Professional coaching: an alternative to continuing education

• Autor(a) principal: Madureira, Joana
• Data de Publicação: 2022
• Outros Autores: Lousada, Lígia Maria A.X.B., Martins, Oliva M. D.
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://doi.org/10.34620/eduser.v14i2.217
• topic: Cultura organizacional; Coaching; Organizações positivas; Desenvolvimento de competências; Formação profissional; Organizational culture; Coaching; Positive organizations; Competence development; Professional training

The main objective of this study is to analyze and understand the perception of different managers of Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) about the coaching process in a business context. For this purpose, research was conducted on positive organizations, organizational climate, and culture, vocational training, and coaching, the central theme of the study. The coaching process was framed in the context of positive organizations, with an adaptive and stimulating organizational culture, and with training practices convergent with professional development. The research method underlying the study is qualitative in nature, and a semi-structured interview was used as a data collection technique. For this purpose, five interviews were conducted with different managers from SME. Through the analysis of the interviewees discourse it can be said that the training plans of the company’s focus on technical areas and personal development and that only one company uses coaching as a method of professional development. The remaining companies use other methods of training and development of skills, and in the managers’ discourse an appreciation of soft skills and not only technical skills can be perceived. The interviewed managers consider the feedback process important for the professional development of employees and admit that one aspect to be improved in the manager-employee relationship is the communication process. From the survey, it is possible to conclude that coaching is a known practice, but hardly enforced by the interviewed SME managers, and in some cases, this knowledge results only from hearsay.