Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research

The empathy factor: An important aspect of success in every coaching session.
Empathy is an important factor for coaching success. Yet there has been little research on whether it is useful at every stage of a coaching process. To explore this research question, 221 coaching sessions from 48 coach–client dyads with a focus on business- and career-related goals were analyzed, differentiating sessions both along a timeline and by coaching phases. The results show that client-perceived coach empathy positively influenced how clients viewed coaching success (i.e., the session’s success, satisfaction, and goal attainment) in every session with perceived empathy increasing over the coaching process. In addition, the results highlight how the client’s approach-related, positive affective states can contribute to a successful coaching process—particularly at the beginning of a coaching process. These results contribute to an increased awareness of the coach’s empathy at every session as well as how the client enters the coaching process. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
What are executive coaches actually doing and when are they doing it? A systematic review of coaching behavior.
In recent years there has been an increase in research about factors that make executive coaching effective. These are termed success factors and shape the coaching process as well as different coaching outcomes. The current review aims to contribute to this stream of research by specifying (a) the actual behaviors underlying success factors and (b) the temporal order in which they should be implemented over the course of the coaching process. Coaching behaviors are influenced by success factors and describe what coaches actually do during the coaching process. Specifically, actual behavior constitutes the visible and observable part of success factors. We contend that it is not sufficient to know which success factors are important because it remains unclear “how” and “when” they are implemented. We found 19 empirical studies that assessed actual coaching behavior in the context of executive coaching. The identified behaviors were summarized and classified into common themes using thematic analysis and in the next step arranged in a temporal order to specific coaching phases. The temporal order was informed by the GROW model by Whitmore (1996). The resulting temporal model of executive coaching behavior includes five categories: contact phase, exploration phase, operationalization phase, conclusion phase, and recurring coaching behavior category. Results indicate that coaching behavior differs across phases. Our findings contribute to a more detailed picture of what happens within executive coaching on a behavioral level. Moreover, understanding the underlying mechanisms of effectiveness helps identify the coaching behaviors that need further investigation. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
Crossing the border: Who coaches clients with clinical concerns?
In the business world, coaching has established itself as an important instrument of personnel development. At the same time, however, psychological disorders in the workplace are on the rise. Combined, these trends mean that more business coaches may encounter clients who contact the coach with a psychotherapeutic need. An initial explorative and qualitative study has revealed that coaches frequently accept and attempt to treat clinical cases. In our study, we analyze this phenomenon with an optimized methodical approach. We confronted 160 coaches with six coaching cases. Three cases featured a clinical concern: depression (F32), generalized anxiety disorder (F41.1), or borderline (F60.31). Our results indicate that, particularly often, coaches accept a depressive client and do not advise the client to see a psychotherapist. Using a path model, we can demonstrate that more job experience is related to more self-efficacy beliefs. In turn, job-related self-efficacy beliefs are associated with a higher probability of accepting clinical cases and with a lower probability of advising the client to see a psychotherapist. Furthermore, we found perceived clinical knowledge to be a moderating factor for this relationship. Business coaches who believe they have more clinical knowledge are more inclined to accept clinical cases with growing self-efficacy beliefs. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
Identifying job demands and resources typologies and exploring their differences on employee health behaviors.
The job demands-resources (JD-R) model has been used extensively to examine well-being across different occupations. The aim of the present study was to advance existing work on the JD-R by using a person-centered (as opposed to variable-focused) approach and through the consideration of health behaviors. The objective of the study was to identify JD-R typologies in office-based employees and to examine their differences in a range of health behaviors. In this cross-sectional study, 399 employees in typically sedentary occupations (Mage = 44.38 years; SDage = 12.79 years; 266 [66.67%] females) completed self-reported measures assessing perceptions of the psychosocial work environment, organizational outcomes, and engagement in health behaviors. Latent profile analysis was conducted to identify profiles that best represented employees’ experiences of job demands, job resources, and personal resources. Subsequently, differences between classes on health behaviors, work engagement, and burnout were examined. The results revealed three profiles that were distinguished primarily by quantitative differences in terms of demands and resources (balanced, resourceful, and minimally resourced). Resourceful profile members displayed the lowest burnout and highest engagement scores, and both resourceful and balanced profile members reported engagement in a more favorable pattern of health behaviors compared to minimally resourced profile members. This information can be used to inform the focus and design of programs for workplace health promotion and for interventions to improve employee health and well-being. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
Employee stress and its relationship to perceived collaboration, task cohesion, and adequacy of staffing.
Because today’s jobs are more complex, faced-paced, and intense, the number of employees who report high levels of work stress and suffer from work-related psychological disorders is increasing in many countries. The aim of the current study was to explore factors that account for both departmental and organizational differences in employee psychological stress. Data were collected via self-administered web questionnaires from 9,386 employees representing 10 industries. The research design was cross-sectional. The results indicated that employee-shared perceptions regarding the office environment for work collaborations are negatively related to psychological stress at the organizational level. Furthermore, the relationship between the perceived environment for work collaborations and the organization average psychological stress differed by organizational size in terms of the number of employees, with the relationship being more negative for larger than for smaller organizations. Department-level task cohesion was found to be negatively associated with department-level employee psychological stress, and the strength of this relationship did not differ across organizations. Because work is becoming more interdependent and requires employees to collaborate in an efficient manner, designing work offices that support work collaborations and communications is vital for maintaining psychological well-being. Additionally, the results suggest that promoting task cohesion among employees is vital for managing employee psychological stress. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
Cautionary comments on the cliftonstrengths assessment in higher education.
The CliftonStrengths Assessment (CSA), published and sold by the Gallup Organization, is a personality assessment designed to identify areas of an individual’s inherent talents from 34 strength themes. The CSA has grown in popularity and is used across a variety of contexts. Within institutions of higher education, the CSA has been implemented in first-year seminar courses, subject-specific courses, advising, athletics, student leadership roles, team building, and leadership roles in higher education administration. The present article evaluates the psychometric properties, methodology, and potential outcomes of implementing the CSA within higher education. The authors conclude that the current available evidence for implementing the CSA within higher education is insufficient, and additional research on the CSA could be illuminating and welcomed. The authors also provide recommendations for those working in and consulting to institutions of higher education who seek to implement positive-psychology frameworks to benefit university students and communities. In selecting programs and implementing interventions, individuals and institutions should carefully consider: (a) the available empirical, peer-reviewed support for a program and intervention and (b) the match between the supported uses of a program with their population and goals. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)

Consulting Psychology Journal - Vol 76, Iss 3