Coaching behaviours of Senior Managers within the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs in Gauteng

Abstract

The role of the manager in the 21st century has evolved and expanded beyond their traditional responsibilities to include coaching. The current literature reveals that coaching is a critical element of management, more specifically relating to the manager’s role as a facilitator of learning. In our ever-changing world, now more than ever, managers need to develop their coaching behaviours to ensure constant learning, organisational agility, and the ability to compete in the wider environment. Even though there has been a significant increase in the literature on managerial coaching behaviours, there is limited knowledge on how this concept is conceptualised, defined, and developed within the public sector in South Africa.

By employing an interpretive inductive approach this research aimed to explore the empowering and facilitating coaching behaviours of senior managers in the Department of Co-Operative Governance and Traditional Affairs in Gauteng, South Africa. A qualitative research methodology was adopted in which a semi-structured interview schedule was administered to 15 senior managers. Information obtained from the interviews was analysed using thematic analysis and two main themes and several sub-themes emerged. The findings illustrated that senior managers do in fact exhibit both empowering and facilitating coaching behaviours and that these behaviours are driven by the belief of the manager in their role as a facilitator of learning and the Leadership and Management Competency Framework.

The implications of the findings are that coaching behaviours have now been identified and can be used to develop training and development initiatives for managers in the public sector. By developing these coaching behaviours, other officials in the public sector will be developed, in turn assisting with the strategic goal of the Government, which is to develop an ethical, capable, and developmental state.