Given the prevalence of instrumental and positivistic accounts on coaching, our article aims to contribute to a critical theory of coaching by articulating two under-researched topics in the field: power and space. We do so by building on the Lefebvrian political approach to space; more specifically, we show that depending on the coach’s experience of the coaching space, three types of power relationships are produced within the coach–coachee–organization triad: independent, mediated, and parallel. Accordingly, the coaching space appears to be either a generator, supporter, or analyzer of power. Overall, by approaching coaching as a political space, we call for increased awareness of the conditions that facilitate the experience of the coaching space as empowering rather than limiting and controlling.
Through a study of 20 semistructured interviews using the critical incident method, this article explores the nature of the multiple agendas within the triangular relationship that connects the coach, coachee, and an organization and the challenges associated with their management. The article suggests prerequisites to coaching program applications as well as learning approaches to help coaches embrace the power dynamics associated with their intervention.
Our article
depicts and interrogates the claims for seeing coaching and mentoring as being distinct from each other, and rather suggests that context is agentic in determining which aspects of these two helping orientations are likely to be used by practitioners. To start with, our article traces the development of coaching and mentoring as two separate discourses. Traditionally, coaching has been associated with a shorter term performance focus, with the coach portrayed as a process‐ rather than a content knowledge−based expert. By contrast, mentoring has a longer‐term holistic focus, where the mentor has direct experience and knowledge in the setting that the mentee is operating in. Then, we discuss some limitations of seeking conceptual distinctiveness in purely theoretical terms, including accentuating differences of practices that cannot easily be disentangled from each other in practice. Therefore, on the basis of a case study, where coaching and mentoring behaviors are used by leaders and managers, we argue that context plays an agentic role and influences which of the helping orientations is used by practitioners. We conclude that, context being multifaceted, it leads to a kaleidoscope of coaching/mentoring behaviors, which supports a practice‐based approach to the debate.
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