Please reference as:

D.E. Gray, M. N.K. Saunders, B. Curnow and C. Farrant (2015)

Coaching: An emerging profession or just a spanner in
the HRD toolbox? The 16th International Conference on
Human Resource Development Research and Practice
across Europe: UFHRD, Cork, 3-5 June.

David E Gray Mark N.K.Saunders

Business School Surrey Business School
University of Greenwich University of Surrey
30 Park Rd GUILDFORD GU2 7XH
LONDON SE10 9LS
d.e.gray@gre.ac.uk mark.saunders@surrey.ac.uk
Barry Curnow Catherine Farrant
Business School Business School
University of Greenwich University of Greenwich
30 Park Rd 30 Park Rd
LONDON SE10 9LS LONDON SE10 9LS
b.j.curnow@gre.ac.uk c.a.farrant@gre.ac.uk

Stream: Strategic HRD and Performance

Submission type: Paper

1
 Abstract
Purpose: To identify the extent to which coaching is a distinct occupation, or task,
performed within a portfolio of HR or other roles. To also ascertain the extent to
which coaches identify with coaching as a profession and to explore how their
professional identity (or multiple identities) are created and maintained.
Design/methodology/approach: The study adopted a mixed methods design using a
quantitative survey (N= 756) of professional coaching associations members, two
focus groups (to validate the survey instrument) and 28 qualitative interviews to add
depth and illustration to the quantitative results.
Findings: 65% of respondents consider that there is at least a moderate to complete
overlap between the coaching profession and their sense of self. For the majority of
respondents, however, coaching is only one aspect of their working lives (56%
working, on average, less than three days a week as a coach) suggesting a portfolio
approach to employment. Respondents with a higher affective commitment to
coaching are significantly more likely to identify with the coaching profession.
Research limitations/implications: The preponderance of external, independent
coaches compared with internal coaches highlights the need for further research on
the later.
Practical implications: The study may offer guidance to the professional coaching
associations and their work towards professional standards and highlight the need for
more coherence and less fragmentation amongst the professional coaching bodies.
Social implications: The professionalization of coaching should raise standards and
improve the quality of helping interventions for clients and organizations.
Originality/value: One of the few, large scale studies of coaching.
Keywords: Social identity, professional identity, professionalization, coaching

2
 Coaching: An emerging profession or just a spanner
in the HRD toolbox?1
Importance
This study investigates social identity in the context of a professional group
coaches. Social identity theory has been most frequently studied in the contexts of (1)
artificial groups where participants are randomly assigned to treatments (Ellemers,
Wilke & van Knippenberg, 1993); (2) categories where people are grouped according
to shared attributes such as race or nationality (Crocker, Luhtanen, Baine, and
Broadnax, 1994); and (3) naturally occurring small groups such as college sororities
(Hogg, 1996; Smith & Tyler, 1997). As Bergami and Bagozzi (2000) point out, while
some theoretical investigations have been conducted in an organisational context
(Ashforth & Mael, 1989, 1996; Dutton, Dukerich, & Harquail, 1994) virtually no
attention has been accorded to the dimensions of social identity, their measurement
and their causes and effects. We contend that this particularly applies to groups that
are held together by professional affiliations. We take coaches as an example of such
a professional group.
Over the last 20 years, coaching has experienced an exponential growth, the
International Coach Federation (2013) estimating that it is now a US$2 billion
industry with 48,000 coaches worldwide; 28,000 of them working in HRD (Human
Resource Development). A study of 2,529 professional coaches found that they
originated from a wide range of professional backgrounds: consultants (40.8%),
managers (30.8%), executives (30.2%), teachers (15.7%) and salespeople (13.8%)
(Grant and Zackon, 2004). Other entrants include internal HRD professionals,
supervisors and managers, as organisations expand their internal coaching capacity by
training up employees as coaches (Hamlin, Ellinger and Beattie, 2008). Nearly 40%
of UK organisations expect internal coaching to increase in the next three years
(Ridler, 2013), and it is already the fastest growing HRD professional enterprise
(Egan, 2013: 178). Tensions, however, are now emerging between those who see
coaching as moving from a service industry to a genuine profession (Grant, and
Cavanagh, 2004; Clegg, Rhodes, & Kornberger, 2003), and others who view coaching
as a part of an ubiquitous HRD toolbox (Egan and Hamlin, 2014) rather than a
separate occupational or professional group. As Bachkirova, Cox and Clutterbuck
comment, the unique identity of those who coach is still an unresolved problem
(2010: 3). This paper reports on a global study of over 700 members of (professional)
coaching associations to investigate the degree to which these coaches identify with
coaching as a profession, the variables that influence their views and narratives of
their journey into their becoming a coach.

