Coaching as a Supportive Measure to Leadership Identity Building

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Master’s thesis

Innovation management, Business School, University of Eastern Finland

COACHING AS A SUPPORTIVE MEASURE TO LEADERSHIP IDENTITY BUILDING

Maiju Jalkanen

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ABSTRACT

UNIVERSITY OF EASTERN FINLAND Faculty

Faculty of Social Sciences and Business Studies

Department

Business School

Author

Jalkanen, Maiju

Supervisor

Lehtimäki, Hanna

Title

Coaching as a supportive measure to Leadership Identity Building

Main subject

Innovation Management

Level

Master’s thesis

Date

14.9.2020

Number of pages

65

Abstract

The purpose of this academic research is to shed light to relation between executive coaching and leadership identity building. The research gap was pointed out in Pauli Kallio’s dissertation “Shifting identities of managers. A narrative study on the identity and identification of middle management in a a transition phase of an organization”.

The theoretical framework is based on leadership science literature focusing on coaching and leadership identity, as well as identity building. The connection of executive coaching and leadership identity lacks previous research, and thus the research draws from a multitude of sources and views. Ultimately the theoretical framework illustrates how various coaching discourses may play a role in a coaching process – both on the coach and the client, meaning the organization who buys the coaching service, and the individual(s) receiving the coaching.

The qualitative mixed-method study was conducted in the context of adult education, more specifically executive Master of Business Administration (eMBA) students of University of Eastern Finland, who received 1–5 coaching sessions as a part of their studies. The participants were in leadership positions in their respective organizations while attending the eMBA degree studies. The data for this study was collected with focus group discussion and individual interview, as well as by analyzing the written materials the eMBA students had received at an event meant to introduce them to coaching.

This study addresses the effect of coaching to an individual’s leadership identity building process and what is the coach’s role in that process. The results show that the coaching acts as a catalyst to an active leadership identity building process, and the coach acts as a mirror with whom the individual coachee can reflect and rearrange their thoughts.

Key words: executive coaching, leadership, leadership identity, identity building, coaching discourses

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Tiivistelmä

ITÄ-SUOMEN YLIOPISTO Tiedekunta

Yhteiskuntatieteiden ja kauppatieteiden tiedekunta

Yksikkö

Kauppatieteiden laitos

Tekijä

Jalkanen, Maiju

Ohjaaja

Lehtimäki, Hanna

Työn nimi (suomeksi ja englanniksi)

Coaching johtajuusidentiteetin kehityksen tukena (Coaching as a supportive measure to Leadership Identity Building)

Pääaine

Innovation Management

Työn laji

Pro gradu -tutkielma

Aika

14.9.2020

Sivuja

65

Tiivistelmä

Tämän tutkielman tarkoitus on lisätä ymmärrystä coachingin ja johtajuusidentiteetin välisestä

yhteydestä. Tutkimusaukko on poimittu Pauli Kallion väitöskirjasta ”Esimiehen muuttuvat identiteetit.

Narratiivinen tutkimus keskijohdon identiteeteistä ja samaistumisesta organisaatiomurroksessa”.

Teoreettinen viitekehys nojautuu johtajuuskirjallisuuteen, erityisesti keskittyen coachingiin ja johtajuusidentiteettiin. Lisäksi on käytetty kirjallisuutta identiteetin kehityksestä. Yritysjohdollisen valmennuksen, eli coachingin, ja johtajuusidentiteetin yhteydestä ei ole vielä olemassa aiempaa tutkimusta. Tästä johtuen tutkimuksessa on hyödynnetty useita erilaisia lähteitä ja näkökulmia.

Lopullinen teoreettinen viitekehys kuvaa kuinka erilaiset coaching-diskurssit vaikuttavat coaching- prosessiin – vaikutus koskee sekä valmentajaa että asiakasta, tarkoittaen sekä organisaatiota, joka ostaa coaching-palvelun, että yksilöä tai yksilöitä, jotka osallistuvat coachingiin valmennettavina.

Laadullinen monimenetelmätutkimus totetutettiin aikuisopetuksen kontekstissa, tarkemmin kuvattuna osallistujat olivat Itä-Suomen yliopiston Executive Master of Business Administration - ohjelman opiskelijoita, jotka saivat osana opintojaan 1–5 coaching-tapaamista. Tutkimusaineisto kerättiin fokusryhmäkeskustelulla, yksilöhaastattelulla ja lisäksi analysoitiin kirjallista materiaalia, joka opiskelijoille jaettiin osana tapahtumaa, jossa heille oli tarkoitus esitellä coachingia.

Tämä tutkimus käsittelee sitä, kuinka coaching vaikuttaa yksilön johtajuusidentiteetin kehitykseen prosessina ja mikä valmentajan rooli on siinä. Tulokset osoittavat, että coaching on katalysaattori, joka aktivoi johtajuusidentiteetin kehitysprosessia ja valmentaja auttaa valmennettavaa

reflektoimaan ja jäsentämään ajatuksiaan.

Avainsanat: yritysjohtaminen, johtajuus, johtajuusidentiteetti, identiteetin kehitys, coaching-diskurssit

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Coaching is a current trend in the world of business. Managers, leaders and various influencers in organizations seek and receive coaching in order to improve themselves and improve their companies at the same time. The effectiveness of coaching has been widely discussed, but what has been left with less attention is what happens to the

leader’s identities during the coaching process. The process can consist of any time frame from three separate coaching sessions on the course of some months to an extensive coaching programme spanning up to 1-2 years. In the context of executive or

management-level coaching, the coach helps the person receiving the coaching to set and achieve goals and build their views of their company and their leadership. Little is

known, how much the coach contributes to the process of building one’s leadership identity –as the point of coaching is that the coach provides guidance, but the individual does the actual “work” by themselves. The work could mean active identity work, or other things, such as developing problem-solving skills or other capabilities leaders need in their roles.

The topic of this thesis research is development of leadership identity during a coaching process, and what is the coach’s role in the process. The objective is to find out how the leaders receiving coaching view their own leadership identity before and after the

coaching process and what they think of the coach’s significance in the possible changes they have in their leadership identities during or after the process. The thesis draws mostly on leadership research literature but also features thoughts from current psychology literature when it comes to matters of identity and coaching.

