Research contributions towards the professionalization of coaching: the effects of coaching on psychological resources, job attitudes and performance - a between and within-person analysis

• Autor(a) principal: Fontes, Andrea Maria Flores Oliveira
• Data de Publicação: 2021
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10071/25200
• topic: Coaching; Workplace coaching; Coaching transfer; PsyCap, change; Change; Coaching no trabalho; Transferência de coaching; Capital psicológico -- Psychological capital PsyCap; Mudança

Coaching, an increasingly popular intervention in organizations, aims to induce change in coachees through collaborative, reflective and goal-focused relationships while achieving professional outcomes. Rooted in practice, coaching struggles to find the pathway to becoming a profession. Through four empirical studies, this thesis intends to contribute towards a more theoretically informed coaching practice, to fill some of the existing gaps in the literature. Given the non-homogeneous development of coaching worldwide, the first study provides perspective on the practice in Portugal. Findings evidence the need for theory-based practice, highlighting psychologists as better equipped practitioners with theory-driven tools. The second study attests to coaching effects regarding job attitudes and performance, plus the role of Psychological Capital (PsyCap) as mediator between coaching and job attitudes. The third study explores the transfer process in coaching. Three types of learning were found, together with main factors hindering transfer. The introduction of reflective writing exercises, based on PsyCap, evidenced its relevance also in coaching transfer. The last study analyses the change process in reflection, after coaching. Three types of change were found. The ability of implicit person theory to predict change and the correlations between change and coachees' reactions was shared. This thesis contributes to coaching research with implications for theory and practice, evidencing explanatory mechanisms of effectiveness, sustainability over time and the factors implied in coaching transfer. The rigorous and diverse methodological designs plus the theory driven tools also contribute to enrich the wellsupported empirical research thus to the professionalization of coaching practice.