A quasi-experimental study on management coaching effectiveness.

Coaching has become an important managerial instrument of support. However, there is lack of research on its effectiveness. The authors con-ducted a quasi-experimental study to figure out whether coaching really leads to presupposed individual goals. Sixty managers of the federal government were divided in two groups: one group followed a coaching program, the other did not. Before the coaching program started (Time 1), self-efficacy beliefs and outcome ex-pectancies were measured, linked to three cen-tral domains of functioning: setting one’s own goals, acting in a balanced way and mindful living and working. Four months later (Time 2), the same variables were measured again. Re-sults showed that the coached group scored significantly higher than the control group on two variables: outcome expectancies to act in a balanced way and self-efficacy beliefs to set one’s own goals. Future examination might re-veal whether coaching will also be effective among managers who work at different manage-ment levels, whether the effects found will be long-lasting, and whether subordinates experi-ence differences in the way their manager func-tions before and after the coaching.