The study is carried out in an educational context, as I am working together with

Aducate, which is a part of University of Eastern Finland (UEF). Aducate offers various types of courses and training to companies and arranges the open university courses for people who are not enrolled as students in UEF. One of the services offered is coaching for people in managerial positions who are attending the executive Master of Business

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Administration (eMBA) degree programme. The people participating in the focus group discussion and interview that are a part of this study are students of Aducate’s eMBA degree programme, who are undertaking 3-5 coaching sessions as a part of their studies.

The students are top- and middle-management personnel from various Finnish companies.

The research contributes to the academic pool of management knowledge and aims to fill a research gap mentioned in Pauli Kallio’s doctoral thesis (Kallio, 2014). Kallio states that there is a need for applied empirical knowledge on the topic of executive coaching and its relation to leadership identities (2014, 131). I decided to approach this topic directly by exploring through qualitative methods what the participants of this study thought of their leadership identity and how they perceived the significance of coaching and the individual coach to their identity building process. This topic currently has zero to minimal previous research available.

On a personal level this topic interests me as a future leader and as someone who has previously received coaching as a part of a bachelor’s thesis guidance. The academic and practical knowledge gained from the study will benefit me in my personal career

planning and could possibly help others in understanding the significance of coaching for leaders in various types of organizations.

1.2 The purpose of the study

The goal of the study is to find general themes that highlight the understanding that the leaders have of their own leadership identity and how they perceive that the coaching and the coach as a person changed or didn’t change their leadership identity during the

coaching process. It should be noted that all changes do not happen directly during the coaching process but might arise later.

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8 The main research question in this thesis is:

“What kind of role does coaching play in the process of an individual’s leadership identity building?”

The additional sub-question is:

“What is the coach’s role in the identity building process?”

Pauli Kallio (2014) discusses the topic of leadership identity from the middle

management’s point of view, specifically focusing on how people in middle-management positions express their identities as leaders and the identity work that they do. Kallio introduces four distinct types of leadership identification, based on Elsbach’s theory (Kallio 2014, 13), that were found during personal coaching sessions. The positive identification signifies high engagement to the organization and its goals, while disidentification is actively repelling the values and qualities of the organization.

Disidentification is not purely negative as it allows a leader to view the organization from a distance and thus see points of development and possibilities for innovation. The

ambivalent identification is often emotionally and cognitively taxing because of the discourse and changes in the organization’s values and actions and how the leader views them, while the neutral identification is respectively less stressful and turbulent. (Kallio 2014, 17–21)

Kallio points out the research gap (2014, 131) that I will focus on in this thesis, namely the relation between coaching and leadership identity work. Baron and Parent (2015) found that there are distinct phases in developing authentic leadership, and in the

exploration phase the interviewed managers increased their awareness of themselves and specified their issues in leadership, as well as found possible solutions to address those issues. Authentic leadership refers to a process which involves “positive psychological capabilities and a highly developed organizational context, which results in both greater self-awareness and self-regulated positive behaviors on the part of leaders...” (Luthans &

Avolio 2003, 243, as cited in Baron & Parent, 2015). Similarly to Kallio, Baron and Parent point out that there is a “black box” in the development of authentic leadership (2015, 38), meaning that little to none is known about the process the individual leaders

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go through during the development of their leadership identity. This research gap has been scrutinized in this thesis from the assumption that coaching can support

development of authentic leadership.

The above-mentioned research questions contribute to the existing literature by answering to previously unanswered points in the field of leadership identity. The main contribution to existing literature is on finding out what kind of process does the individual go through in the “black box”, and is the individual actively aware of the process while it is still on- going, or do they realize the existence of the process after it is finished. It can be argued, though, that the identity building process never stops and thus is never completely

“finished”. In this study it is assumed that undergoing coaching places special emphasis on this identity building process and can make it more active, so the mention of the identity building process being finished refers to the active stage spurred by the coaching arriving to completion.

In order to answer these questions, I have first reviewed existing literature and then supplemented it with conducting a focus group discussion with leaders who are currently undergoing (or have recently undergone) coaching sessions as well as an individual interview with one of the participants. I expect that points arising from the analysis of the focus group discussions would match previous findings from the literature.

1.3 Key concepts of the study

The key concepts of the study are leadership identity, identity building and coaching. I rely heavily on the concept of identity building, as the main objective is to research how the coaching affects this aspect in the leaders’ lives.

Social identity is a construct which helps an individual to answer questions like “who am I” and “how do I feel about other people”. “It is a sense of self associated with an awareness that one belongs to a particular social group and that this group membership is important and meaningful” (Tajfel, 1972 as cited in Haslam, Reicher & Platow, 2011, 46).

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It helps position oneself with the rest of the world, as people form groups and different types of collectivities based on this understanding of themselves and each other. (Haslam, Reicher & Platow, 2011, 56.)

Leadership identity is a type of social identity, in which an individual perceives themselves as being in a leading position in a social group of people. The identity is explicitly bound to a group setting and cannot exist without that context (Haslam, Reicher & Platow, 2011, 45). Leadership identity forms along with the leadership experiences that an individual gains over time, even before entering the workforce (Yeager & Callahan, 2016, 286-287).

The identity includes both self-awareness as a leader and the social competencies needed for the role, such as empathy and conflict solving skills (Yeager & Callahan, 2016, 288;

Day, 2001). Learning those social skills and building the identity can be argued to be a lifelong process, and they start forming from early social training and childhood family behavioral models (Yeager & Callahan, 2016; Komives, Owen, Longerbeam, Mainella &

Osteen, 2005).

Identity building in the leadership identity building context means the process where the individual is gaining new ways of thinking (perspectives), doing and producing new behaviors and developing their own self-concept as a leader. (Yeager & Callahan, 2016, 289). Identifying oneself as a leader is an emphasized part of the identity building process, as it encourages the individual to seek more leadership experiences and thus gain more experience and build the identity further. Others validating the experiences supports the process. (Lord & Hall, 2005; Yeager & Callahan, 2016)

Coaching is, similarly to mentoring, a method of social intervention where a coachee strives to solve problems or set reasonable goals and receives help in this through discussions with the coach (Western, 2012). In business context, according to Räsänen (2007, 15), “coaching offers a personal and effective means to develop management and leadership as well as the organization”. Along with having goals that aim to help both the coachee and their organization, the coaching process also has a time limit. Typically, the contract between the coach and the two other parties includes 5-10 coaching sessions in 1-

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4-week intervals. The intensity can vary depending on the situation of the coachee and the organization, for example in crisis situations the interval can be relatively short compared to non-urgent situations (Räsänen, 2007, 43).

