Work Engagement and Coaching. The Influence of Coaching on Work Engagement: A Literature Study

Transcription

1 Work Engagement and Coaching The Influence of Coaching on Work Engagement: A Literature Study B. Ars, Supervisor drs. R.A. Waringa Bachelor thesis Psychology and Society Tilburg University August, 2010

2 2 Abstract This literature review gives an overview over the scientific research on work engagement and coaching. The purpose of this thesis is to link coaching with work engagement and make it a measurable intervention for organizational success. First, work engagement is defined and organizational implications and antecedents are presented. Second, the coaching construct is defined and presented in the organizational setting. Finally, the link between the constructs work engagement and coaching is given. In conclusion, coaching can contribute to organizational success via the Job Demands-Resources model and through executive coaching. Keywords: Coaching, Work Engagement, Job Demands-Resources Model, Managers, Organization

3 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page 1. Introduction Method Work engagement Definition of work engagement Organizational implications of work engagement Antecedents of work engagement Job resources Managerial influence Coaching Definition of coaching Coaching in an organizational setting The purposes of a coach Who are the coaches and coachees? Benefits of coaching Successful coaching through work engagement Coaching as an organizational resource Executive coaching Conclusion Discussion References Appendix Utrecht Work Engagement Scale... 26

4 4 1. Introduction Because of today s dynamic knowledge economy, companies have to focus on innovation and on a quick response to movement on the marketplace in order to survive the competition. Stagnation of the organizational processes means the same as a decline in one s chances to survive. Therefore, it is important for the employers nowadays to give preference to creative and flexible employees, who are proactive, responsible and committed. This kind of employees is an essential link in the growth opportunities of the organization (Bakker, Schaufeli, Leiter & Taris, 2008). In the light of these economic developments, two concepts that have become important, will be featured in this thesis. The first concept is a rising psychological concept in organizations, known as work engagement. An employee is engaged in his work when he has a positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind (Bakker & Demerouti, 2008). That is what makes engaged employees, compared to those who are not engaged, more satisfied with their jobs so they do not have the intention to leave the organization, stay committed and have a better physical and psychological health which keeps their sickness absenteeism lower. Besides those positive job related attitudes, engaged employees seem to perform on a higher quality level (Schaufeli & Salanova, 2007). All in all a very important concept that leads to measurable, organizational successes. The second concept that has become of increasingly important in the last several years is organizational coaching. The trend of an expanding market for the coaching industry in recent years is visible. Statistics show that in the Netherlands 25% of the employees is being coached. At the executive level this number is even higher, here 40% is being coached ( A recent study commissioned by Ernst & Young shows that the coaching industry has the opportunities to expand in the coming years, the enormous growth is still not at her ending. Results of the Ernst & Young research show us that 80% of the employees find coaching important and 90% of the young employees says they have a need to be coached ( PR_Behoefte-aan-goede-coaches-is-groot-in-bedrijfsleven_060510). Besides those numbers, there is also a lot of money involved with the coaching industry. Hamlin, Ellinger and Beattie (2009) present amounts to about $1 billion spent on global organizational coaching in the year In the year 2005 they showed an excessive growth of that annual $1 billion spent globally, to an annual $1 billon spent in the United States alone. Despite the large amounts of money spent on coaching, little is known about the outcomes of coaching or the best way to

5 5 come to success for example, since only within the last several years the number and quality of scientific research in the coaching field is rising (Greif, 2007). Reason for that is the lack of a widely shared theoretical framework (Hamlin et al., 2009), that is very hard to reach because the many coaches all derive from very different backgrounds with their own perspectives. Marshall (n.d.) found that the practitioner rather wants to maintain autonomy regarding the way in which they practice coaching, unlike the field that strives to an agreed set of practices, from which a widely shared theoretical framework is possible. Shortcomings in forming a shared framework or not, organizations are expecting a confirmation that their investment in coaching eventually will reimburse. They want to know if coaching actually brings money to the organization and not only costing the organization a lot of money. Does coaching work? This is not the right question to answer, following Fillery-Travis and Lane (2006). It is more important to look at the possibilities of using coaching in a specific setting, and then see if it is effective in this particular setting. That is exactly the approach in this thesis. Can coaching lead to an effective outcome for the organization when it is used in the setting of increasing work engagement among employees? From a review of previous research, the link between coaching and work engagement will be sought from which a framework can be created that shows how coaching can contribute to the successes of organizations. 2. Method This thesis is based on literature review, in which the literature was searched for in the available electronic databases of the University of Tilburg and on the website The databases responsible for the finally selected literature are ABI/Inform, Catalogue UvT, JSTOR, Online Contents Journal Articles UvT, and PubMed. Literature, that was not available in these electronic databases, was obtained through the website The search terms used for this bachelor thesis, were in Dutch as well as in English to create a possible wider scope. The following search terms were used: work engagement, Job Demands-Resources Model, coaching, executive coaching, executives AND work engagement, workplace coaching, business coaching, and efficacy coaching. The search for literature in the field of coaching in the electronic databases of the University of Tilburg was restricted by year of publication. Given the recent growth of scientific support on coaching, the literature search only included literature published from 2008 to present, in which exceptions were made for sources of literature providing valuable

