Coaching, Well-Being and Organisational Culture: A Case Study of Royal Mail (UK)

Shaun Davis14th January 2016

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Overview

• My research leads to a better understanding of the relationships between coaching, well-being and organisational culture, in the context of a large public to private sector organisation in the UK – Royal Mail (UK).

• Presenting a qualitative analysis of the influence of coaching on organisational well-being in Royal Mail (UK), the empirical core of my research is a set of interviews conducted with my cohort of fifteen research participants – all recipients of coaching (‘coachees’), participants of the Executive Leadership Development Programme and all Royal Mail (UK) employees, inquiring into their experiences of coaching, their understanding of the coaching paradigm, their conception of what well-being entails and their perceptions of how coaching influences their well-being.

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Overview

• My research reveals that the approach to coaching has a significant impact on coaching’s ability to influence well-being and organisational culture, with a more mentorship-based, collaborative and supportive coaching programme yielding more benefits to employees than coaching that is conducted out-of-line or with a more supervisory coach.

• My research also demonstrates that multiple types of coaching may freely exist within the same organisation, even as part of the same coaching initiative, particularly if the organisation is not clear about its intended goals of coaching at the time of implementation.

• Finally, my research offers new recommendations for best practices in coaching, as well as several clear implications for how Royal Mail (UK) should utilise and administer coaching in the future. These include clearly communicating the goals of coaching, fostering a collaborative, open coaching relationship where recipients of coaching feel empowered, utilising in-line coaches and encouraging free communication between recipients of coaching and coaches regarding concerns, personal health struggles and career goals.

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Introduction

• A great deal of research has lauded the benefits of coaching on outcomes such as aligning personal and professional goals, boosting productivity and reducing waste, however research on how it impacts the well-being of employees remains somewhat scarce.

• Presenting a qualitative analysis of the influence of coaching on organisational well-being in Royal Mail (UK), the empirical core of my research is a set of interviews conducted with my cohort of fifteen research participants – all recipients of coaching (‘coachees’), participants of the Executive Leadership Development Programme and all Royal Mail (UK) employees.

• My research inquires into the coaching experiences of my research participants, their understanding of the coaching paradigm, their conception of what well-being entails and their perceptions of how coaching influences their well-being.

• My research sets out to demonstrate how coaching can benefit the employee, even when well-being gains are not among an organisation’s stated reason for instituting coaching.

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Literature

• As a means of improving organisational performance on the employee level, coaching grew in popularity from the 1990’s onward and now has become a widely used, diverse method. Using this historical context, the definition of coaching was explored in greater detail . In particular, the diversity of how coaching is defined was noted, as some organisations and researchers see coaching as an empowering method of mentorship and others view it as a means of ensuring productivity and compliance in response to insufficient performance.

• My research identified a crucial point of disjuncture: researchers focus on how employees benefit from coaching, directly or indirectly, whereas many organisations are only interested in coaching insofar as it improves measurable financial or productivity outcomes.

• Reconciling these two perspectives is one of the core goals of my research, as well as one of its novel contributions.

• The definitions I use have a managerial concept/orientation. These are appropriate as they link to the professional nature of my research and the organisation being examined.

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Definitions

• Professional coaching (“Coaching”): “Equipping people with the tools, knowledge and opportunities they need to develop themselves and become more effective” (Peterson and Hicks, 1995:41).

• Well-being: “The subjective state of being healthy, happy, contented, comfortable and satisfied with one’s quality of life. It includes physical, material, social, emotional (‘happiness’) and development & activity dimensions”. The Department for Work and Pensions recognised definition; (Waddell and Burton, 2007:4).

• Organisational culture: “An evolving entity that morphs as individuals construct and negotiate their identities, independently and in relation to each other, all while coping with challenges presented from within and outside of the environment that (a) is premised on a pattern of basic assumption; (b) is invented, discovered, or developed by a group; (c) emerges as an organisation learns to address challenges relating to external adaptation and internal integration; (d) has worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore is to be taught to new members as the; (e) optimal way to perceive, think and feel in relation to those problems.” (Schein, 1990:111).

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Research Questions

• The specific research questions that guided my research were:

Research question 1: How does coaching relate to employee well-being within an organisation?