Although the process has a limited time span, the results of it are supposed to be long-term instead of quick fixes to acute problems (Räsänen, 2007,16). The coaching process often involves three parties: the coach, the organization that buys the coaching, and the individual coachee who is a member of the organization.

In the second chapter of this thesis the topics of leadership identity, coaching and the dimensions of them will be explored. The third chapter explains the methodological approach and data collection along with the analysis of it. In the fourth chapter, the results of the research are showcased and explained further. Finally, in the fifth chapter, there are conclusions, summary of the most crucial findings and discussions for further research.

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12 2 THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

2.1 Leadership research

This research is set in the context of leadership research, more specifically leadership psychology and leadership identity. The traditional view of leadership has been personality and charisma-centered for decades, but it has slowly evolved into a more context-based understanding, where being a leader depends on situations, relationships, communication and membership in a set group of people (Haslam, Reicher & Platow, 2011).

Leadership psychology is a very varied field. There are conflicting and overlapping views of very basic terms such as what the definition of leadership is. A central divide seems to be between considering leadership to be situational, and leadership being dependent on the relationships between the leader and the followers, i.e. the contingency factors (Haslam et al., 2011; DeRue & Ashford, 2010).

Leadership has been widely researched ever since ancient times, but it constantly evolves and changes along with the changes in human society. Until recently, the researchers’

focus has been on the leader, more than the motivations of the followers for following the leader. This explains why the earlier research has been very person-focused, but instead it can be argued that the key to leadership roles lies in identifying with the group and helping the group reach shared goals. Leadership is only partially about personality, and more about the followers’ desire to identify as a group and either accept or reject the goal incentives that the leader gives. (Haslam et al., 2011)

Collective leadership is a recent theoretical umbrella term that covers the topic of shared and relational aspects of leadership (Ospina, Foldy, Fairhurst & Jackson, 2020).

Leadership identity is directly linked to these topics, as only when identifying as a part of a group can one identify as a leader. One cannot be a leader without followers. Currently the collective leadership (CL) research field is inconsistent in research methodological choices and theoretical background, but this thesis is situated in the stream where

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collective leadership is thought to be a type of leadership which includes multiple types of leadership co-existing, such as co-leadership, shared leadership, team leadership etc.

However, CL does not play a central part in this thesis, but rather it has linkages to the Network Coach discourse (Western, 2012) discussed later concerning the theoretical framework of this paper.

The setting of this research relies heavily on positive organizational psychology view of leadership. This includes views of authentic leadership, where the individual identifies themselves with the role of a leader rather than just acts as a leader because they have been put into a position where it is necessary. (Ladkin & Spiller, 2013; Haslam et al., 2011). There are arguments that authentic leadership is deeply flawed as a school of thought (Alvesson & Einola, 2019) and that it lacks basis in real-life organizational practice and is overly idealistic. The especially critiqued feature of authentic leadership is its inconsistent theoretical foundations and empirical evidence.

I have chosen to use the view of positive organizational psychology despite its

misgivings because it offers adequate terminology and contextual basis for this research setting. Additionally, as the main research question has been drawn from the suggestions of an earlier research by Pauli Kallio, it serves a purpose to fit the theoretical lens to be similar to that. Continuing to seek answers to the research question with the same view offers more consistency in analyzing the results.

To further address the theoretical view in this research: authentic leadership as a concept has its benefits. Coaching, rising from its “negative” roots, has been reborn from the positivist school, and authentic leadership matches the ideas and historical and theoretical background as coaching. This thesis is not meant to be a critique of positive

organizational psychology, rather it serves as a framework and deviations from it are explained and justified as needed.

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14 2.2 Leadership identity

Lord and Hall (2005) propose that leadership skills and performance build over time, and at the same time the individual’s information processing and knowledge structures undergo changes as well. To keep building needed social, behavioral and cognitive skills and structures, the aspect of leadership needs to be a part of the individual’s identity, as the process takes a very long time and needs commitment and consistency. Lord and Hall point out that the long, deep process has been hardly researched and instead current research (back at that time) was more focused on the short-term changes acquired from training or self-directed learning (2005, 592). Their fundamental research explores leadership skills, along with leadership identity, evolving through various levels from novice to expert stages. The novice level starts with small problem-solving experiences and observational learning from other leaders, and over time develops to high-level systems for behavior and knowledge, as well as social points of view.

Self-identifying as a leader is an essential factor in developing as a leader. Identity offers a frame for utilizing one’s knowledge, is a source of motivation for putting oneself to various development-involving situations and can be used to motivate subordinates or others through sharing personal experiences or stories. (Lord & Hall, 2005, 592)

Day and Harrison (2007) introduce an evolution of definitions and notable features of leadership, starting from leadership being a role-based authority and ending in leadership being a complex system of social interdependencies and possibly shared leadership. They describe that identity types and self-concepts can be divided to levels and can be

relational or interpersonal in nature. They refer to Lord and Hall’s theory (2005) when stating that leader identity is subject to change depending on the levels of inclusiveness and as the leaders’ identities grow their focus shifts from individuals to larger, relational and collective levels. (Day & Harrison, 2007, 366).

It is also argued that lower-level managers have more focus on individual leadership identities whereas high-level mangers, such as general managers and CEOs have more

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focus on collective identities (Day & Harrison, 2007, 360–361). This aligns with Lord and Hall’s theory of leadership identity and the necessary skills building over time, as typically one cannot be appointed to a high-level position such as general manager without first being a lower level manager (in the same organization or not) and gaining insight and experience. The different levels of managers experience multilevel issues that stem from organizational hierarchy and related organizational behavior and are further complexified by top down and bottom-up moving influences. Day and Harrison lean on existing literature and suggest that instead of having only one leader in charge of a team or group of people, the solution would be to divide responsibility among team members and including them in decision making (2007, 363). The concept of leadership should be focused to a networked, interpersonal context instead of thinking of it as an individual leader that is in charge.

Svenningsson and Larsson state that leadership is often described with traditional and stereotypical architype where the leader is “strong, direct and persuasive with abilities to engage and commit others to follow his (sic) vision” (2006, 203) but the traditional view is currently changing to welcome a wider variety of leaders and leadership styles.

