Potential antecedents and consequences of negative effects for coaches

ABSTRACT

Prior research showed that coaches often experience negative effects in their work. The present study explores their antecedents and impact on coaches’ health and well-being. In a time-lagged design and an international sample, 275 coaches evaluated their last completed coaching process. Negative effects for coaches and their potential antecedents were assessed at t₁ and the consequences for coaches’ health and well-being at t₂. Results from structural equation modeling indicated that coaches experienced more negative effects when the relationship quality with their clients was low. When coaches perceived their client’s goal attainment as low and a high number of negative effects for their clients, coaches felt less competent as a coach and experienced more negative effects for themselves. Coaches who experienced more negative effects at t₁ perceived more stress and impaired sleep eight weeks later (t₂). This is the first study to present antecedents of negative effects for coaches and may assist coaches to prevent negative effects. The relationship to coaches’ health and well-being eight weeks later support the importance of coaches’ self-care. The use of a time-lagged design helps to rule out common method variance that may exist in prior research on the consequences of negative effects.

KEYWORDS:

• Competence
• goal attainment
• negative effects
• relationship quality
• stress

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Carolin Graßmann is a post-doctoral researcher at SRH University Berlin, Germany. Her research focuses on positive and negative effects of coaching for clients and coaches, which factors determine these effects, and how they can be prevented.

Carsten C. Schermuly is a professor of business psychology at SRH University Berlin, Germany. His main research focuses on new work from a psychological perspective (psychological empowerment), interaction processes and diversity in teams, and quality of personnel development and selection.

Dominika Wach is a researcher at Technische Universitaet Dresden, Germany. Her main research focuses on entrepreneurship, intercultural psychology, work and health, as well as coaching for insolvent entrepreneurs.

Notes

1 The following specific negative effects were dropped here from the sum score: feeling insecure, feeling stressed, feeling emotionally exhausted, finding it difficult to maintain personal boundaries, feeling sexually attracted, sexual advances, and feelings of love.