Toward a Profession of Coaching? A Definitional Examination of ‘Coaching,’ ‘Organization Development,’ and ‘Human Resource Development’

By R. Hamlin, Andrea D. Ellinger, R. Beattie. International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring, 2009

101 citations recorded by the source corpus.

During the past few years, the growth of an emergent ‘coaching industry’ has resulted in some scholars calling for the development of a genuine coaching profession. Yet contemporary organization development (OD) and human resource development (HRD) practitioners conceive of coaching as an extant core component of their respective fields of study and practice. This paper reports the results of a qualitative study that examined different conceptualizations and definitions of ‘coaching,’ OD, and ‘HRD’ found in the respective literatures. The results suggest all three fields of practice are very similar, both in terms of their intended purpose and processes. This finding poses a dilemma and challenge for those who believe a genuine coaching profession with its own identity and unique body of empirically tested knowledge can be distinctly defined and delineated.

Subfields: Applied Psychology, Education, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/9fd705574018d354f5c08167911b9f3d21be9fd9

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Applied Psychology

1. Michaella Cavanagh
2. Adam M. Grant
3. H. Parker
4. Sewon Kim
5. T. Egan
6. Sharon K. Parker
7. M. Bolino
8. Gordon B. Spence

In Education

1. Michaella Cavanagh
2. Adam M. Grant
3. Sewon Kim
4. T. Egan

In Social Psychology

1. Adam M. Grant
2. Michaella Cavanagh
3. H. Parker
4. Sewon Kim
5. T. Egan
6. N. Bellé
7. Sharon K. Parker
8. M. Bolino

Citations in the corpus

• The State of Play in Coaching Today: A Comprehensive Review of the Field (2010, background): “For example, Hamlin (cited in Hamlin et al., 2009; p.20) defines HRD as; “… planned activities and processes designed to enhance organizational and individual learning, develop human potential, maximize organizational effectiveness and performance, and bring about effective and beneficial change…”
• The Impact of Managerial Coaching Behavior on Employee Work-Related Reactions (2013, background): “It must also be noted that these terms are used differently in some parts of Europe, including the United Kingdom (Hamlin et al. 2009), but careful review of the literature and related practices, again, provides differentiation between supportive managerial behaviors and long-term, most often non-su”