Clearly, they share this understanding of growing variety of acceptable leadership styles with Day and Harrison. While discovering the differences between the general

managerial talk and the actual leadership practice, it was noted that there are only few studies addressing identity work and identity construction (2006, 204) that leaders go through and what its significance is.

Svenningsson and Larsson’s study focuses on middle-level managers, but I found that many of the findings seem likely to be similar to higher-level managers too. The study also makes a clear definition between leadership and management: management is described as control, coordination and directing and is seen as something “more formal and scientific compared to leadership” (2006, 205), whereas leadership is more about transforming the organization and giving inspiration.

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Robert Allio (2005) argues that leadership cannot be taught in classes or courses, that a manager can only become a leader by doing actions as a leader and learn from those experiences. This ultimately makes leadership education at universities and private institutions ineffective and even useless, as managers tend to go back to their previous ways of handling their operations a few weeks after a course or training (Allio, 2005, 1072). It is noted that leaders fill roles that each have a specific purpose, but some of the core qualities and traits of good leaders come naturally and cannot be taught or learned.

So, filling a role is possible but some inherent aspects, like creativity, can be missing.

Haslam, Reicher and Platow (2011) argue that there are rules to effective leadership, based on shared sense of social identity in a group. The rules are that the leaders are in-group prototypes and champions, as well as both entrepreneurs and embedders of identity. These rules mean that leader to be allowed in their position is perceived as a model example of an individual of their group, and they are working for the collective good of the group – not just for themselves. Combined to that they construct their identity so that their policies are seen influential to others and transfer the feeling of group identity to social reality.

(Haslam et al.,2011, 75).

To add to Haslam, Reicher and Platow’s point of view, DeRue and Ashford question the portrayal of leadership identity as something static and intrapersonal and instead present that leadership is a claimed and granted role in a group context that can change over time (2010, 628). The acts of claiming and granting can be straight-forward or more discreet, but depending on the number of individuals that grant leadership to one person, the perceived strength and competence to leadership improves (DeRue & Ashford, 2010;

Marchiondo, Myers & Kopelman, 2015).

Marchiondo et al (2015) add to DeRue and Ashford’s theory by including gender as a factor that affects perceptions of leadership, and thus it affects also the act of granting and claiming leadership. The participants of the study viewed videos or read short texts of a scenario where two male managers in a large international company were in a meeting and either claimed leadership of the situation to themselves or granted it to the other person, and the other person either accepted or rejected it. It was found that especially

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females viewed the actor (i.e. the person who started the meeting and either claimed or granted the leadership) to be a more competent leader than the respondent (i.e. the other person in the scenario), when the actor’s leadership claim was accepted. The respondent was seen equally competent as a leader in the scenario where the respondent rejected the actor’s claim. Interestingly, the views of the respondent’s competence did not

significantly differ between genders. (Marchiondo et al., 2015, 902–903)

In this quantitative study, it was emphasized that leadership identity construction is a relational, negotiated process between the participants in a situation. Views of a leader’s competence depended on whether or not their claim was accepted or rejected by the other person, as the participants of the study interpreted the leadership claim as appropriate or inappropriate depending on the response. In cases where the claim was rejected and seemed inappropriate, the ratings of the actor’s competence as a leader were lower.

(Marchiondo et al., 2015, 903)

It was repeated innumerous times in the reviewed literature that leadership cannot be taught from books or lessons, but rather has to be built over time from the individual’s leadership experiences and cognitive identity building. Although not as extreme in their opinions as Allio, other researchers also seem to consider that the value of leadership education is that it teaches problem solving skills and leadership literacy. Instead, coaching is seen as more wholesome method for learning leadership as it entails finding solutions to various issues and there can be an aspect of self-discovery about one and one’s identity too. This is somewhat contradictory, as those who take part in coaching may already be in leadership positions in their organizations. It can be argued that coaching cannot be a first step to leadership but can serve well as a way to build leadership skills and identity after the initial phases.

Throughout all the reviewed leadership literature, the importance of communication is heavily emphasized. Communication and interpersonal relations and interdependences are generally seen to be main pillars in current-day leadership. Communication styles can vary across genders, various personalities and age groups, and thus I am left wondering if

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women and extroverts who are generalized to have better social skills compared to their introverted or male counterparts are truly at advantage as leaders or not. In itself such a black and white division of genders and personality-types can seem slightly old-

fashioned. This is not the key focus of this thesis research and can be left without further contemplation, but there is room for future research on this topic.

2.3 Coaching

When it comes to executive coaching, Kombarakaran, Yang, Baker and Fernandes define it as “a short-term interactive process between a coach and a manager to improve

leadership effectiveness” (2008,79). As coaching is based on communication and exchanging opinions, it is seen as a way of changing a leader’s behavior without them experiencing that their self-esteem or worth is being questioned. Coaching helps the participant to mirror their own actions and develop their behavior patterns to alternative directions from the ones that they possibly deem unsuccessful during the coaching process. They coach plays an important role as a facilitator in the process, but a coach’s personality and style of carrying out his role affect the development of the leader (Kombarakaran et al. 2008, 80).

Western (2012) calls coaching a bridge between the “wounded self” and the “celebrated self” and means by this that it connects these aspects of talking as a tool of psychological work, familiar from career counselling or psychological therapy, and self-reflection and faith in oneself. Coaching started off resembling career counselling but was later

reinvented to focus more on the positive and goal-oriented “celebrated self”. This led to coaching becoming more popular and socially acceptable, as the previous version was associated with the “wounded self” that needed help and guidance of a therapist to overcome problems. (Western, 2012, 3–11) It should be remarked that the influence of positive psychology is heavily visible in today’s coaching practices and how it is showcased in media and other information outlets. The general public, as well as the coaches and coaches view coaching as “a good thing”, so much that it is unquestionable in their minds (Western, 2012, 25), but the true effectivity of it has only been questioned

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as more academic research on the topic has been made. Western argues that maybe the return of interest (ROI) -thinking is not necessary for coaching, as the benefits cannot be easily measured in money or other measures, and the whole coaching industry is still in the process of taking shape and creating universal standards and regulations (Western, 2012, 26).