6 6 information not found in later literature. The search term coaching yielded 43,529 unique literature sources. Even after adding the limitation "title word", there were still over 6,376 results. The restriction "keyword" led to 5,107 search results. All in all too many hits, so in all cases the search term coaching was specified to executive coaching, workplace coaching, business coaching, or coaching and efficacy. The final 228 unique sources of literature led to the selection of 14 relevant sources, determined by title and abstract. The website was used as well for the search on coaching literature. The restriction was also in this case by year of publication, from 2008 to present. This led to 172 unique sources of literature, of which 10 sources were ultimately selected by relevance determined by title and abstract. The search for literature in the field of work engagement was also restricted by year of publication, ranging from 2005 to present, in which exceptions were made for sources of literature providing a basic framework of the construct. A total amount of 807 literature resources over the period of five years, led to the ultimate selection of 19 sources by relevance determined by title and abstract. Although a lot of literature about work engagement that was related to job resources was found, the search for literature explaining the Job Demands-Resources Model and research on behalf of it was not found yet. This search did not had to be extensive because of the useful literature found in the previous searches for coaching and work engagement, so only one literature source was selected here. Criteria other than the year of publication for the relevance of the literature was based on research question asked. The literature had to contribute to at least one part of this question, to be selected. 3. Work Engagement Engaged employees are, in the tough economics in which companies have to compete nowadays, an addition to the organization. They can make the difference between success and growth or bankruptcy. What exactly is work engagement and in what way is it an addition to the organization? And more importantly in light of this thesis, can it be influenced or caused? Those questions will be answered in the following paragraphs of this thesis. 3.1 Definition of work engagement Work engagement as a psychological construct in research became popular with the Positive Psychology movement. Before the year 2000, psychology as a science aimed

7 7 essentially at reversing severe cases on psychological well-being and health. From the year 2000 on, this totally negative focused overtone changed into a positive one. This new positive approach is focused largely on qualities that can lead, in the purpose of this thesis, to benefits for employees and organizations. Positive outcomes are the new overtone in psychological research (Schaufeli & Salanova, 2007; Bakker et al., 2008). Work engagement is defined as a positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind that is characterized by vigor, dedication, and absorption. Vigor is the more physical component of work engagement, which refers to high levels of energy and mental resilience. Because of this, employees who are engaged put more effort in their work and even when they face difficulties they stay persistent. The second component of work engagement is dedication, an emotional component. A dedicated employee is strongly involved, and senses significance, enthusiasm, inspiration, and challenge. The third component of work engagement is a more cognitive component, namely absorption, an immersion by one s work. An absorbed employee is fully concentrated on the task and happily engrossed (Bakker, Van Emmerik & Euwema, 2006; Schaufeli & Salanova, 2007; Bakker & Demerouti, 2008; Bakker et al., 2008). The components of engagement are not stable, enduring characteristics of employees. Engaged employees do not react typically engaged in every situation, but it is more like a state of mind in the immediate present that can be different at another moment. Engagement is not a personality trait, but more of a mood (Schaufeli & Salanova, 2007). Besides the possible daily variability in the experienced degree of work engagement, there is a more general form of work engagement that is stable over the years (Bakker & Bal, 2010) and the level of work engagement could even be predicted over a period of a year (Mauno, Kinnunen & Ruokolainen, 2007; Schaufeli, Bakker & Van Rhenen, 2009). Although work engagement is a construct that came from Positive Psychology, the foundation was laid in previous years with the negatively toned research on burnout (Bakker et al., 2006; Schaufeli & Salanova, 2007; Bakker et al., 2008). The components found for this construct, exhaustion, cynicism, and lack of professional efficacy are the contrasting components on the physical and emotional axis as shown in figure 1 (Schaufeli & Salanova, 2007). Burnout causes employees to feel exhausted, totally without energy from which they develop negative, cynical attitudes. A total contrast with the energetic, highly involved engaged employee. González-Romá, Schaufeli, Bakker and Lloret (2006) found in their research the support of the bipolar dimensions for energy and identification as shown in figure 1.