Research question 2: Which aspects of coaching contribute to employee well-being in the organisation?

Research question 3: When developing best practices in organisational coaching, how can gains to employee engagement, improvements in organisational culture and benefits to employee well-being be emphasised?

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Methodology

• My research philosophy of Critical Realism is defined as “a study of being that transcends that which is seen and includes how stimuli are interpreted, analysed and even encoded in memory” (Easton, 2010).

• This theory of perception paradigm is a vehicle through which to research the perceptions and attitudes of my cohort of fifteen coachees.

• Given the abstract, qualitative understanding of cause and effect in a complex social environment, it was determined that a detailed case study of coaching at Royal Mail (UK), in a Critical Realist paradigm, utilising qualitative interviews was the ideal method of examination.

• Presenting a qualitative analysis of the influence of coaching on organisational well-being in Royal Mail (UK), the empirical core of my research is a set of interviews conducted with my cohort of fifteen research participants – all recipients of coaching (‘coachees’) and all Royal Mail (UK) employees, inquiring into their experiences of coaching, their understanding of the coaching paradigm, their conception of what well-being entails and their perceptions of how coaching influences their well-being.

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Methodology

• Royal Mail (UK) was selected as the organisation to be examined in this case study. Employees who had received coaching as part of the Executive Leadership Development Programme were selected for participation in the study.

• Those who consented were interviewed in a semi-structured, but open-ended fashion. Employees were asked about their experience and impressions of coaching, as well as their perspectives on what constitutes well-being, what the organisational culture of Royal Mail (UK) is like and whether they believed the coaching process to be beneficial to them.

• Following the interview of employees, a thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2006) of responses was performed, which involved re-reading employee’s responses and locating, scrutinising and recording prevailing patterns or “themes” in their observations and opinions.

• This process is iterative and involves coding meaningful patterns in a six-phase process to ensure rigor and accuracy. This method of analysis allows the researcher to find and analyse patterns that recur, especially as patterns relate to the stated research questions and the goals of the research project.

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The Case Study Organisation

• In order to contextualise the research more directly, my research examines Royal Mail (UK’s) overall organisational culture, within the context of Schein’s (1990) definition and how it may impact employees; with the Critical Realist paradigm as a reference point Schein’s definitions are particularly relevant as they relate to challenges, external adaptation, perceptions and attitudes.

• Royal Mail (UK) is a very hierarchical culture with increasing demands placed on its employees in order to keep pace with growing competition. The divisions between lower-level employees and managers are stark and visible, with artefacts such as obvious uniform differences and the use of militaristic job titles helping to reinforce divisions. It is suggested that this leads to discomfort and inequality between employees and managers and may impede relations between the two.

• Relatedly, employee surveys demonstrate that a sizeable percentage do not feel valued and recognised within the organisation, nor do they feel they possess many opportunities for growth and promotion.

• These findings show that Royal Mail (UK) may stand to benefit from alterations to its organisational culture and that division between managers and employees present a significant barrier to coaching’s success.

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Well-being

• My research discusses perceptions of well-being amongst participants included in the semi-structured interviews. Specifically, my research uses the collected data to explore how “well-being” is conceptualised in Royal Mail (UK), at least by a sample of its coached employees.

• Several core topics prevailed in this analysis. These are:

Topic 1: Employees have diverse conceptions of “well-being”;

Topic 2: Employees do not have a coherent idea of how well-being is viewed and treated in Royal Mail (UK);

Topic 3: Practical challenges in measuring and assessing well-being abound at Royal Mail (UK); and

Topic 4: Despite this ambiguity, employees do have several useful naïve theories about how their well-being at Royal Mail (UK) could be improved.

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Well-being

• Employees discuss well-being in various ways. Many cite physical wellness and lack of illness as a hallmark of well-being; others focus on mental aspects, such as lack of stress and absence of disorder. Also popular was the idea that well-being is evident in those who balance work responsibilities and a healthy personal or social life. More specific markers of well-being also popped up in interviews, such as “being proactive”, “having the ability to cope”, “feeling engaged” and “feeling that you’ve done your best”.

