Engendering executive reflexivity: A multi-perspective executive coach competency

Gilhespy, Heather

Abstract

This study seeks to present an original contribution to the theorisation of executive coach competencies. A set of competencies which belong to the category engendering executive reflexivity were identified as being evident across a sub-group of executive coaching research that have not been theorised to date. The competency to engender executive reflexivity is believed to depend on a coach’s ability to make a particular type of educational intervention, one where they invite executives to consider that their sense-making is subject to psychological or psychosocial processes that are invisible to them. Different sub-types of the competency are defined in relation to the specific type of psychological or psychosocial processes that the coach brings to the executive’s awareness. A flexible research strategy was adopted (Robson, 2002). Primary data were collected from five executives and thirteen executive coaches. Two case studies from the executive coaching literature were analysed. A multi-perspective analysis of the data analysis was influenced by Holland’s (1999) transdisciplinary reflexivity model. The data analysis was informed by critical realism (Bhaskar, 2006, 2010). The main goal of the analysis was to develop an explanatory framework of the role particular coach competencies played in equipping executives to shift from unreflexive to reflexive approaches to their problems.
It is proposed that when executive coaches possess competencies to make educational interventions which provide executives with insights to practice reflexivity they can help executives to resolve problems which they might not otherwise be able to do. It is concluded that the competencies can play a valuable role in helping executives to develop efficacious responses to problems they encounter when influenced by some psychological and psychosocial processes such as psychodynamic defences, unconscious group processes, and self-limiting beliefs.

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 7, 2019
• Keywords: executive reflexivity, executive coach competency
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/900775
• Award Date: Jan 1, 2017