8 8 Figure 1. The contrasting relationship between burnout and engagement. Besides the research on the contrasting relationship between burnout and work engagement, there are studies to distinguish work engagement from other constructs. Nowadays the construct work engagement is seen as an independent construct, only linked to burnout, but not related or the same as embeddedness (Halbesleben & Wheeler, 2008), organizational commitment or job involvement (Hallberg & Schaufeli, 2006). Also the possible corresponding link of workaholism to work engagement is undone by research. Workaholics are obsessed with their work, work forms an addiction to them and their health, happiness, and social functioning are endangered. Although engaged employees work hard and are engrossed by their work they see work as fun and not as an addiction (Bakker et al., 2008). In sum, work engagement is an isolated construct. Because work engagement is an independent construct, it can be measured. There are several instruments to measure the construct such as the Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (OLBI) and the MBI. The former instrument was developed to measure burnout, but a higher score on the positive phrased items and a lower score on the negative phrased items can also give an indication of work engagement because of the bipolarity of burnout and work engagement. The MBI follows the same principle, where a low score on exhaustion, a low score on cynicism and a high score on efficacy leads to the prediction of work engagement. There is, in addition to the OLBI and the MBI, an assessment instrument that measures work engagement on its components vigor, dedication and absorption, namely the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES) (Bakker & Demerouti, 2008; Bakker et al. 2008). This is the most frequently used instrument, available in 17 languages. The self-report questionnaire includes 17 items, six items assessing vigor, five items assessing dedication and six items assessing absorption. Those three aspects of work engagement were found valid, with a high

9 9 correlation, mostly exceeding the.65 between those three and internally consistent. The independent scores of vigor, dedication and absorption can be used, but for practical purposes the total score can be used as well. The UWES is useful across nationalities, because no variance cross-national was found, as well as there was no evidence found for item bias in different race groups (Schaufeli & Salanova, 2007). 3.2 Organizational implications of work engagement When an employee is engaged there is synergy between the individual and the organization, from which optimal outcomes for both are possible (Schaufeli & Salanova, 2007). The optimal outcomes for the employee might be (a) feeling positive emotions such as enthusiasm, comfort, and satisfaction; (b) take those positive emotions from work back home; (c) positive job-related attitudes; (d) better mental and physical health; (e) better performance, resulting in positive feedback loops, praise, promotion, and better salary; (f) the ability to create own job resources or mobilize them, so eventually one can cope better with the job demands (Schaufeli & Salanova, 2007; Bakker & Demerouti, 2008; Bakker et al., 2008). All those benefits for the individual can become benefits for the team, in which an engaged employee is working. Research suggests an emotional contagion of work engagement through which other employees and even partners at home become more engaged and feel more energetic and dedicated (Schaufeli & Salanova, 2007). Because most of the outcomes of an organization are dependent on teamwork rather than on the work of an individual, the emotional contagion can increase the organizational benefits even more than is the case in just one engaged employee (Bakker & Demerouti, 2008). All the benefits to the employee can form indirect or direct benefits to the organization. According to Schaufeli and Salanova (2007) and Bakker and Demerouti (2008) (a) positive emotions make people more sensitive to opportunities at work, more outgoing, optimistic, confident and collegial; (b) the more engaged the wife or husband is, the more engaged the employee stays because of the emotional contagion; (c) the positive job-related attitudes make employees loyal to the organization, causing little turnover; (d) better health causes lower sickness absenteeism; (e) better performance leads to better financial outcomes for the organization as well as higher service towards clients leads to higher satisfaction with the organization, resulting in financial benefits; (f) the ability to create or mobilize resources makes an employee in turn even more engaged or keep them engaged en productive. Both employees and organizations fare well from the benefits work engagement may bring to both.

10 Antecedents of work engagement To find answers to the question whether coaching can be an effective tool in the organization by increasing work engagement, it is important to know which antecedents are due to work engagement. As already illustrated in Schaufeli and Salanova (2007) it is very hard to talk about causes of work engagement, because the types of research do not allow to draw causal relationships. However, what emerges in the literature about work engagement as possible causes are job resources and the influence of a manager. These antecedent will be discussed below Job resources The Job Demands-Resources model is a balance model of employee well being, that incorporates many more working conditions than older models like the demand-control model of Karasek or effort-reward imbalance model of Siegrist. Thereby, the Job Demands- Resources model does not focus solely on negative outcome variables, but in the light of Positive Psychology also focuses on positive outcome variables, such as work engagement (Bakker & Demerouti, 2006). An interesting model, which is used in most studies on antecedents of work engagement. The Job Demands-Resources model holds the assumption that for each employee, there are two overarching variables related to his work. The first variable is job demands. Job demands are defined as physical, psychological, social, or organizational aspects of the job that require sustained physical and/or psychological effort and are therefore associated with certain physiological and/or psychological costs. Demands are not necessarily negative, they only carry a negative charge when they function as a stressor to the employee. The second variable is job resources, defined as physical, psychological, social, or organizational aspects of the job that either/or (1) reduce job demands and associated physiological and psychological costs; (2) are functional in achieving work goals; (3) stimulate personal growth, learning and development (Schaufeli & Bakker, 2004; Bakker & Demerouti, 2006; Hakanen, Bakker & Schaufeli, 2006; Mauno et al., 2007; Bakker et al., 2008; Dikkers, Jansen, De Lange, Vinkenburg & Kooij, 2009; Simbula, 2010). The central idea of the Job Demands- Resources model is that job demands may cause feelings of tension, referred to as the strain process and job resources may motivate the employee, referred to as the motivational process (Schaufeli et al., 2009). Previous research consistently show the positive relationship between job resources and work engagement, and a negative relationship between few job resources compared to job