Some contested definitions of coaching

One of the challenges in discussing the professional identity of coaches is identifying
an accepted working definition of coaching as a concept. As Griffiths and Campbell
(2008) point out, a complicating factor is the similarity between coaching and other

1
We would like to thank the members of the following associations for assisting us in
this research: AC, EMCC, ICF, IoC.

3
helping interventions. For example, the terms coaching and counselling are often
used interchangeably, partly because they both seek to support the individual, both are
delivered either face-to-face or through telephone sessions and both try to initiate
personal change. Indeed, it has been asserted that those who work in the fields of
psychotherapy and counselling see coaching as merely a change of brand name for
what they have been doing for a long time (Bachkirova and Cox, 2004). Important
differences, however, do exist. Hart et al. (2001) for example, describe counselling as
recognising past injuries in order to promote insight and healing, whereas coaching
focuses on untapped present possibilities in order to link this awareness to action.
While these differences can be exaggerated, and overlaps do exist, Griffiths and
Campbell (2008) note that the demarcation between coaching and counselling has led
to practical disputes over professional boundaries.
While Grant (2005) sees coaching as an emergent profession, Hamlin et al. (2008)
contend that coaching could fit within the existing and firmly established field of
HRD study and practice. Indeed, as Hamlin et al. (2008) point out, professional
bodies such as the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD) and the
UK-based Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) see coaching as
a core role within HRD. This contrasts sharply with the views of other commentators
who argue that coaching is quite distinct from both training (usually within the remit
of HRD) and consulting (delivered by independent consultants) (Grant, 2001). The
clash between scholars who view coaching as a distinct profession and those who
approach it as a derivative of existing professional and institutional arrangements may
be reflected in the experiences of the coaches themselves - hence a conflict may be
emerging between coaches who see themselves as part of a distinct coaching
profession, and those working within an HRD context (such as line managers trained
as coaches, and others) who identify themselves with HRD and see coaching as just
another tool of the job. This possible tension has not been adequately explored in
practice but may have far-reaching implications for the social and professional
identity of coaches as well as for the future of their profession.

Individuals constructions of identities and their sense of self

Self identity and self-catagorization
Identities are about who we are, who we are not and the features that differentiate us
as individuals within groups, including organisations, social networks or professions.
They are the meanings attached to the individual by the self and by others, meanings
that may be based on personal, idiosyncratic characteristics such as attributes, traits
and abilities (personal identity) or on a persons social roles and identification with
some human aggregate (social identity) (Ibarra and Barbulescu, 2010; Ashforth and
Mael, 1989). Identities are multiple, mutable and socially constructed (Iberra and
Barbulescu, 2010), helping to connect different experiences and to reduce
fragmentation in feelings and thinking (Alvesson and Willmott, 2002). Identities also
offer a person, guidelines for decision-making certain routes seem reasonable while
others are less so (Mitchell et al., 1986).
Self-identity comprises a comparatively conscious set of self-images, traits and social
attributes the self as reflexively understood by the person, assembled through the
raw materials of language, symbols, values etc., derived from a mass of interactions
with others, through early life experiences and unconscious processes (Giddens,
1991). A person with a relatively stable sense of self-identity has a feeling of
biographical continuity. Hence, a persons self-identity is contained in their ability to

