The Journal of Positive Psychology, 2013

Vol. 9, No. 1, 1–18, https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2013.837499

Does coaching work? A meta-analysis on the effects of coaching on individual level outcomes in an organizational context

Tim Theeboom*, Bianca Beersma and Annelies E.M. van Vianen

Department of Work and Organizational Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Weesperplein 4, 1018 XA, Amsterdam,

The Netherlands

(Received 12 February 2013; accepted 15 August 2013)

Whereas coaching is very popular as a management tool, research on coaching effectiveness is lagging behind. Moreover, the studies on coaching that are currently available have focused on a large variety of processes and outcome measures and generally lack a ﬁrm theoretical foundation. With the meta-analysis presented in this article, we aim to shed light on the effectiveness of coaching within an organizational context. We address the question whether coaching has an effect on ﬁve both theoretically and practically relevant individual-level outcome categories: performance/skills, well-being, coping, work attitudes, and goal-directed self-regulation. The results show that coaching has signiﬁcant posi- tive effects on all outcomes with effect sizes ranging from g = 0.43 (coping) to g = 0.74 (goal-directed self-regulation). These ﬁndings indicate that coaching is, overall, an effective intervention in organizations.

Keywords: coaching; coaching effectiveness; coaching interventions; coaching outcomes; meta-analysis

U kunt meer over de Effectiviteit van Coaching lezen bij informatie over coaching.