The purpose of this exploratory study was to compare coaching behaviors as they relate to the underlying cultural values of Saudi Arabian and U.S. managers. The Coaching Behaviors Inventory (Noer, 2005) was administered to 80 Saudi Arabian and 71 U.S. managers to measure the frequency with which they exhibited assessing, challenging and supporting coaching behaviors. Results indicated that, relative to their U.S. counterparts, the Saudi Arabian managers 1) demonstrated more overall homogeneity in their coaching behaviors and 2) scored significantly higher on the supporting and challenging dimensions. Implications for U.S. and Saudi coaching relationships as well as the use of effective coaching behaviors to facilitate deeper and more authentic cross-cultural communications are discussed.
Subject:
Managers (Analysis)
Leadership (Analysis)
Authors:
Noer, David M.
Leupold, Christopher R.
Valle, Matthew
Pub Date:
06/22/2007
Publication:
Name: Journal of Managerial Issues Publisher: Pittsburg State University - Department of Economics Audience: Academic; Trade Format: Magazine/Journal Subject: Business; Human resources and labor relations Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2007 Pittsburg State University - Department of Economics ISSN: 1045-3695
Issue:
Date: Summer, 2007 Source Volume: 19 Source Issue: 2
Accession Number:
166092744
Full Text:
The use of coaching as a way to enhance performance and hone leadership skills is a popular and growing management development strategy (Goldsmith and Lyons, 2005). As with any emerging field, there is considerable ambiguity as to what constitutes effective coaching, the relationship of coaching to other disciplines and the relative value of using external versus internal coaches (Lyons, 2005; Sherman and Freas, 2004). The concept of executive coaching appears to be oriented to the utilization of external coaches helping individual executive clients (Feldman and...