4
communicate this to others and to keep a particular narrative going (Giddens, 1991:
54). To have a sense of who we are, we have to have a notion of how we got here and
where we are going (Taylor, 1989). This can be both robust and fragile fragile
because the biography that the individual holds in the mind (I am a business coach;
I am a life coach; I am a change agent; I am a healer) is just one story among
the many reflexive stories that could be told about the unfolding self.
In routinized situations self-identity is relatively unchanging and stable. However, in
conditions of late modernity identities are increasingly open, improvised and scripted
rather than given or closed (Alvesson and Willmott, 2002), being fluid and complex
(Parker, 2007) and needing to be constructed and secured (Alvesson, 2000). People
are continuously engaged in forming, repairing, maintaining, strengthening or
revising the constructions that are productive of a precarious sense of coherence and
distinctiveness (Alvesson and Willmott, 2002: 626). For example, in industrial
society, identity choices about occupation, employer or neighbourhood often assumed
an air of permanence. In contrast, in post-industrial conditions, there are fewer
identity givens and more identity changes over the course of working life (Gergen,
1991). In this kind of world, there is a need for self-invention and possible re-
invention (Albert et al., 2000).
Social identity is constructed through an individuals membership of a social group,
together with some emotional and value significance of this group membership
(Tajfel, 1981). It is part of a persons sense of who they are (Haslam, 2001) and
refers to the group category that people belong to such as: company, occupation,
gender, nationality, ethnicity, age (Ashforth and Mael, 1989) or profession. For
Ibarra et al. (2005) social identity emerges through network processes. The people
around us are active players in the co-creation of who we are. Behaviour is socially
structured because it is shaped by and oriented towards the emergent norms of the
group (Turner, 1982), group identity prescribing the kinds of attitudes, emotions and
behaviours that are appropriate in a given context (Hornsey, 2008). Our social
identities, then, are created, deployed and changed through social interactions with
others, that is, they are a form of socially mediated cognition, phenomenologically
experienced as a perception of a shared, public, objective world (Turner and Oakes,
1986: 240). It follows, therefore, that social identities change as people change roles,
jobs or organizations (Becker and Carper, 1956; Ibarra, 1999), or professions.
Indeed, to varying degrees, people derive part of their identity from the organisations
or work groups they belong to (Hogg and Terry, 2000). Newcomers, however, are
often unsure of their roles and nervous about their status. They must learn about a
new organizations (or professional associations) policies, role expectations and
norms (Ashforth, 1985) and learn to adjust to new situations (Beyer and Hannah,
2002) through the experience of the dynamic process of socialization (Saks and
Ashforth, 1997).
A limitation of social identity theory is that it offers a relatively undeveloped analysis
of the cognitive processes associated with social identity salience (Haslam, 2001), the
degree to which processes are functionally pre-potent in determining self-perception
(Turner and Oakes, 1986). For example, what is it that makes people define
themselves as part of one group (such as HRD or coaching) rather than another? It
was, in part, to address this that self-categorization theory was developed (Turner,
1982; Turner, Oakes, Riecher and Wetherall, 1986), a process of self-stereotyping
through which the self becomes categorically interchangeable with other in-group
members. This reflects a sense of depersonalized self-categorization, where an

5
individual sees his or her perspectives, interests and motivation to be interchangeable
with those of others who share the same social identity. Ellemers et al. (1999) propose
three components that contribute to ones social identity: a cognitive component (a
cognitive awareness of ones membership of a group or association self-
categorization; an evaluative component (a positive or negative value attached to this
group membership; and an emotional component (a sense of emotional involvement
with the group affective commitment). These components are empirically distinct
and differentially affected by the relative status and size of the group.
Individuals, then, cognitively assimilate themselves to an in-group prototype (the
features that describe and prescribe attributes of the group). But these prototypes are
not checklists of attributes, but fuzzy sets that capture the context-dependent features
of group membership (Hogg and Terry, 2000: 123). Hence, as Figure 1 shows, in the
Personal Identity salient, the self is subjectively sensed in terms of personal identity
rather than collective self. But the individual may move to a sense of social or
organizational identity (SELF in Figure 1) seen in terms of group membership of a
team, department, organization or profession. People cognitively represent their
social groups in terms of prototypes, with category members seen as interchangeable
exemplars of the group prototype (Hornsey, 2008). People are more likely to define
themselves in terms of a particular social identity to the extent that they have worked
within a context for a long time (cognitive accessibility) or they are proud of the
organization or profession (normative fit) (Haslam et al., 2003). Many coaches,
however, work independently, selling their services to an organisation from the
outside. What implications does this independence have for their sense of identity
(and depersonalisation) in relation to the organisations they work in? Does
membership of a professional association help nurture cognitive accessibility?

