Perceptions of the value of leadership coaching by MBA students at Wits Business School

Abstract

The world of business is rapidly changing, and for the business and management education to keep up, it is imperative to lead the change. In order to adapt to the business world of changes, Wits Business School (WBS) have designed the new Master of Business Administration (MBA) curriculum, with a view to develop and grow value-based leaders with the requisite skills to positively impact society. Forming an integral part of the MBA curricula is the Leadership Development Program, which includes a Leadership Development workshop and four leadership coaching sessions. These teaching and learning tools were engaged as an endeavour to empower the students to take ownership of their own development and foster their reflective practice and engagement. In their roles as leaders, the MBA students also face challenges in balancing their studies and work lives. With no source of reference, it is difficult to assess the value of leadership coaching from the coached WBS MBA students’ perspective. The research sought to explore the MBA students’ perceptions of the value gained from the leadership coaching component in their curricula. This study used a qualitative research methodology approach. Semi-structured questionnaires were used during individual interviews with twelve MBA students who have undergone coaching offered as part of the leadership development programme prescribed in their curricula. The transcripts of the interviews were analysed using thematic analysis, and several themes were derived at. What was apparent from the findings, was that the intervention benefited the MBA students into catapulting their development as effective leaders through introspection and self-awareness. From the leadership styles addressed in the coaching sessions, the findings led to a clear transformation between reactive and defensive forms of leaders. Effective leadership was also evident in the extent of the impact of leadership with the co-created space between the leader and the follower defined by “the self and others”. The study’s findings also showed that coaching helped to evoke selfawareness in managing the balancing act, not only between studies and work, but in iii their personal lives as well. The study recommended that a proper briefing process and structure of the program in a way incorporates feedback loop. The study further recommended proper allocation of coaches, and that the length period of the coaching program be extended to cover the duration of the MBA program. The coaching program need to be structured in a way that it incorporated frameworks that assist in determining effective strategies to enable coping with work and study conflicts. Further studies could look into the role of self-development in leadership coaching and assessing the work-study-personal lives balance.