The field of coaching has surged exponentially from the early 2000’s until this day. In 2012 there was an estimate of 41 300 active coaches worldwide (Kahn, 2014, xvii), and the number has kept growing since then. The field is interdisciplinary and there are no barriers for entering the business. This has led to coaches coming from various

backgrounds, such as psychology, sports, business or human resources. Psychology has a dominant position in the current coaching industry, due to its past association with counseling and psychotherapy (Kahn, 2014, xx). However, business science has its advantages in coaching, as the clients are businesses – the coach with a background in business and the client share common vocabulary, which might help the coach identify the client’s needs better than one with no or little knowledge of business.

The general themes executive coaching handles can be summarized as goals (goal setting, pursuit and/or achievement), decision making, understanding the business or

organizational environment, understanding the client’s self, exploring their values and beliefs, and managing emotions (Megginson & Clutterbuck, 2009, 129). The discussions between a coach and their client can focus on one of these themes, or a mixture of them.

There can also be other topics, such as universally difficult organizational or managerial questions that the client wants to discuss. Although the coaching is conducted

individually, the focus is not individual-centric. On the contrary, the focus is on a wider picture of the whole organization where the individual coachee works (Kahn, 2014, 6).

A good coaching process starts with the coach and the client, in this case a leader, gauging whether they are a suitable fit for each other before making a contract (Bluckert 2006, 37). They should also clarify the client’s goals and the practical arrangements, such as meeting places and frequency and methods of evaluation right away before diving

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deeper into the process. There is no clear conclusion on the importance of how specific the coachee’s goal setting should be, although in current leadership and coaching literature the specific and measurable goal setting style is more favored (Megginson &

Clutterbuck, 2009; Bluckert 2006). There are arguments for and against very specific goal setting, but ultimately the most crucial factor is having the coachee commit to the set goals. The goals should mutually benefit both the individual coachee and the client organization (Kahn, 2014; Bluckert 2006).

The financial aspect, such as fees and possible costs of cancellation is relevant to be set in a clear manner before starting the coaching. Further in the process the exact agenda for coaching and the structure of the coaching intervention should be discussed – after these it is less complicated to focus on the actual coaching sessions and the client’s needs. The coaching process should be concluded with review and evaluation. (Bluckert, 2006;

Räsänen, 2007)

The special aspect of coaching is that in executive coaching both the organization and the individual coachee are the coach’s clients. Räsänen contributes to Bluckert’s theory by adding that there is need to inform the coach on which other kinds of development- related processes are currently going on in the organization that the coachee comes from.

This is relevant for understanding the client organization and the individual coachee’s current standing and thus the coach can better help the coachee to reflect the aspects they want to improve on (Räsänen, 2007, 44). It is also pointed out that there may be multiple coaches involved with the organization at the same time, but a coach shouldn’t be

involved in the organization in multiple roles as it creates an obvious conflict of interests and can harm the objectivity of the coach and create distrust for the client.

Hernez-Broome and Boyce (2011) reflect how executive coaching has evolved from the

“Wild West” of early 2000’s to the current, more refined discipline as the volumes of people receiving and offering coaching have grown exponentially and the amount of academic literature on the topic has emerged. Hernez-Broome and Boyce introduce a framework where they, similarly to Bluckert, propose that the coaching process starts off

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with the coach’s and the client’s comparing their characteristics and readiness toward the co-operative process, and then moves on to checking that the coach’s capabilities and the client’s needs match. At the same time, the two sides consider the organizational support for the process. After these steps the coaching process, including its various mechanics, tools and content, the used method and outcomes of the coaching have a firm base to build on.

Burke and Collins (2005) introduce a framework on transferring conflict solving skills and learning via leadership development programmes. According to the authors the framework can be used for skill transfer for other situations from conflict solving as well.

The framework explains how leadership development programmes, like coaching or executive training in universities, build knowledge in the development of conflict handling skills. The learning is divided to two pathways, the procedural path and the declarative path. The procedural path has a tactical, action-based learning approach, while the declarative path has a more strategic, explanative learning approach (2005, 977). The learnings that the programme aims to give are then practiced in high fidelity (procedural) or low fidelity (declarative) settings depending on the path to ensure the learning transfer to the work environment. Burke and Collins cite Arak (1990) when they state that a leader needs conflict solving skills, which include enabling trust, co-operative attitude, empathy and readiness to take responsibility for one’s own actions (2005, 976).

These mentioned features are something that I expected to arise in the focus group discussions in my study, as conflict solving is often a responsibility of a leader in the organization.

Coaching draws from a wide pool of scientific theories, such as from psychology, behaviorism, positive psychology and Gestalt theory, to name a few. The business client might not recognize the coach’s underlying theory bases as legitimate and instead relies on their “gut feeling” in their actions and decisions. (Kahn, 2014, 46–48). This creates an imbalance of views between the coach (objective, science-backed) and the client

(subjective, draws from their past experiences and gut feeling), so one duty of the coach is to offer their point-of-view to the client so that they can aim to develop their own

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thinking objectively without the bias of their earlier experiences. It needs to be addressed, though, that it is nearly impossible to have no bias at all, and also the coach themself can have biases.

There are several discourses within the field of executive coaching. Western (2012) mentions some of the most dominant ones being the soul guide discourse, the psychological expert discourse, the managerial discourse and the network coach discourse. These discourses are questioning the limits and dimensions of coaching and coaches themselves. Understanding the discourses helps the coach to work around them while guiding the coachees.

One example of these discourses is the soul guide discourse. The soul guide discourse focuses on the spiritual, or deeper inner self aspects of coaching a person. The coach offers a place and time for reflection and contemplation. (Western, 2012, 132) This has connotations to the past roles of priests and other spiritual guidance offerors, and has implications to the coachee feeling sorry about one’s misgivings and the coach giving them a chance to confess and make amends to their past behavior (2012, 152).

The managerial discourse is one of the most prominent discourses. What is unique about it compared to other discourses is that often the coach is or has been a manager

themselves. This stems from an understanding that the modern workplace is one of cognitive labor and knowledge work, and understanding emotions and identity is important for a manager. In other words, it is not just a coach needing managerial knowledge, it is also the manager who needs coaching skills. (Western, 2012, 189) The managerial discourse is deeply tangled with managerial assumptions, knowledge and skills that the manager-turned-coach bring to their coaching, as well as the influences that the clients bring to the coach. Another influence are management consultancies and business schools that offer coaching and train coaches, as they contribute their different perspectives, knowledge and skills to coaching (Western, 2012, 178).