Figure 1 Variation in self-categorization as a function of depersonalization

(source: Haslam et al., 2003)

6
Professional identity and personal scripts
The concept of identity as narrative is particularly important for understanding
identity dynamics during macro transitions between organizations, occupations or
professions (Ibarra and Barbulescu, 2010). This is because new roles skills,
behaviours and attitudes may produce fundamental changes in an individuals self-
definitions (Hall, 1986). In successful transitions, a narrative repertoire forms around
new and enduring stories about the changes triggered by the transition, helping the
narrator to internalize the new role identity. In contrast, incoherent or divergent
repertoires impede or prolong the transition. Self-narratives act as a transition
bridge (Ashforth, 2001: x) across gaps that form between old and new roles, when
people begin to explore new options and are trying to establish themselves. Stories
help people to articulate their provisional selves and link the past and the future into a
harmonious, continuous sense of self (Ibarra and Barbulescu, 2010: 138). A
coherent self-narrative depicts a career as a series of sequential, unfolding events
within which the protagonists agency provides the key causal explanation. This
includes accounting for any apparent discontinuity in the story. Self-narratives also
show how a person joins in with a set of narratives that are unique to a particular
organizational group he or she belongs to or wishes to join (Ibarra and Barbulescu,
2010).
Brown (2000) notes that one of the current weaknesses of social identity theory is its
failure to acknowledge the enormous diversity of groups that can serve as the basis of
peoples social identity. These could include, for example, personal relationships,
vocations, political affiliations, stigmatised groups and ethnic and religious groups.
While social identities are developed within a common cultural context, individuals
may vary in the value or the functional satisfaction that identities provide them
(Deaux, Reid, Mizrahi and Ethier, 1995). Hence, it is no longer legitimate to assume
that: a group is a group is a group (Brown, 2000: 761). Group membership, then,
may serve a variety of identity functions, some of which are not currently included in
social identity theorys account of social identity (Brown, 2000). A study by Deaux,
Reid, Mizrahi and Cotting (1999) found that important elements of group membership
included: self-insight, intergroup comparisons, cohesion, collective self-esteem,
interpersonal comparisons, social interaction opportunities and romantic relationships.
Brown (2000) comments that only two of these, intergroup comparisons and
collective self-esteem, are described by social identity theory. Our study will explore
these elements in relation to coaching, and also be attuned to new and emerging
elements. Finally, Brown (2000) comments that social identity theory assumes that
people exercise a high degree of strategic, voluntary control when selecting
comparative referents, and that as a result, research in the social identity theory
tradition has focused exclusively on controlled processes and explicit measures of
intergroup attitudes. What is needed is the development of theoretical and
methodological tools that may help us to understand which social identity processes
(if any) operate at an automatic (unconscious) level. Our use of a qualitative,
narrative approach, sought to address this issue both in terms of seeking to identify
automatic responses, but also in evaluating the legitimacy of storytelling within social
identity theory research.
This study, then, has three purposes. Firstly it seeks to explore how the social,
professional and self-identity of people in coaching, is created, established,
maintained and evolved. As indicated, coaching is an expanding but complex
occupation, in which the task itself, coaching is not widely understood, and where

7
there are overlapping functions with other interventions training, mentoring,
consulting and psychotherapy, to name but four. Secondly, it seeks to inform the
scholarship on social, professional and self-identity, with particular reference to how
this is created in new and emerging professions (like coaching) particularly where
identity is forged by people engaged in multiple (and sometimes divergent)
professional activities. This has the potential to illuminate the issues for social
identity formation in contexts where occupational parameters are fuzzy, imprecise and
emergent. It also addresses the challenge laid down by Hogg and Terry (2000) for
social identity research to become better integrated into theories of organizational
behaviour including those of the workgroup, organisation and profession (our
emphasis), in line with the advice that A valuable way to test the limits of theory is to
pitch it into the real world (Abrams and Hogg, 2004: 103). Thirdly, it seeks to reach
across the HRD divide between theory and practice (Gray et al., 2009). As Stewart
(2007) comments, academic researchers pay too much attention to their own
arguments, and not enough to the interests and needs of practitioners. Hence, it is
hoped that the development of theory (in this case theories of self, social and
professional-identity) can inform organizational practice (the attempts of coaches to
achieve professional status and sustainability), an example of what Anderson et al.
(2001) call pragmatic science.

Methodology

Research questions
The study sought to address the following research questions:
RQ1: Is coaching a distinct occupation, or a task, performed within a portfolio of HR
or other roles?
RQ2: To what extent do coaches identify with coaching as a profession? What
variables (such as experience as a coach, membership of one or more coaching
association, coaching accreditation, being an internal or external coach) determine
this identification?
RQ3: How is a professional identity (or multiple identities) created and maintained
amongst coaches? In making their career transition, what continuities and tensions do
coaches experience between their old identities and their new emerging sense of self?