11 11 demands and burnout. Besides the empowerment of job demands, which could be the basis of burnout, job resources appear to contribute to work engagement independent and not only as a burnout buffer (Hakanen et al., 2006; Bakker & Demerouti, 2008; Bakker et al. 2008). Job resources can play an intrinsic as well as an extrinsic motivational role which leads to improved work engagement. The intrinsic motivational role takes the form of employees growth, learning and development, whereas the extrinsic motivational role is the role of instruments for achieving work goals (Bakker & Demerouti, 2008; Bakker et al., 2008; Schaufeli et al., 2009). Evidence for the Job Demands-Resources model and its positive link to work engagement is given in several studies. In 2004, Schaufeli and Bakker were the first ones to find the positive relationship. They used a structural equation modeling analyses to show the prediction of work engagement through performance feedback, social support, and supervisory coaching as job resources. Because of the earlier mentioned cross-sectional study, the outcome cannot state job resources as the cause of work engagement, there might be a third variable of influence (Schaufeli & Bakker, 2004). Several other studies with the same purpose came to the same conclusion. Hakanen et al. (2006) showed that the job resources job control, information, supervisory support, innovative climate and social climate predicted work engagement. And also significant evidence for the relationship between work life experience, control, rewards and recognition and value fit was found by Koyuncu, Burke and Fiksenbaum (Bakker & Demerouti, 2008). Still the cross-sectional set up made it impossible to establish a causal connection. More recent the research model has become longitudinal in which also the relationship is in general confirmed. Mauno et al. (2007) and Schaufeli et al. (2009) found that work engagement could be predicted over a period of a year on behalf of job resources. Job resources have proven to be of an independent worth for work engagement. The effects of the available job resources however, seem to be strengthened when job demands are high. This underpins the idea of the Conservation of Resources theory of Hobfoll in which people attach value to objects they have access to and want to obtain, retain and protect them. In the case of high job demands, job resources have a higher value to employees, through which the impact on work engagement becomes bigger (Hakanen, Bakker & Demerouti, 2005; Bakker & Demerouti, 2006; Bakker & Demerouti, 2008; Bakker et al., 2008; Xanthopoulou, Bakker, Demerouti & Schaufeli, 2009). Not only is there a predictive effect of job resources in combination with job demands on work engagement. There also is evidence of gain spirals between those variables.

12 12 Hakanen, Perhoniemi and Toppinen-Tanner (2007) found in their 3-year during research among 2555 Finish dentists that job resources enhance work engagement, which in turn predicts that the employee has better access to job resources in the future. Schaufeli et al. (2009) found the same results in a longitudinal survey among 201 telecom managers. They even showed that after the first rise in work engagement through job resources, the better access of job resources in the future could even cause a bigger rise in work engagement, suggesting a positive gain spiral. Bakker and Bal (2010) showed that the future, does not have to mean a future of a year or so, but is as nearby as the following week. So, positive outcomes for the employee and for the organization can be obtained within a small time range. But not only job resources are responsible for this optimization, the manager seems to be of effect as well in achieving positive outcomes for the organization by their team of employees Managerial influence In the section above on job resources studies were mentioned about supervisory support (Schaufeli & Bakker, 2004), and supervisory coaching (Hakanen et al., 2006) as job resources that significantly influenced work engagement. But how can a manager make his employees more engaged? As shown previously in this thesis, work engagement is contagious and thereby crosses over from one employee to the other in the same team. The more engaged the team is, the more engaged its members become as is true for the reverse (Schaufeli & Salanova, 2007). Working in an organization is not a matter of isolation, and as the team is important, so is the total work environment important. Managers are responsible for creating a positive atmosphere. They are responsible for preventing job stress as well as enhancing motivation and engagement among their team members. Following Baumruk (2006) managers can affect relationships, total rewards, opportunities, quality of work-life, people practices, and the actual work itself. All these variables are of influence on work engagement. A manager should coach and support his team members in a way the career path, expectations, consequences and opportunities are clear. Managers need to recognize the work done by the team members, and thereby make their employees more accountable for the results. Supervisory support and autonomy have proven to be important resources in optimizing work engagement (Schaufeli & Bakker, 2004; Hakanen et al., 2006; Schaufeli & Salanova, 2007). Besides the behaviors already mentioned to enhance a positive environment and thereby creating work engagement, managers need to take into account the importance of being involved and being optimistic oneself (Arakawa &