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Another example is the network coach discourse. The discourse reflects the development of the world and understanding of organizations being more network-like than machine- like structures. This means the leaders try to cope with flat hierarchies, changing roles, complex stakeholder relationships and the aspect of globality, and the coach tries to respond to their needs. (Western, 2012, 193) The main object of this discourse is that coaching is a relatively new field, but coaching literature has problems in adapting to the fast social and organizational changes in the world. To combat this, the coaches are looking for more holistic approaches to understand complex systems and connections and try to pinpoint underlying conflicts of interest.

2.4 Theoretical framework in this study

Based on the theoretical background explained above, it is evident that leadership identity is changeable, and can grow and evolve as more time passes. There are yet unknown phases in the formation and change of leadership identity, as the identity building process is not known to follow any set of fixed stages or phases. Furthermore, as the general concept or understanding of what a leader should be like changes along with changes in society, the definition of leadership identity is fluctuating along with it.

Leadership can only happen in a group context, as there must be people filling roles of leaders and followers (or others) (Haslam, Reicher & Platow, 2011). Some studies argue that leadership can only be learned in action, meaning that an individual will build a leadership identity and a set of working practices as they gain more experience from working at a leadership position. This suggests that at first, an individual with no

leadership experience would not have any sort of way to identify themselves as a leader. I have my personal doubts about this, as an individual might have long had aspirations and ideals towards leadership before being able to reach that position. These aspirations and ideals are the first motivational steps to start building leadership identity and seek leadership experiences, as Lord and Hall (2005) found in their study with young adults.

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Coaching approaches leadership from a completely different direction, as it is in a way teaching leadership through discussions between the leader and the coach. The origins of coaching came from career counselling, and at first had a bad reputation (Western, 2017).

As the phenomenon evolved, the view of coaching turned more positive and the coaching industry can be argued to be still in a phase of formation and constant change – although it has been around for decades already.

There are various discourses in the field of coaching, and they all try to frame what coaching is. There is no single conclusive thought to this question. The discourses can overlap or appear consecutively during a coaching process, and how the coach views themselves plays a role in the matter as well.

The approach I have chosen to use in this study is relying heavily on the coaching discourses introduced by Western. These theories serve as a starting point in the analysis of collected data for this study, as I could sense opinions and views indicating towards multiple discourses during the focus group discussion in January 2019 and the individual interview in November 2019.

Figure 1. Theoretical approach for this study.

The coaching discourses affect the coaches and their clients both in direct and indirect ways. The discourses underlie in the clients’ expectations towards the coach, and in the coach’s own behaviors and working style. The coachee’s leadership identifications,

Underlying Coaching discourse(s)

“Black box”

coaching process

Leadership identity

development

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which are mirrored in the coaching discourses lead to a leadership identity development process. A part of that process happens inside a “black box”, contents of which are still unknown to all other parts of the process – and to researchers as well.

Table 1. The key features of each leadership discourse, as described by Western (2017).

Coaching discourse Key characteristics

The Soul Guide • Coach helps establishing dreams, goals and clearing obstacles. Coachee confesses their misgivings to the coach and is forgiven and/or empowered.

• Coach has authority to judge and guide the coachee’s actions and thoughts.

• Spirituality can be related; focus is on inner or spiritual self.

The Psy Expert • Focus is on outward self and performance at work.

• Coach helps coachee in changing their behavior in order to meet their goals.

• Behaviors are measured with competencies and values.

• Coach claims credibility from psy expertise of some field, such as occupational psychology.

The Managerial • Coach focuses on the coachee’s managerial role, not whole personality/self.

• Coach is often a manager and inputs their managerial knowledge and mindset in the coaching.

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• Managerial behaviors are measured with science- based tests and efficiency, logic and control are emphasized.

• Coach can be affected by the discourse and struggle to find alternative solutions to coachee’s problems.

The Network Coach • Holistic approach to contemporary society, where networks and interconnectedness are important.

• Coach helps coachee to understand complex systems and find connections and influencing factors in them.

• Ethicality and social awareness, as well as attitude towards changes are emphasized.

It is possible that the coachees do not perceive the existence of the black box, as to them the process of leadership identity development is something gradual and partially

subconscious. By understanding this gradual process, it might be possible to explain the development to others than the person experiencing it by themselves. In this study, I have approached the subject by comparing the collected data to how it reflects to the coaching discourses.

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27 3 METHODOLOGY

3.1 Methodological approach

The study was carried out with a qualitative approach by using focus group method, which involved facilitating a group discussion where eMBA students discuss the topics of coaching and leadership identity. It was used in combination with an individual interview and other materials to form a multi-method research. This combination of methods was chosen due to changes that took place during the research process: the original plan was to carry out three focus group discussions, but as the two follow-up discussions after the first one could not happen, there was need for additional data. The necessary data was collectable by conducting additional individual interviews and utilizing the electronic material that was shared with me at the Coaching Launch event.

The data was gathered between January and November 2019. The data analysis for the first focus group discussion and the transcription of it was completed in January –March 2019, and for the individual interview and other materials, the analysis took place between November 2019 and May 2020.

3.1.1 Focus group

Focus group is a method where a predetermined group is gathered in an interactive discussion with a selected focus. The members of the group have some shared experience or background that makes them fit to discuss the targeted topic of focus. The discussion is led by a facilitator and their questions should stimulate the discussion around the specific topic. The focus group discussions span usually around 60 to 90 minutes and should have between 2-10 participants (Hennik, 2014, 1-2, Eriksson & Kovalainen, 2016, 183). The content of the focus group discussion is not only what is said about the topic, but also how the participants talk about it (Eriksson & Kovalainen, 2016, 182).

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In the focus group discussion conducted for this thesis, the eMBA students were supposed to be in the beginning of their coaching process and had yet to receive any individual coaching sessions (however two of the participants had already started their coaching process in the past months). In the following supplementary individual interview, they had gone through 1-5 coaching sessions and were supposed to analyze what kind of changes they have noted in their behaviors and views of what is a leader and what kind of leader they see themselves as. The focus group discussion took place in January 2019, and the supplementary interview was in November 2019.