Research design
In addressing these questions, the study adopted a pragmatist mixed methods research
design. Mixed methods are designs that include at least one quantitative and one
qualitative method, where neither method is inherently linked to any particular
inquiry paradigm (Greene et al., 1989). Pragmatist mixed methods designs choose to
integrate the two methods within a single study, utilizing the strengths of each (Gray,
2014). The study comprised two phases:
Phase 1: A literature search was undertaken on social identity theory and on the
instruments used in its measurement (see above discussion). After exploring seven
potential scales, Mael and Ashforths (1992) six-item scale was adopted to measure
identification with the coaching profession. In the same manner as the use of this
scale by Bergami and Bagozzi (2000), the only amendment was the substitution of
coaching profession for the name of the school/this school in each of the scale
items. Internal consistency of this scale was good ( = .763). Following Bergami
and Bagozzi (2000) we also adopted their visual direct measure of the degree of

8
overlap between the respondents own and the coaching professions identity. This
single question comprised eight pairs of circles from far apart (no overlap) through
increasing degrees to complete overlap between the identities. Affective
commitment was measured using Meyer and Allens (1980) eight-item short scale,
coaching profession again being substituted for an organisations name; internal
consistency being good ( = .805). For coaching based self-esteem we again followed
Begami and Bagazzi (2000) who, following analysis had adopted six items from
Heatherton and Polivys (1991) 20 item self-esteem scale, amending them to reflect a
single organisation. Five of these items measured positive self-enhancement, whereas
the sixth measured self -consciousness. Keeping the wording of each of these items
identical to Begami and Bagazzi (2000), we amended the associated scale question,
replacing the organisations name with the phrase working as a coach. Internal
consistency of this scale was good ( = .848). The instrument was also validated as
appropriate for this research using two focus groups of coaches.
Phase 2: Collaboration was obtained from a number of national and international
coaching associations (AC, EMCC, ICF, IoC and others) to distribute the
questionnaire as an hyperlink in an email and elicit the support of their English
speaking members in completing it online. Respondents, due to their established
association with these associations can be considered a purposive extreme case
sample of coaches, and as such likely to enable us learn most (Saunders, 2012).
Although 911 returned the questionnaire, it was only completed fully by 756 (82.4%)
of respondents. Of those respondents stating their country of residence, over two
thirds were from the UK (61.6%) or Ireland (5.0%). Some 8.4% of respondents were
from North America, the remainder residing predominantly in the rest of Europe.
Approximately two thirds (65.6%) were female and over three quarters (76.7%)
worked as an external independent coach. It is these returns that form the basis for
our subsequent analysis. From survey respondents who indicated a willingness to be
interviewed, 28 were selected to represent global coverage. These potential
participants were contacted initially by email and subsequently interviewed by
telephone at a mutually convenient time. In terms of gender, the interviewees were
evenly divided between males and females. Ten were from the UK, three from the
USA and two from Spain, with one respondent from each of the following countries:
Australia, Canada, Chile, France, Greece, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg,
Netherlands, Romania, South Africa and Switzerland. Interviews lasted a minimum of
one hour.

Approaches to data analysis.

Quantitative data were downloaded into SPSS and, after data cleaning, analysed
statistically. For qualitative data analysis, thematic analysis was used. Thematic
analysis is a method for identifying and analysing patterns (themes) within qualitative
data (Braun and Clarke, 2006) and is a form of pattern recognition within the data
(Fereday and Muir-Cochrane, 2006). A theme captures something important about
the data in relation to the research question, and represents a level of patterned
response or meaning within the data.

Findings
The findings presented here represent provisional results since the quantitative survey
is still live. However, given that 756 respondents have already completed the
questionnaire, alongside the completion and analysis of 28 qualitative interviews, it is
possible to offer preliminary insights.