13 13 Greenberg, 2007). They found that positive leadership correlated significant with employee optimism, performance and engagement in a cross-sectional survey among 103 employees and managers. Now we know the most important antecedents of work engagement job resources and managerial influence - coaching comes into the picture as an instrument to provide optimal outcomes for the organization through a possible positive influence on work engagement as a possible mediator of these important antecedents of work engagement. 4. Coaching This part will focus on the definition of coaching and its application in the organizational setting as well as the possible successful outcomes generated by it will be highlighted. From that position then, the actual intervention possibilities of coaching on work engagement will be overlooked. 4.1 Definition of coaching It is not yet possible to give a definition of coaching in which every practitioner can find himself. The variety of backgrounds of the practitioners and the lack of consensus needed to support the profession of coaching, provide a lot of different approaches and thereby more than one definitions (Grant, 2001; Marshall, n.d.; Hamlin et al., 2009). Because of this lack of consensus, a lot of incompetent definitions keep popping up in the literature (Grant, 2001). Coaching is wrongly presented as a product instead of a process or in coaching is assigned the same role as the role different professions fulfill which in fact can be very different of coaching. Coaches are for example in some definitions the same as therapists, mentors or trainers. To come to the perspective from which this thesis is written, the differences between those roles are first set, before continuing to come to a definition. Following Grant (2001) coaches and therapists differ in the clientele. Therapists treat patients, which suffer from some kind of dysfunction, whereas the coach enhances performance in coaches who normally do not suffer from dysfunctions the same way therapists patients do. Coaches differ from mentors in the way that mentors have a relationship with their pupil, because they are experts in some kind of area and teach their pupil about it. Coaches do not have to be experts, they have to facilitate learning in which expertise of the particular area is not necessary. Besides the difference between coaches and therapist and mentors, there is also a difference between coaches and trainers by which coaching distinguishes itself. Trainers use trainings that work in a determined and rigid way, focusing on a goal set in advance by the

14 14 trainer. A coach-coachee relationship is based on flexibility, not determined in advance at all. This clear, coaching clearly is a concept on its own, which makes it possible to ignore definitions not taking that into account or that overlook the process image. The latest definition formed by Hamlin et al. (2009) is a definition that was established from literature review in which they compared 36 definitions of coaching. Their definition finally merged these 36 definitions based on their purposes and the processes: Coaching is a helping and facilitative process that enables individuals, groups/teams and organizations to acquire new skills, to improve existing skills, competence and performance, and to enhance their personal effectiveness or personal development or personal growth. 4.2 Coaching in an organizational setting The expanding market for coaching in organizational setting is obvious as showed in the introduction of this thesis. But for what purpose is the coach used onto the work floor and is the coach deployed throughout the whole organization? And how and who is coached? The purposes of a coach Coutu and Kaufman (2009) in their survey that the former use of the coach - getting rid of leaders that did not fit the picture followed the Positive Psychology movement as well and changed toward the following top 3 reasons to hire a coach nowadays: (1) develop high potentials or facilitate transition, 48 per cent; (2) act as a sounding board, 26 per cent; (3) address derailing behavior, 12 per cent. Dickel (2010) refers to the survey by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development in which the top 3 reasons to hire a coach is as following: (1) improve individual performance, 78 per cent; (2) deal with underperformance, 30 per cent; (3) improve productivity, 28 percent. Although the reasons seem to differ, coaching is used in a way to stimulate performance of individuals or teams, personal growth and as overarching goal to overcome bumps in the road to organizational success. Dickel (2010) worked out a little more specific the settings in which a coach can be of great help developing. Coaching can be well used in organizations which like to keep the turnover of their talents low. Coaching is an optimal retention tool, because it makes employees more engaged. Besides this setting, coaching would be of benefit to organizations which are fast growing and not equipped with the tools for leadership or management for the larger employee number they have to manage. A coach can be performance increasing in situations

15 15 where someone is assigned to a new role in the organization and in times of overall organizational change. Rock and Donde (2008 I) mentioned the latter situation as well. To survive the competition in today s dynamic knowledge economy, organizations have to be innovative and capable to respond quickly. Coaches can contribute fully in that organizational environment, because of the possibilities mentioned above and their application is therefore advancing more and more Who are the coaches and the coachees? Unless the great costs of an external coach, this is the most used form of coaching within organizations. In 2006 the numbers of the distribution of coaches were as following: 51 per cent of the organizations in the survey used external coaches, 41 per cent used internal coaches. In 79 per cent of the organizations the manager was seen as a coach, but the survey did not give clearance about the filling on of that role (Fillery-Travis & Lane, 2006). In 2008 a survey with 55 organizations showed that even 100 per cent of the organizations said to use an external coach compared to 50 per cent using an internal coach (Rock & Donde, 2008I). This same survey analyzed that only 1 per cent of the employees had access to a formal coach. A result shown more often in the literature, telling us that the costly business of coaching is mostly confined to managers or executives (Fillery-Travis & Lane, 2006; Rock & Donde, 2008I; Grant, 2010; McGuffin & Obonyo, 2010). 4.3 Benefits of coaching Because of the inconsistencies in the professional field and the uncertainty regarding the operation of the coaching process, there is a demand for scientific evidence for the benefits that coaching can effectively bring to an organization. In recent years, the research on the benefits of coaching has increased and there seems to be benefits for both the employee as well as for the organization. Presenting positive outcomes as a result of coaching, should be accompanied with some remarks. Interpreting or generalizing the results into a wider context is very difficult, because of the enormous heterogeneity among the coaching interventions, which differ in approach, problems and goals, settings, and coach or coachee characteristics (Greif, 2007). To overcome these problems Grant and Cavanagh (2004) challenged the scientific research field to replace the case studies with group research in which the participants are randomly assigned to an experimental group with coaching interventions or to a control group. They also remark the importance of objective quantitative outcome measures, instead of the