In this research’s case the participants shared the experience of being leaders in their respective organizations, and that was the criteria for them to be invited to the discussion.

In the discussion I acted as a facilitator and prepared a frame of questions for them

beforehand. The frame acted as a guideline for both the facilitator and the members of the discussion and it entailed the key questions and themes that I desired to gain knowledge upon. The language of the questions and the discussions was Finnish, but for the sake of this study relevant parts were translated to English. During the discussions I observed the participants while also acting as a facilitator. The discussions were recorded with a voice recorder, with the participants’ consent. The consent was asked beforehand. I also wrote notes about the observations during and right after the discussion sessions.

Onwuegbuzie, Dickinson, Leech and Zoran (2009) refer to Kruger’s statement the transcriptions of video or audio material can result in 50-70 pages of text per discussion session. This data can be analyzed together with the field notes made by the facilitator.

The method is rigorous and time consuming, but Onwuegbuzie et al recommend it (2009, 5) to anyone who is not a very experienced researcher. Other methods of analyzing the data are making analysis on an abridged transcript, notes made during the session, listening to the audiotape or watching the video recording, or finally, relying only on the moderator’s memories of the discussion (Onwuegbuzie et al, 2009, 4). By using open coding and constant comparative analysis, I can define the themes that best describe the content of the focus group discussion and the individual interview, along with the other data. According to Onwuegbuzie et al (2009, 6) this is suitable for cases where there are multiple focus groups, but in my case, there was only one group due to circumstances.

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In the individual interview with one of the participants of the focus group discussion, person C, the questions were mostly open questions and the format was semi-

standardized, as it allows room for variation and the tone of the interview is somewhat

“informal and conversational” (Eriksson & Kovalainen, 2016, 94). During the focus group discussion I had noticed that the participants felt unnatural and uncomfortable about the situation (the classroom environment? each other’s company?), and for this reason semi-standardized interview felt like a logical choice to ensure that the same would not repeat when being with person C alone.

The aim of the interview was to deepen the knowledge from the focus group discussion.

Thus, the interview questions were clearly linked to the questions that were handled during the focus group meeting, some were even exactly the same as I wanted to hear person C’s thought on the topic again (in case they had no chance to fully voice their opinion during the focus group).

3.2 Data collection

The data was collected between January and November 2019. The first focus group was executed in late January, as a part of Aducate’s event called the Coaching Launch. The Coaching Launch is a full-day event where students of the executive MBA programme, who have yet to undergo coaching, attend lessons detailing what coaching is, and discuss and share on their individual opinions and experiences of being a leader. The students had completed set homework and previous courses before attending the event. After lessons and group discussions, willing attendants stayed behind to participate in the focus group. There were three members and the discussion lasted around 40 minutes.

Surprisingly, some members of the group had already undergone three to five coaching sessions, even though the event was intended to those who had not started coaching

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sessions with the coach provided by Aducate yet. Table 1 below presents a summary of data collection as a whole.

Table 2. Data collection.

Collecting method Duration/length Collected in Focus group discussion 37 minutes January 2019 Individual semi-structured

interview

30 minutes November 2019

Voice recording and observing

2 hours, 25 minutes January 2019

Written material 12 PowerPoint-slides and a two-page brochure

January 2019

A second focus group discussion was originally set to happen in October 2019, but due to cancellations to the Coaching Launch event, it was not completed. Instead, I performed an individual supplementing interview with an eMBA student (person C) that had attended the previous focus group in January 2019. The supplementing interview was performed in November 2019. The interview took around half an hour, and the

interviewee explained their insights on the coaching that they had received during 2018, as well as their view of the effects that had emerged in a year after the sessions had ended. The interview was a semi-structured interview, as according to Eriksson &

Kovalainen (2016, 94-95) this style is systematic and comprehensive way of gathering information, while the tone of the interview is informal and allows room for changes if necessary. During the interview, this style made possible to slightly change the questions in response to what the interviewee had already explained, and also to have additional, more in-depth questions and commentaries on the topic at hand.

Both the focus group discussion and the individual interview were recorded with a voice recorder, and then transcribed to text format for data analysis. The transcriptions do not indicate the exact length of pauses or other such non-verbal nuances in the speech.

However, when necessary, notes about verbal and no-verbal details, such as sighs or

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laughing, were included inside parentheses according to the notes made during the focus group discussion and the individual interview. This was done in order to remember the participants gestures, facial expressions and various nuances of their speech during the communication. The material was coded according to arising themes with an open coding scheme and then analyzed with constant comparative analysis.

To further complement the previous data, the presentation material and various voice recordings from the Coaching Launch event in January 2019 were analyzed as well. The presentation material included a slideshow and other written materials, and the voice recordings were made during the group discussions and lessons in the event. The voice recordings span altogether over two hours and they were later partially turned to text format as handwritten notes of the main points to complement the observations I had made during the event.

The written materials for the coaching launch included a reading list and guidelines for written assignments that the participants needed to complete before attending the event and the coaching sessions. The reading list consisted of one book and two doctoral research papers. The first written assignment was centered on the theme “my leadership”

and it could be carried out either as a creative freeform essay about the participant’s personal journey to becoming a leader, or as a video, photograph or voice recording exploring the same topic.

The questions that needed to be considered in this assignment included:

• naming good examples of leaders from one’s work, childhood or youth, and reflecting how those aspects are mirrored in one’s current situation

• naming one’s own remarkable experiences as a leader, and considering how they have directed one in their own path

• considering one’s leadership style, values and principles

• looking into the future, and describing one’s goals, ideal situations or career related dreams

The second assignment was for the participants to finish their personal leadership improvement plans, and to do a Leadership Judgement Indicator test. These materials

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from the second assignment were meant to be reviewed with the coach later in the individual coaching sessions after the launch event.

The final written material from the launch event was a set of PowerPoint-slides on the topic of coaching and the Leadership Judgement Indicator (LJI) test as supportive measures of personal development. The slides explained basic principles of what

coaching is and included links to several scientific studies on effectivity of coaching and leadership tests/reviews. The process of LJI test was explained in detail, from the

preparation before the test to taking the test, to the very end of the process, including reviewing the results with a coach and forming a plan for developing oneself. At the end of the slides there were points about incorporating flexibility to one’s leadership, as well as questions that the coaching launch event participants discussed together in pairs or small groups.

