The influences of attachment style and implicit person theories on employee coaching needs

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to learn more about what effects employees when it comes to employee coaching, specifically if their attachment style and implicit person theory would affect their coaching willingness and needs, predominantly within a South African context. Employee coaching is one on one coaching by a manager with their employees. Theory and research have identified employee coaching as a potential key tool to drive development, employee satisfaction and improve performance. This research has drawn heavily on executive coaching literature with primary emphases on practical implementation and outcomes for the executive as coachee. Employee coaching literature places the manager as coach and the employee as coachee and therefore entails different dynamics. However, less is known about the dynamics and choices within the employee coaching relationship, such as, drivers of the employee’s desire to be coached and perceived needs within coaching. This thesis seeks to address these questions. This thesis chooses two psychologically derived major drivers of employee willingness to be coached and needs. The first antecedent is attachment theory which assesses the individual’s foundational personal style of relationship forming and interaction which is widely believed to be formed early in life. Attachment styles vary from secure to insecure with various classifications. Theoretically, therefore, since employee coaching involves a relationship including the potential for intimacy with an authority figure theory suggests the attachment styles could play an important role. Implicit person theory measures the extent to which a person believes people can change or be changed. Since coaching is a developmental process, the employee’s belief that he or she can change could be expected to again have an important effect on the employee’s willingness to be changed and the type of coaching desired. In order to address these research questions, a survey measuring attachment style, implicit person theory, coaching needs and coaching willingness was devised and distributed electronically with 441 respondents. Have established factor structure through reliability and confirmatory factor analyses, the main analyses employed correlations and structural equation modelling. Attachment theory and implicit person theory has some effect on employee coaching willingness and needs. These results are presented along with recommendations and future research questions.