16 16 qualitative outcome measures. That research into the effects of coaching is still in its infancy, becomes clear when Greif (2007) reviews the available research that meets the requirements, above mentioned. It seems that then only 12, English-language studies had been published. And even the results of these studies have to be evaluated with care, because pre-requisites and success factors vary from situation to situation (Greif, 2007) Despite the above obstacles, coaching is associated with the following personal benefits for the employee: confidence in one s own abilities, improving skills, a higher degree of self-efficacy, improved goal setting and attainment, satisfaction and motivation, better interaction with colleagues, improved coping skills, and an overall better performance (Greif, 2007; Woodruffe, 2008; Moen & Allgood, 2009; DeVaux, 2010). Advantages for the organization come forward out of the benefits for the employee. The more confident, satisfied and motivated employees are, the higher their performance and the lower their sickness absence and turnover is. This leads to measurable financial benefits in which the coaching investment pays itself back and leads to even bigger earns (Greif, 2007; Woodruffe, 2008). In addition, coaching can also provide benefits in a more specified context, namely the context needed in the economics nowadays, the context of change. The stress of major changes in the organizations can be blocked through coaching which leaves the employees better able to cope with the changes and react in a more flexible manner (Rock & Donde, 2008I). Companies can cope with the innovation and developments needed in today s economy, when they invest in coaching. 5. Successful coaching through work engagement But how can coaching lead to these positive outcomes? Because of the previously mentioned difficulties in generalizing and interpreting the results found in scientific research into coaching, this question remains unclear. To overcome the obstacles in interpreting outcome results, this thesis looks to the possibilities of coaching interventions in a specific setting. This specific setting includes work engagement, as shown a construct that leads to organizational en employees individual success. A successful application and impact on work engagement of coaching is mentioned in scientific literature. This can lead to measurable, objective, and quantitative results of coaching because of the valid and reliable measurement scale UWES. This chapter links coaching and work engagement based on the earlier proposed Job Demands-Resources model that is at the basis of work engagement. In addition, the current application of coaching at the higher level of the hierarchy in organizations is overlooked in

17 17 the light of work engagement. 5.1 Coaching as an organizational resource As already emerged in the paragraph on job resources, coaching as a job resource has been associated with work engagement in the scientific literature since the year Schaufeli and Bakker (2004) speak of three job resources contributing to the increase of work engagement as shown in figure 2. All three are related to or are a form of coaching, namely performance feedback, social support, and supervisory support. This is not the only study that brings up coaching as a job resource, as did Hakanen et al. (2006) and Bakker and Demerouti (2007;2008) as well. Figure 2. Coaching as a job resource that influences work engagement (Bakker & Demerouti, 2007). Where does this link between coaching as a job resource and work engagement come from? Is it a justifiable link and could coaching be of positive impact on work engagement through the Job Demands-Resources model and hence lead to overall organizational success? In the literature, no accountability on the use of the variables related to coaching as job resource is made. But, when the definition of job resource is highlighted once more, we see that variables which may be considered as a job resource, must meet one of the following conditions: (1) reduce job demands and associated physiological and psychological costs; (2)