• While employee responses converged in mentioning the emotional, physical and mental components of well-being, they were less coherent in describing their employer’s stance on well-being. Some respondents seemed to believe that Royal Mail (UK) dealt with concerns of employee well-being on an as-needed, case-by-case basis and only when it posed a problem. Some employees cited times when a manager provided helpful solutions in a time of crisis, though the majority of employees seemed to believe the organisation did not concern itself much with their mental or psychological health.

• Employees desired more concrete rewards and celebration of good performance and a less punitive approach. A change in organisational culture that discouraged workaholism and actively promoted physical health was also suggested by several. Overall, employees desired more resources and more hands-on support by managers and coaches and wished for more flexibility and empathy for those facing emotional and physical problems.

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Coaching

• Employees noted that coaching at Royal Mail (UK) appeared to focus more on career development and career goals rather than outcomes of well-being, engagement, or organisational culture.

• Some coaches focused on helping employees develop particular competencies and skills; others treated the relationship as a type of career coaching or mentorship and provided recipients of coaching (coachees) with advice and support regarding their own goals within the organisation.

• Some coachees felt that well-being was overlooked or entirely absent in this discussion. Despite this, some did express feeling more satisfied and secure in their positions after coaching.

• Another prevailing theme in employee interviews was concern with who served as coach. For the majority, coaching was administered in-line, by the employee’s own direct manager. However, there were exceptions where coaching was performed out-of-line, sometimes even by coaches off-site who were only able to meet with coachees a handful of times.

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Coaching

• Out-of-line coaches were seen as less involved and less knowledgeable, with less potential for direct contact and feedback.

• Employees preferred having a coach who was supportive and directly involved and who was familiar with the particulars of the employee’s department and job.

• Generally, coachees valued having frequent feedback and access to the coach on a regular basis to come to with questions and for support.

• This was doubly true when coaches took employee’s well-being and their career progress and goals in mind and when feedback given was broad and encouraging rather than critical or punitive.

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The Relationship Between Well-being and Coaching

• Broadly, responses suggest that Royal Mail (UK) implements coaching as a short-term, relatively informal procedure in order to improve employee performance as needed, or to orient a new employee to a new position. In contrast, employees view coaching as ideally being a more collaborative, encouraging working relationship akin to mentoring and generally benefit the most when coaching approaches this ideal. Royal Mail (UK) has historically tended to pair employees with coaches based on need and convenience, whereas employees seem to prefer a close match with a coach that is their direct manager.

• My research also highlights the positive effects of coaching on well-being as well as its limitations and drawbacks. Generally, participants saw their coaching experience as beneficial. In a brief survey, all but two respondents reported higher well-being after coaching compared to pre-coaching levels. Some cited increased confidence and competence as a result of coaching, as well as emotional benefits such as stress reduction and calmness.

• Coaches assisted some in finding work-life balance, or in finding ways to manage feelings of being overwhelmed when they occurred on the job. Coaches who were encouraging and actively engaged tended to leave coachees feeling supported and as though they had more emotional and practical resources to turn to when they needed them.

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The Relationship Between Well-being and Coaching

• Coaching provided employees with a means of reflecting on their job and their daily stressors and sometimes improved performance, which employees generally appreciated. These positive aspects are explored in-depth by focusing on one illustrative case my ‘positive vignette’, Rachel.

• However, coaching’s overall positive effect on well-being was not universal.

• Brad, in contrast to Rachel, found coaching to be stressful and failed to provide the career benefits he expected. Brad my ‘negative vignette’ also perceived coaching as being centred on Royal Mail (UK) benefits, to the neglect of his own work-life balance and health.

• Employee criticisms of coaching, where they arose, often cited the lack of structure, the added stress of being evaluated and the lack of discussion regarding physical and mental health to be the primary problems with the coaching process. However, these negative experiences were not the norm.

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Findings

• Results described in my research suggest that the relationship between coaching, employee engagement and well-being, relatively unarticulated by existing research, is complex and multifaceted. Many effects between these three variables are indirect and depend on the type of coaching provided and how it is administered.

• One key observation that is unique to this research is the finding that organisational goals often neglect employee well-being and that employees are often acutely aware of this. Respondents in this study may have benefited from coaching, but rarely did they feel that their satisfaction and health was an organisational main concern.