9
RQ1: Is coaching a distinct occupation, or a task, performed within a portfolio of
HR or other roles?
Preliminary statistical analysis suggests that 65% of respondents consider that there is
at least a moderate to complete overlap between the coaching profession and their
sense of self. For the majority of respondents, however, coaching is only one aspect
of their working lives, 56% working, on average, less than three days a week as a
coach, suggesting a portfolio approach to employment. The number of days spent
working as a coach each week is associated significantly with the level of overlap
between their own identity and that of the coaching profession (2 = 4.63, df= 21,
p<.000). Overall, the self-identify of those who work as a coach for three or more
days a week overlap more with that of the coaching profession than those working
fewer days.
Qualitative data analysis also suggests that coaching is most often associated with a
portfolio of other occupations with consultancy and training clearly the most
prominent. Although most preferred to call themselves a coach (depending on which
client they were talking to), many admitted that coaching was only one element of
their work. For Derek, a UK coach, his business is now 60 per cent facilitated
leadership training and 40 per cent coaching. Sandy, in the UK, coaches once or
twice a week, the other half of her portfolio being consultancy. Lily, in the USA,
combines leadership development, team development and communications skills
training with coaching. For Clare in Chile, the world sees her as a senior consultant,
even though she sees herself as a coach. Jeff has been coaching for 30 years and does
perhaps only five hours of paid coaching a week, the rest being pro bono yet he
identifies himself strongly as a coach. Steve began coaching six years ago and wants,
eventually, to combine coaching with consultancy but at the moment he is still chief
executive of a housing association. Coaches, then, have portfolio working lives and
exhibit multiple identities. Although most identify themselves as a coach, most
combine this with a range of (often related) activities.
RQ2: To what extent do coaches identify with coaching as a profession? What
variables (such as experience as a coach, membership of one or more coaching
associations, coaching accreditation, being an internal or external coach)
determine this identification?
Data from identification with coaching scale items (Table 1) indicate that respondents
do identify strongly with the coaching profession, particularly with regard to the way
they talk about the profession and with regard to what others think about the
profession, both statements having over 80% agreement. Respondents association
with the coaching profession as represented by Mael and Ashforths (1992) six item
scale is significantly correlated with their affective commitment as represented by
Meyer and Allens eight item scale (r=.508, p<.000). Respondents whose affective
commitment is higher are significantly more likely to identify with the coaching
profession. There is a significant difference in the number of days spent working as a
coach each week and the nature of the work as a coach (F (3, 770)=27.014, p<.000).
External independent coaches and internal coaches are likely to spend more time than
unpaid coaches. Those working externally will spend the most time. Those who
identify more strongly with coaching as a profession/occupation are more likely to
have a coaching qualification (t=3.81, df=761, p<.000). Other variables such as age,
gender, and whether the coach worked as an internal or external coach, are not

10
significant. There is a significant but very weak correlation between number of years
working as a coach and identification with coaching (r =.136, p<.000).

Table 1: Respondents identification with the coaching profession

Strongly disagree
Neither agree nor
Strongly agree

Disagree
disagree
Agree

Total
When someone criticises the 7.0% 31.7% 26.7% 27.1% 7.6% 817
coaching profession, it feels like a
personal insult
I am very interested in what others 27.6% 58.1% 11.1% 3.1% 0.1% 818
think about the coaching profession
When I talk about the coaching 35.0% 45.5% 13.6% 5.0% 0.9% 817
profession, I usually say "we";
rather than "they"
The coaching profession's 18.2% 39.8% 30.8% 9.8% 1.5% 815
successes are my successes
When someone praises the 11.9% 40.2% 32.5% 14.5% 1.0% 816
coaching profession, it feels like a
personal compliment
If a story in the media criticised the 7.6% 30.7% 26.7% 30.1% 4.9% 815
coaching profession I would feel
embarrassed

Table 2: Respondents affective commitment to the coaching profession

<= <= <=> => =>
Strongly

Strongly
disagree

agree

I would be very happy to spend the 1.0% 1.4% 2.9% 5.9% 13.2% 30.8% 44.8%
rest of my career in the coaching
profession
I enjoy discussing the coaching 0.3% 1.0% 2.2% 8.3% 18.4% 35.4% 34.5%
profession with people outside it
I really feel as if the coaching 5.8% 7.2% 16.5% 22.7% 23.0% 19.2% 5.5%
profession's problems are my own
I think I could easily become as 8.4% 20.8% 21.7% 19.5% 15.0% 11.4% 3.3%
attached to another profession as I
am to coaching
I do not feel like 'part of the family' 10.9% 16.8% 19.9% 18.4% 18.4% 11.4% 4.2%
in the coaching profession
I do not feel 'emotionally attached' 12.5% 23.4% 24.9% 11.8% 15.1% 9.5% 2.8%
to the coaching profession
The coaching profession has a great 1.8% 4.3% 7.1% 13.3% 23.1% 30.3% 20.2%
deal of personal meaning for me
I do not feel a strong sense of 15.4% 23.8% 22.5% 13.2% 15.1% 6.9% 3.2%
belonging to the coaching
profession