18 18 are functional in achieving work goals; (3) stimulate personal growth, learning and development (Schaufeli & Bakker, 2004; Bakker & Demerouti, 2006; Hakanen et al., 2006; Mauno et al., 2007; Bakker et al., 2008; Dikkers et al., 2009; Simbula, 2010). With the benefits of coaching in our mind, coaching is a job resource. The benefits of coaching for the employee meet not just one but all three requirements of a job resource. (1) Coaching is an intervention that affects among other the coping skills of the employee. This enables the employee to stand up against job demands and not perceive them as threatening stressors. (2) Coaching influences the goal setting and goal attainment in a positive way. (3) Also this last requirement is met, because employees who have been coached report personal development. They report an improvement for example in skills, confidence, motivation, satisfaction, interaction and overall performance (Greif, 2007; Woodruffe, 2008; Moen & Allgood, 2009; DeVaux, 2010). Coaching as a job resource is, when looking at the requirements to meet the definition of job resource, a justifiable interpretation. Besides meeting the criteria to be considered as a job resource in sec definition, the aforementioned research commissioned by Ernst & Young (2010), shows that employees greatly value coaching and their need for coaching is high. This underlines the power of coaching as a job resource. In the light of the Job Demands- Resources model job resources motivate the employee (Schaufeli et al., 2009). Time after time, all the studies mentioned in relation with work engagement and job resources show the positive relationship between the two of them. Coaching in this way, could have a positive impact on work engagement, which in turn through positive gain spirals makes the employee more capable of getting access to job resources but also makes it possible that the employee even grows further in his level of work engagement (Hakanen et al., 2007; Schaufeli et al., 2009). The benefits of work engagement to the organization, the team, and the individual can be achieved through the contribution of job resources as shown by the Job Demands- Resources model. Coaching in this way, in this particular setting, could be considered as an effective medium that can bring success to the organization. Through the valid and reliable measurement scale UWES, an improving level of work engagement after a coaching program could be a step forward in the evidence needed so bad by organizations, about the positive results coaching can bring to organizations. Coaching could then be called a successful intervention in the struggle to stay ahead of competitors in today s turbulent economy.

19 Executive coaching As mentioned earlier in this thesis, coaching is most often used in the higher segments of the organization. Managers are the ones who are coached and who do the coaching in their teams. This form of coaching in which the coachee is a manager, supervisor, leader, or executive in any other way, is called executive coaching. Executive coaching is defined in a manner of ways in the literature. The definitions vary in the way they describe the process or outcomes but they say the same: or: Executive coaching is an experiential, individualized, leadership development process that builds a leader s capability to achieve short and long-term organizational goals. It is conducted through one-on-one interactions, driven by data from multiple perspectives, and based on mutual trust and respect. The organization, an executive, and the executive coach work in partnership to achieve maximum learning and impact (Marshall, n.d.). Executive coaching can be understood as a helping relationship formed between a client who has managerial or supervisory authority and responsibility in an organisation, and a coach who uses a range of cognitive and behavioural techniques in order to help the client achieve a mutually defined set of goals with the aim of improving his or her professional performance and well-being and the effectiveness of the organization (Grant, Curtayne & Burton, 2009). The choice for the in many organizations implemented executive coaching is primarily based on the costs associated with coaching interventions within the organizations. Besides managers, supervisors or any other kind of leaders, the remaining employee does not seem to be in range of the coaching branch. Is the choice of mainly executive coaching a smart move of the organization? Can a maximum yield be achieved with the least possible investment or is a bad bargain a dear at a farthing? Is the path of coaching the higher segment in the organization a way to prosecute? The empirical study of Kombarakaran, Yang, Baker and Fernandes (2008) shows how executive changes also positively affect employees in lower positions. First of all the executives reported that their people skills refined and they became more confident, understanding leaders. They became better in communication and feedback. Besides the better

20 20 relation with their team, their improved skills in goal setting and prioritization enhanced teamwork, participation and commitment not only in themselves but also in their staff members. And something Baumruk (2006) also mentioned, the managerial influence increases engagement and thereby productivity not only in the coached manager but also via the emotional contagion of work engagement in the staff members. The same results are found by Agarwal, Angst and Magni (2009). They found the following results, shown in figure 3, using hierarchical linear modeling, showing the influence of the executive on performance of lower positioned employees in their team: Figure 3. Executive influence on performance staff (Agarwal et al., 2009). By coaching executives, ultimately the performance of the employees in the managers team are influenced positively. Coaching as a mediator to work engagement, makes this emotional state transferable as mentioned before, between team members. Besides this emotional contagion of work engagement, the coaching program can make executives aware of the ways, already mentioned in the paragraph about managerial influence, they can positively influence their team members. In addition, there is another positive side effect of executive coaching. An executive who obtained a positive, transformational leadership style because of a coaching program, can become a managerial coach to the employees not fulfilling an executive role. In that way the external form of executive coaching becomes an internal way of coaching through all of the organization. All in all, the path of coaching the higher segment in the organization is a good way to prosecute. As it seems, not all the employees in an organization need to be coached by an external coach to obtain organizational success through coaching. The investments in executive coaches can be converted into work engagement and performance improvement throughout the entire organization.

