self‐evaluations benefit the most from coaching. We contribute to the literatures on coaching effectiveness and the wider learning and development literatures by providing an empirically robust examination of the interaction between individual differences and coaching and the subsequent impact on performance. Furthermore, our findings suggest that coaching may be an effective development technique for individuals who tend to perform less well in other forms of instructional learning due to their individual characteristics.

An Experimental Field Study on the Effects of Coaching: The Mediating Role of Psychological Capital

“…Second, reflecting on one's feelings, thoughts, and behaviours stimulated by the coach during the sessions (Jones, Woods, & Zhou, 2019), is paramount for PsyCap development. When coachees reflect back on past actions and successes, they derive a certain level of self-efficacy (Luthans et al, 2006b).…”

“…Having set a goal keeps the person focused on finding solutions and oriented toward the future, which in turn sustains motivation and action even in the face of obstacles (resilience; Grant et al, 2009). Second, reflecting on one's feelings, thoughts, and behaviours stimulated by the coach during the sessions (Jones, Woods, & Zhou, 2019), is paramount for PsyCap development. When coachees reflect back on past actions and successes, they derive a certain level of self-efficacy (Luthans et al, 2006b).…”

Coaching of Insolvent Entrepreneurs and the Change in Coping Resources, Health, and Cognitive Performance

“…Second, during coaching, the coach and client talk about the stressful event of the insolvency. According to Jones, Woods, and Zhou (2019), coaching facilitates learning through reflection. This should help insolvent entrepreneurs to create a narrative and single mental model for the stressful event, which should, in turn, improve their vigilance.…”

Introduction to the Special Issue on Advances in the Psychology of Workplace Coaching

“…In the five studies in our special issue, we noticed that some of the most interesting contributions came from the discussion of these non-significant effects. For example, Jones et al (2021) explore the non-significant effects of coaching in relation to supervisor ratings of coachee performance. They explore these non-significant effects in relation to the importance of utilizing a control group in coaching intervention research and the ability of the supervisor to provide accurate performance ratings.…”

“…The research studies in our special issue all meet the demanding requirements of a stringent scientific research, so that they can be regarded as “low risk” studies (Grover & Furnham, 2016). For example, studies in our special issue include two randomized controlled trials in realistic workplace settings (Fontes & Dello Russo, 2021; Jones, Woods, & Zhou, 2021), hard objective measures (Schermuly et al, 2021), and the incorporation of multi‐stakeholder data (Fontes & Dello Russo, 2021; Jones et al, 2021; Kotte, Diermann, Rosing, & Möller, 2021; Lai & Smith, 2021).…”