Elaine Cox ✉ (Oxford Brookes University)

In this issue of IJEBCM we present eight papers: there are seven peer reviewed academic papers and one reflection from the field, practitioner paper. There is a range of coaching and mentoring topics, including the first two papers which focus on organisational issues, and other papers that report on important work that is being carried out with coaching young people and students at both undergraduate and doctoral level. As ever, we have papers demonstrating the work being done across the globe, not only in the UK, but also Australia, South Africa and Canada,

Our first paper is from colleagues at Curtin University, Australia. Ladyshewsky and Taplin use a quantitative methodology to examine the interplay between organizational learning culture, the manager as coach, self-efficacy and workload on employee work engagement. MBA students were surveyed about the impact of managerial coaching on work engagement. Results indicate a positive influence and also reveal that self-efficacy and workload influence work engagement.

Our next paper focuses on business coaching to facilitate business improvement projects (BIPs). Klopper and Van Coller-Peter from the University of Stellenbosch Business School, South Africa report on research investigating how coaching processes support the implementation of BIPs. The study indicates that the selection and application of processes and tools were influenced by factors not considered and showed a 45% deviation from current literature.

Our third paper is entitled “A narrative approach to coaching multiple selves”. In the paper, Paul Lawrence from Sydney Business School, Australia, outlines the origins of multiplicity theories arguing that a multiplicity perspective of self can challenge us to think differently about coaching. Lawrence also argues that a narrative approach to coaching may be particularly useful in this context and proposes some initial approaches to applying multiplicity theory in practice.

The next contribution from Lorenz, working in sports coaching in Canada, looks at the concepts of hierarchy, community and attachment when integrating at-risk youth into martial arts and combat sports academies. Lorenz suggests cultural shifts have eroded the hierarchical structures that traditionally provided guidance to youth. This means youth are experiencing a void that affects their development. The research shows that integrating youth into supportive communities through coaching may promote psycho-social development.

Our next two papers relate to students in university contexts. Lane and Wilde from Imperial College London, UK, explore the impact of coaching on doctoral students. They use a mixed methods approach to reveal positive participant responses on their experience, highlighting that coaching enabled action, developed confidence and improved personal effectiveness. The study suggests ways coaching can help postgraduate research students to address challenges.

Lefdahl-Davis and colleagues, working at Indiana Wesleyan University, USA, have looked at the impact of life coaching on undergraduate students. They identify how, at colleges and universities in the United States, free counseling resources are often provided for students, but provision of coaching services is less common. Their mixed methods study reports on some of the advantages and outcomes of providing life coaching to undergraduates, and suggests important increases for students’ self-confidence, awareness of values and alignment with decision making, connection to life purpose, and individual goal setting and attainment.

Our seventh paper focuses on mentoring. Fried and colleagues from Western University, London, Ontario, explored mentors’ perspectives of a mentoring and activity program designed to build mental health resiliency. The year-long study explored how 30 senior kinesiology students focused on building resilience among first-year students using physical activity and mentorship. The experiences of mentors were tracked using qualitative interviews and questionnaires and indicated the program’s positive influence on physical activity, resilience, and mental health.

Our final paper is a ‘Reflection from the Field’. Here, Seto and Geithner, working in academia in Canada introduce ‘Metaphor Magic’, a technique that draws from symbolic modeling, systems theory, sandplay therapy, and clean language to support clients in coaching and coaching supervision. A ‘Metaphor Magic’ box contains objects that clients can use to build and explore their metaphoric landscape in relation to a question, topic, or scenario. The coach or coaching supervisor then facilitates a discovery-based process using a variety of questions to support clients in examining the content and context of their landscape.