21 21 6. Conclusion Nowadays companies have to focus on innovation and on a quick response to movement on the marketplace. Creative, flexible, proactive, responsible and committed employees are the key to survive the struggle with competitors. Coaching has become an enormously important concept because of the economical developments, and an excessive growth of annual investments in coaches suggests magical outcomes brought to organizations. Nothing is further from the truth, organizations do not know for sure that investments in coaching will eventually pay back. This literature review searches for an answer in which coaching is placed in the more specific setting with work engagement, following the recommendations by Fillery-Travis and Lane (2006). Can coaching lead to an effective outcome for the organization when it is used in the setting of increasing work engagement among employees? Work engagement is a construct that derives from the Positive Psychology movement and lays its focus on the positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind of employees. Former research showed work engagement to be a independent construct, that distinguishes itself among others from embeddedness, organizational commitment, job involvement or workaholism. Because of its independency it was possible to design a valid and consistent measurement scale, the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES). The positive organizational implications that could, because of its measurement, now be credited to work engagement turned out to be big for the employee, that eventually leads to overall organizational successes. Little turnover, lower sickness absenteeism, better performance and employees that are loyal, more outgoing, optimistic and experience all kinds of positive emotions are just a few examples of the consequences work engagement brings to an organizations. All this, leading to a positive starting point over competitors. According to the Job Demands-Resources model, job resources motivate employees and this motivational process is consistently brought up in a positive relationship with work engagement in literature. Another antecedent of work engagement, arising from mentioned variables in the studies about job resources that can enhance work engagement, is the influence of managers. Besides creating a positive atmosphere in the workplace, managers can affect rewards, opportunities, and many more aspects of work that are of influence on work engagement. Both these antecedents of work engagement, can in turn be linked to coaching. Coaching is the process of helping or the facilitation to individuals, team, and organizations to enhance performance. Within the organization, external coaching is the most

22 22 used form of coaching. In addition, trained or untrained, the manager is appointed as coach. In continued running, but also because of the enormous costs related to coaching, the coaching programs today focus on the higher segment of the organization. Especially people with managerial functions are coached. Despite the growing demand for coaches, the benefits coaching could bring are inconclusive, due to inconsistencies in the professional field and the uncertainty regarding the operation of the coaching process. Interpreting or generalizing the results from scientific research is very difficult, because empirical group research that led to objective quantitative outcome measures is scarce. In this thesis, the proposition of a more specific setting, in which coaching outcomes are made quantitative leads to ways in which coaching really can be credited for organizational success by asking the question: Can coaching lead to an effective outcome for the organization when it is used in the setting of increasing work engagement among employees? The answer to this question is a yes. Coaching has been associated with work engagement in the scientific literature, in which coaching is brought up as job resource, the first important antecedent of work engagement. In light of the Job Demands-Resources model, coaching has proven to be of positive influence on work engagement. The benefits of work engagement to the individual, the team, and the organization as a whole can be achieved through coaching as an organizational resource. Not only can coaching be linked to this first antecedent, but also the impact of a manager on work engagement can be influenced by the most often used form of coaching: executive coaching. The changes of coached executives have shown to positively affect employees in lower positions as well as improving engagement in these employees through the emotional contagion of the managers work engagement. Besides this positive impact, executive coaching can prepare managers for a more transformational leadership style, which turns the manager into an internal coach for their team members. Coaching leads to effective outcomes for the organization when it is used in the setting of increasing work engagement, because it operates as an organizational resource and affects managers. Both important antecedents affecting work engagement. 7. Discussion The aim of this thesis was to identify the scientific findings in the literature on work engagement and coaching, highlighting the implications for the individual employee, the team, and the organization as a whole. The emphasis was on the effects of coaching and the

23 23 implications for the practical field of the coach. By linking the findings on work engagement and the findings on coaching, I placed coaching in a more specific context as proposed by Fillery-Travis and Lane (2006). This made it possible to show that coaching in fact can be of positive and measurable influence within the organization, by placing it in the Job Demands- Resources model. I also showed that the current way of intervention by a coach within the organization, the focus on executives, is meaningful and actually leads to success for the organization, but also for the individual and the team. The impact of executives and the emotional contagion of work engagement between the executive and staff members as well as obtained leadership style will improve the overall performance in the organization. This thesis makes a contribution to the research field of coaching. By showing findings and theories in the latest or important studies about work engagement and coaching, further research has a clear starting point. Besides that, a particular strength of this thesis is the specification of the coaching context. The organizational benefits and ways of handling in coaching became clear in this way. An important limitation however, of this literature review is that the conclusions about how coaching can lead to organizational success, should be interpreted with caution. The restriction of coaching to a more specific context, as has been done in this thesis with the link to work engagement, needs further research before more can be said on the actual success coaching can bring in this way. In addition, both research on work engagement and reliable research on coaching is recent. Many results shown in this thesis are not yet reproduced because of this recency, which also affects the interpretation of the findings. Future research in the light of this thesis, needs to verify the link between coaching and work engagement now based solely on theory. Empirical research may lead the concrete, valid and reliable way of measuring to the proposed positive impact of coaching on work engagement. In addition, it remains important to prosecute the way of studying coaching as proposed by Grant and Cavanagh (2004) and Fillery-Travis and Lane (2006). In this way, the results can be interpreted with more accuracy and conclusions might be made in a context specific way. A big step in the direction of forming a solid theoretical framework that can form the base of a unanymous practical coaching field.