MIDDLE MANAGEMENT: EXPLORING THE PRACTICE OF WORKPLACE COACHING – A GROUNDED THEORY STUDY

Abstract

The purpose of this interpretivist grounded theory study was to understand how Canadian middle managers are coaching in today’s disrupted organizational environments. The traditional genre of inductive grounded theory guided this research. The author conducted twenty semi-structured interviews with Canadian middle managers who conduct workplace coaching in cross-industry service organizations of varying sizes. Utilizing constant comparison data analysis central to grounded theory methodology, ten dominant study themes are outlined of which three are central to the resulting grounded theory implying a need to reposition the focus of workplace coaching. This requires a mindset shift and addition of mental health and wellness emphasis to the conventional performance, development, and growth focus in business coaching. The purpose of doing so is to influence middle management coaching practice to better achieve positive organizational outcomes and wellbeing within constant disruption. Several important findings of how middle managers coach in constant disruption emerged from this study. Given constant disruption middle managers are engaged in increasing levels of complex emotional work. They do not feel well prepared skill wise to coach in disruption. Findings suggest conventional leadership and coaching theories are not aligned with addressing emotional work and constant disruption. Coaching tools and frameworks are not adequate to address organizational wellness nor integrated with mental health tools and resources. Lastly, participants expressed a need for boundary delineation between workplace coaching, workplace counseling, and clinical counseling in determining where their competence ends and the need for referral begins. This study contributes to extending leadership and workplace coaching bodies of knowledge by providing a grounded theory implying the need to reposition the focus of workplace coaching. Using lived experiences and presenting practical evidence of the challenges in addressing workplace emotions and stress offers an updated view of middle manager coaching practice within modern organizations. Findings contribute to advancing middle management coach training and development through the recommendation to integrate non-psychological counseling skills into workplace coaching to address boundary delineation between workplace coaching, workplace counseling, and clinical counseling. The purpose of doing so in a business coaching context is critical in framing transparency, expectation, and safeguarding professional conduct.