• Employees still stood to gain from coaching when the process was supportive and collaborative and when it helped challenge the workaholism and hierarchal divides present in Royal Mail (UK)’s culture. This set of findings helps to resolve the tension between the academic literature (which focuses on employee benefits) and the applied reality of coaching in organisations (which tends to be instituted for productivity or financial gains).

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Findings

• However, coaching’s overall positive effect on well-being was not universal. Brad, in contrast to Rachel, found coaching to be stressful and failed to provide the career benefits he expected. Brad also perceived coaching as being centred on Royal Mail (UK) benefits, to the neglect of his own work-life balance and health. Employee criticisms of coaching, where they arose, often cited the lack of structure, the added stress of being evaluated and the lack of discussion regarding physical and mental health to be the primary problems with the coaching process. However, these negative experiences were not the norm.

• Another essential and novel finding in this research was that the nature of the coaching relationship had a massive impact on engagement, organisational culture and, as a result, well-being. When coaching was in-line, supportive and practically useful for the employee, they felt more engaged, noted a minor improvement in culture of their workplace and expressed increased well-being as a result. When coaching was out-of-line or more emotionally cold and punitive, none of these gains were as evident.

• This demonstrates that the type of coaching relationship is a key variable in determining coaching’s success. In addition, these results present a novel finding that coaching impacts well-being by shifting organisational culture away from one that is too hierarchical and workaholic and boosts engagement by giving employees greater confidence, more support and more resources.

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Conclusions

• My research, in the Critical Realist paradigm, highlights that some of the main problems plaguing the coaching literature is ambiguity regarding how coaching is defined, the goals that drive coaching implementation and the intended benefits of coaching when it is implemented.

• Results suggest that a coaching process similar to mentorship that concerns itself with improving culture and boosting employee well-being can reap many employee-level benefits.

• This research also helps posit and articulate a comprehensive theoretical model, illustrated on page 14 below, whereby coaching can boost engagement by providing employees with support and practical guidance, can alter organisational culture by removing hierarchical barriers and can improve well-being both directly and as a result of the aforementioned changes.

• In addition to these important theoretical contributions and conclusions, my research presents clear recommendations in the form of positive, prescriptive normative statements for Royal Mail (UK).

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Recommendations

• I make positive normative statements – all of which have implied proscriptions. The latter all refer to aspects of coaching, organisational culture and well-being that I question and wish to be changed for the better.

• The programmatic recommendations made illustrate the value of the Professional Doctorate as a means of contributing to practice specifically.

Recommendation 1: First, the role of the coach should be to support, mentor and address the individual needs of the coachee.

Recommendation 2: Second, organisations such as Royal Mail (UK) should be clear in articulating the goals of their coaching.

Recommendation 3: Third, a coach should aspire to be a helpful resource to the coachee, providing guidance and support rather than critical evaluation or punishment.

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Recommendations

Recommendation 4: Fourth, Royal Mail (UK) (and related organisations) should make employee well-being a priority and articulate this, to help combat barriers to well-being that may be present in the coaching relationship or the organisational culture.

Recommendation 5: Fifth, the coach-coachee relationship should provide an open line of honest communication, so that employees can reach out to coaches with concerns.

Recommendation 6: Sixth, Royal Mail (UK) should concern itself with the physical health of employees in an active, concerted way. This may require additional coach training and the addition of new resources.

Recommendation 7: Last, the organisation should improve its dealings with employee mental health concerns. To this end, coaches require additional training on dealing with mental health and stigma related to it.

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Below is a diagram representing all the main variables, dimensions and questions of the study

Royal Mail, the cruciform and the colour red are registered trade marks of Royal Mail Group Ltd. All rights reserved.

Thank you

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References

• Easton, G. (2010) Critical Realism in Case Study Research. Industrial Marketing Management, 39(1), pp. 118-128.

• Peterson, D. B. and Hicks, M. (1995) Leader as coach: Strategies for coaching and developing others, Personnel Decisions International, Minneapolis, MN.

• Schein, E. H. (1990) Organizational culture, American Psychological Association. 45(2).

• Waddell, G. and Burton, A. K. (2007) Is Work Good for your Health and Wellbeing?, URL:http://www.dwp.gov.uk/docs/hwwb-is-work-good-for-you.pdf

• Yin, R. K. (2014) Case study research: Design and methods, 5th edn, London: Sage.