11
There is a significant difference in respondents self-esteem and the nature of their
work as a coach (F (3, 768)=12.645, p<.000). Those working externally as
independent coaches have significantly higher levels of self-esteem. Although the
difference is significant (t = 2.021, df=764, p= .044), those possessing a coaching
qualification have only a slightly higher level of self-esteem than those who do not,
the effect size (d = .1465) meaning the real world effect is small.
Table 3: Respondents self esteem

Moderately

Very much
Quite a bit
A little bit
Not at all

Total
I feel confident about my 0.5% 1.5% 9.2% 45.8% 43.0% 784
abilities

I feel that others respect and 1.7% 2.6% 17.8% 51.6% 26.4% 783
admire me
2.3% 3.8% 17.1% 47.2% 29.5% 782
I feel as smart as others

0.6% 1.3% 10.0% 48.1% 39.9% 781

I feel good about myself

I feel confident that I 0.6% 1.3% 6.8% 51.1% 40.2% 784

understand things

I feel aware of or am 0.9% 4.6% 7.4% 40.7% 46.4% 782

conscious of myself

Qualitative data analysis also reveals a strong identification with coaching, whether
respondents coach full-time or not. There is a strong sense that coaches want to do
good in the world. For me, the highlights have always been in terms of helping
others (Sandy). As a coach youre talking to the soul of the people (Clare) and
contributing something good to the globe (Maria). Yet this contribution is not one-
way. Coaches also talk about the process of coaching aiding their own self-awareness
and personal change. Coaching has instilled in Greta self-confidence, self-trust, self-
worth, because there were problems for me in the past. It gets you to apply rules to
yourself, encouraging you to go on a self-help journey (Collette) and has given
Christian a new source of life a sense of affirmation. Its just transforming (Jenny).
RQ3: How is a professional identity (or multiple identities) created and maintained
amongst coaches? In making their career transition, what continuities and
tensions do coaches experience between their old identities and their new emerging
sense of self?
Analysis suggests that, for external coaches at least, the journey into coaching often
comes from disillusionment with the corporate world and hinge moments stemming
from an occupational or personal crisis. Some had experienced redundancy, often
more than once. The turning point was leaving the second large corporate and
saying, You know what, I dont think Ill do this again (Nigel). For others it was
the stress of long working hours. Derek realised after quitting that he had been
walking up somebody elses ladder of success. My ladder was going to be pointed

12
on a different wall. Sometimes redundancy money was used to fund training as a
coach.
Personal trauma and crisis figures in many narratives. Max had minor surgery but
ended up in a coma for three weeks followed by six months of rehabilitation.
Returning to work, after two weeks he realised that the stress was probably going to
kill him so he quit his law firm and sat in on a coaching class, the first step towards
his involvement in coaching. Naomi suffered a horse riding accident that led to two
operations and 15 months of physiotherapy, three times a week. This was a turning
point for her to negotiate an exit package from the bank she worked for which helped
pay for her Masters degree in coaching. The most poignant story however, is that of
Nanette for whom the still birth of her second child led to an intense journey of self-
finding; I lost my child so my identity widened up much more than it would in a
context when it would have been much more stable and secure. Trauma led to
freedom to invent myself.

Corporate
world

Being Consultant
Trauma
coached
Coach
- Helping others
- Personal
change Trainer
Spiritual - Affirma on
journey
Previous
iden es

JOURNEY/HINGE POINTS IDENTITY

Figure 2 Hinge points in the journey towards multiple identities

In line with the quantitative analysis, qualitative findings affirm for many the
importance of training in becoming a coach. After redundancy, Clare trained for a
year as a coach and it changed my life. For Sandy formal accreditation was a
turning point gaining her insights into the process, while for Clare, training as a coach
made her hate her job and the power she had over others: I realised that I had
changed that I wasnt set for that anymore. For Collette too, the experience of being
coached was a huge, huge huge turning point, like Naomi who went on a coaching
programme It was just the most amazing three days ever. We all cried at the end.
We didnt want it to stop. For some, the journey into coaching included spiritual

