Performing versus adapting: how leader’s coaching style matters in Hong Kong

Online or offline? Coaching media as mediator of the relationship between coaching style and employee work-related outcomes

“…This division of coaching styles finds support in previous studies (Hui et al, 2013, 2019). Hui et al (2013) conducted a review of coaching studies in the HRD literature and showed that in addition to facilitating, empowering, and challenging coachees (e.g.…”

“…Recent studies have empirically shown the influence of leaders’ coaching on followers’ work engagement, emotions, and performance (Ellinger et al, 2016; Ladyshewsky and Taplin, 2017; Lawrence, 2015; Milner et al, 2018; Milner and McCarthy, 2014; Neupane, 2015; Pousa and Mathieu, 2015; Zuñiga-Collazos et al, 2020). We proposed that the effectiveness of coaching is determined by two important factors in coaching behavior—the coaching style adopted (Hui et al, 2017, 2019; Hui and Sue-Chan, 2018) and the communication medium used for coaching (Jones et al, 2016; Stein and Wanstreet, 2013). This study addresses the untested relationships between these factors and examines how leaders use different coaching styles and media to regulate followers’ behavior and performance in the workplace.…”

“…Heslin et al (2006) suggest that coaching is a leadership behavior that guides, facilitates, and inspires a coachee’s work performance in a one-on-one manner. Summarizing the key elements in these definitions, we define coaching as an HRD process in which leaders help followers improve their performance and adapt to changing demands and situations (Hui et al, 2019).…”

“…This style of coaching enables learners to acquire the necessary skills and strategies to perform a task and gain vicarious mastery (e.g. by observing a successful model) to perform a task designated by the coach (Hui et al, 2019). In facilitation coaching, the coach encourages a coachee to explore and evaluate work problems and discover solutions on their own (Hui et al, 2013).…”

“…Furthermore, Hui et al (2019) argued that in the Hong Kong cultural context, which integrates traditional Chinese culture with Western culture, coaching can be differentiated into two types of behaviors: guidance and facilitation coaching. In line with Confucian values of benevolence, authoritarianism, and paternalistic leadership (Farh and Cheng, 2000; Nangalia and Nangalia, 2010; Ng, 2013), guidance coaching emphasizes role modeling by a coach to correct ineffective behavior and deliver effective ways in performing the work or solving a work problem; whereas facilitation, reflecting its Western origin, focuses on encouraging and empowering the coachee’s self-discovery and assessment of effective strategies for performance improvement (Hui et al, 2019; Hui and Sue-Chan, 2018). Based on the unique co-existence of traditional Chinese and Western values in Hong Kong culture, Hui et al (2013) reconciled these two perspectives on coaching and proposed two types of coaching style—guidance and facilitation—that have differential effects on a coachee’s work performance.…”