Building internal coaching capacity and coaching culture to promote positive behaviour change in employees in the face of corporate restructure

In the last decade, workplace coaching has seen major growth as a result of globalisation in many countries and across various industries. With high and at times unaffordable costs associated with employing professional external coaches, and challenges and complicated process in recruiting professional coaches, there has been a need to put more emphasis on developing a pool of internal coaches within organisations. The majority of the empirical research in the literature has largely focused on the external form of coaching, and less attention has been given to the benefits of building internal coaching capacity. Additionally, the literature remains silent with regard to the benefits of creating a coaching culture that supports internal coaching programs. This research aims to find ways to build internal coaching capacity and to create coaching culture in organisations. Furthermore this study aims to understand the effect that coaching may have on employee behaviour in the times of change and restructure in organisations. This study made an original contribution to theory by developing a model of Positive Coaching Culture based on seven steps that organisations are suggested to take to move towards a culture that supports and promotes the implementation of internal coaching programmes. Four research questions posited for this study were as follows: RQ1: How is internal coaching differentiated from external coaching? RQ2 : What are the characteristics of an effective internal coaching program? RQ3: How do organisations create a coaching culture that supports effective coaching? RQ4: What effect can coaching have on behaviour during corporate restructure? From the methodological perspective, this study utilised a sequential exploratory mixed methods approach, with the first two phases putting specific emphasis on internal coaching and coaching culture then being supplemented with a third phase later, focusing on the effect of coaching on behaviour during corporate restructure. The main limitations of this study included small sample size in phase one and phase three of the study. Furthermore, the study was conducted in Australia and was limited to Australian rail organisations which may be cuase limitations with regards to the implication of findings to other industries and in other countries. Although, there were limitations in this research project, there is no evidence that they have seriously affected or compromised the findings The findings of this study revealed evidence suggesting that in order to build internal coaching capacity, organisations should consider shifting from the informal and unstructured forms of internal coaching programs into a formal, structured, systematic and consistent form of internal coaching. Building internal coaching capacity and coaching culture to promote positive behaviour change in employees in the face of corporate restructureFurthermore, the findings suggest that in order to build successful internal coaching programs, the following factors are highly important: 1. coach-coachee relationship, 2. coach training and on-going development of internal coaches, and 3. initial planning and investment in creating a culture of coaching.