13
elements of an inner journey mind and spirit (Collette) and a spiritual faith that
everything is there for a purpose and an opportunity (Nigel).
While respondents coach (to a greater or lesser extent), for some this new identity
contains seeds of previous roles, while for others the transition is one of disjuncture.
I open the door of the pigeonhole and bits of me are still there (Andy) because
parts of his former career (as an actor) are still part of what he knows and how I am.
Skills generated in previous roles can help. You coach all your life if youre a good
leader, good manager (Nigel). Delivering induction training in a retail firm makes
Sandy believe that she has probably been coaching all of her career. For some, the
transition is eased by returning to coach in their former organization or sector. Max
spent 28 years as a lawyer so becoming a coach there was a real transition there.
But as a lawyer he became involved in mediation work; as a coach he carved out a
niche in conflict management coaching, hence linking legal and coaching work. For
others, coaching develops as a role within their organisation. Hence, Christian
worked within human resources to help prepare managers for their transition
(redundancy), initially as a financial controller but step-by-step slipped out of
financial controlling and started to move into coaching.
For others, however, the transition to coach is one of disjuncture that does not always
prove easy. Dimitrios spent years working as an electrical engineer and grew weary
of his occupation so spent a year training as a coach. In his new business he has six
clients but only one of them pays. His friends discouraged this transition arguing that
coaching is for stupid people; he became reluctant to launch a website since this
might lead to exposing him. Nanette, a senior lawyer, moved countries with her
husband but couldnt practice since the law is nationally defined. A successful and
highly respected lawyer (and the loss of her second child, discussed above), made this
a demanding transition: I lost my career. I lost my child.

Discussion
We find persuasive support for Alvesson and Willmitts (2002) contention that in
conditions of late modernity, identities are relatively open, improvised and precarious
constructions. As we show, coaching, even amongst those who profess a strong
commitment to the role, is often merely one task amongst a portfolio of several
others, suggesting that identity is both multiple and mutable (Ibarra and Barbulescu,
2010). We offer compelling evidence for the shifting nature of identity over the
course of working life (Gergen, 1991), often through disillusionment with the
corporate world, through redundancy or through personal trauma or misfortune. The
ability to keep a particular narrative going (Giddens, 1991:54) is socially
constructed through network processes, helping the co-creation of who we are.
Hence, Dimitrios ponders whether to launch his coaching website because his friends
see coaching as being for stupid people. As a newcomer, he is worried about his
role and his status. But for others, the experience of being coached becomes a
transformational process, inspiring them to train as a coach and to join one of the
coaching associations.
We noted Haslams (2001) criticism that a limitation of social identity theory is that it
offers a relatively undeveloped analysis of the cognitive processes associated with
social identity salience. Self-categorization theory (Turner, 1982; Turner et al., 1986)
developed depersonalized self-categorization partly to address this, two elements
being a cognitive component and an affective component. Our study measured the
cognitive component making use of a scale, integrated from those developed by Mael

14
and Ashforth (1992) and Bergami and Bagozzi (2000) (one of the contributions of our
study). We found a moderate to complete overlap between the coaching profession
and the sense of self for 65% of respondents, not, perhaps, a particularly large figure,
given that most of the respondents were members of professional associations. We
also noted that over 50% of respondents work for less than three days a week as a
coach, again suggesting an engagement with a portfolio of activities. Our study did
not find support for Haslams (2003) assertion that cognitive accessibility is
associated with length of time working in a context. This may be partly explained by
the fragmented nature of coaching, with its multiple and often competing professional
associations.
This identification with coaching, yet engaging in a portfolio of non-coaching
employment, lends some support to the notion that these coaches are experimenting
with provisional selves as coaches (Ibarra and Barbulescu, 2010). Within many of
the narratives there is a clear sense of protagonists agency, linking the past, the
present and the future into a continuous sense of self. Andy comments how elements
of his acting past are still with him. Nigel brings his experience of coaching as a
manager into his current coaching role. But the narratives related by our informants
illustrate both stable and unstable feelings of biographical continuity. Dimitrios, a
former engineer, feels exposed to the ridicule of his friends, trying to keep his new,
coaching profile hidden from them. Nanette experiences both personal, family loss,
but also the loss of a former, successful career as a lawyer.
One of the weaknesses of the current study is the preponderance of external,
independent coaches compared with internal coaches. It is for this reason that the
survey is still live and steps are being taken to resolve this feature of the sample.

Implications for practice

These results have important implications for HRD. Results of the study suggest that
a significant proportion of coaches who are members of coaching associations
identify with coaching as a profession and may, therefore, have cognitive and
affective affiliations that are external to the organisations within which they coach.
These professional affiliations, however, may also work to the benefit of HRD, since,
as we found, identity with coaching is associated with the possession of a coaching
qualification an important element of continuing professional development. Hence,
identification with coaching as a profession may produce a much sharper tool in the
HRD toolbox!

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