3.3 Analysis of the data

In this subchapter, I explain how each section of data was analyzed. As there were three different methods of gathering data, the data was analyzed slightly differently in each part. The analysis of the focus group discussion and the individual interview were

mirrored to each other, whereas the other material was treated as purely supportive to the other two.

A post-structuralist view was adopted when analyzing the transcriptions, meaning that the texts are not direct reflections of the social reality and can be interpreted in various ways depending on the reader (Eriksson & Kovalainen, 2016, 85). The transcriptions and additional notes were written with my personal interpretation of the words, gestures and facial expressions in each situation.

3.3.1 Focus group

Eriksson & Kovalainen (2016, 191-192) suggest that when analyzing focus group data, the starting point can be noting several participants agreeing or expressing similar points about an issue, or on the other hand disagreeing and silencing the issue in the discussion.

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Disagreement and agreement of varying degrees and expressing it during the interaction appears to be relevant. Continuing from those points, analyzing the intensity of opinions, changes in the discussion and the whole conversation as a process are appropriate steps.

In my data, I started the analysis from looking at topics where the participants agreed with each other. Secondly, the points where they disagreed to varying degrees were gathered. Finally, the points where there was no conclusion or where the discussion strayed from its original, intended path, were gathered to form a third category. I used different colors to separate these three categories in the text. Then from these three categories, the three main categories for the analysis were founded as presented in table 4 below.

Table 3. Analysis of the focus group

Main categories Coded themes

Leadership Roles of leaders

self-analysis

Connections to others Expectations towards others relationships in the organization roles of the coach

Emotional and psychological side Emotional burden of being a leader expectations towards self

The three main categories in the focus group data were named leadership, connections to others and emotional and psychological side. The leadership category included coded themes of roles of leaders and self-analysis, that the participants performed on themselves amidst the focus group discussion. The Connection to others category included coded themes for expectations towards others in the organization, relationships in the organization and also the roles of a coach. The Emotional and psychological side

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category included coded themes of emotional burden of being a leader and expectations towards self, that the participants expressed during the discussion.

In the topics where I assumed that the participants had agreed, I often found words such as “yes”, “I think so too”, and “I have also experienced this” to be repeated in their different Finnish variants. They also used hums, nods and eye contact to signal their understanding and agreement to each other and were more eager to interrupt each other in situations where all three agreed compared to ones where they were not of the same opinion. These points of nonverbal communication were noted down during the discussion and I used those notes as a supporting material while transcribing the voice recordings and while making interpretations of the situation. Upon further analysis, the topics where the participants agreed to each other the most were the themes in the leadership category.

In case of disagreement, finding conclusive evidence from the participants word choices was more difficult. Instead of saying directly “no” or “I don’t agree”, they most often shared an example from their own work environment to highlight their opinion. This was likely because the participants were unfamiliar to each other, and thus hesitated to

express disagreement in potentially impolite manner. Overall, they hesitated to comment on each other’s responses despite the moderator advising that it was preferable to have an open discussion and free commenting instead of feeling reserved and not commenting.

The hesitation was shown via eye contact and other body language both between the moderator and the participants, and among participants. The participants showed

hesitation and disagreement the most when the discussion concerned the coded themes in the connections to others category. This was considered to be an important element of the flow of discussion, but it needs to be noted that the sex of the person decoding the

nonverbal cues can affect the result: this is a place of potential bias and overanalyzing for me as a female (Stewart, Shamdasani & Rook, 2007, 30-31).

Stewart, Shamdasani and Rook (2007) state that a mix of varying demographic factors is ideal for focus groups, but in some cases, it is reasonable to have a more homogenic group of participants to avoid conflict situations. Both intrapersonal and individual characteristics play a part in group processes: individual characteristics affect one’s

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behavior and how other participants react to them, and the combination of personal characteristics of each participant can influence the group’s behavior. It can be argued that in this thesis study the blending of personal characteristics could have benefited from more variety, as two of the participants were of similar age and personality type, being clearly more extroverted and dominating in the conversation than the third member. All of the participants were of assumedly similar socioeconomic status, as they had similar positions in their respective organizations in the same business sector.

3.3.2 Individual interview

The individual interview was conducted face-to-face using semi-structured format. In the analysis, I was looking for points that further elaborated on the themes and topics that appeared during the focus group.

Table 4. Analysis of the individual interview

Main categories Coded themes

Leadership change leadership

problem solving

Connections to others involvement in decision-making sharing responsibilities

mirroring thoughts conflict solving

Change personal growth

organizational change

The main categories were partially the same as in the analysis of the focus group discussion: leadership and connections were the same, while the emotional and

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psychological side category was replaced with “change”. This was done in order to better highlight the results of coaching and changes in leadership identity that the interviewee, person C, brought up during the interview.

The leadership category included coded themes of change leadership and problem- solving. Connections to others category included coded themes of involvement in decision-making, sharing responsibilities, mirroring thought and conflict solving. The change category entailed coded themes for personal growth and organizational change.

First point of analysis was where person C had agreed during the focus group, and how they elaborated on those points during the individual interview. The second point was when they had disagreed or showed hesitation. The third and final part of analysis was how they expressed change in their opinions and ways of behaving before and after the coaching process.

The coaching process took place sometime in winter 2018-2019 for person C, and the discussions had included topics like workload and organization of tasks and the amount of necessary hierarchy in decision-making. The most apparent aspect of the data was that person C felt the coach had helped them organize their thoughts and bring out concrete changes to their everyday work both short-term and long term. They also noted that the thought process that had started at the coaching meetings had not stopped as the meetings stopped, but rather they had come back to certain ideas and thoughts repeatedly and continued to work on them during the year 2019.

Alike to the opinions they mentioned during the focus group discussion, person C expressed that they had no particular expectations towards the coaching process before starting it. Rather, they had no clear plan of what they wanted to discuss with the coach either, having a completely open mind to it. “I had thought of nothing beforehand, but rather quickly the discussion was centered around the burden of work and…I’m not sure if controlling the work is the correct term, but the content of work…”, they stated. This was rather surprising, given the fact that the eMBA students assumedly know that receiving coaching is one part of their studies.

Coaching as a Supportive Measure to Leadership Identity Building

ABSTRACT

Tiivistelmä

Table of contents

“Black box”

coaching process

Leadership identity

development