A meta-analysis of 18 studies about cognitive coaching interventions was conducted by Tim Theebooma, Bianca Beersmaa and Annelies E.M. van Vianena (2014). It aimed to provide insight into the possible benefits of coaching in an organizational context. They investigated the relationship between coaching interventions and a number of individual outcomes that are relevant for both individuals and organizations. The results showed that coaching sessions have significant positive effects on the following areas: performance and developing skills, wellbeing, coping with difficult situations, work attitudes and goal directed self regulation. Overall, coaching has improved the performance of individuals within organizations. Counterintuitive, a greater number of coaching sessions do not lead to stronger positive effects. The nature of the meta-analysis was exploratory, so the results must be interpreted with caution. We should also take into account the study design as a moderating factor.

Another meta-analysis conducted by Rebecca J. Jones, Stephen A. Woods and Yves R. F. Guillaume (2016) showed that workplace coaching has positive effects on emotional outcomes, skill based outcomes and individual level outcomes. Also, there are some moderators of coaching effectiveness. For instance, research design affects the outcomes. If we conduct a study with repeated measures and a different study with only one measure, then the effects are stronger for the first. Another moderator variable is multi-source feedback. This is related to the evaluation of work performance. Results showed that coaching has stronger effects when it doesn’t include multi-source feedback. Other moderators of coaching effectiveness are: the format of coaching (there are no significant differences between face-to-face sessions and blended formats), the type of coach (the effects were poorer when the coach was an external consultant from outside the organization, rather than when the coach was an internal employee) and the coaching duration (neither counted longevity in weeks of coaching interventions or number of coaching sessions moderated overall the coaching effectiveness).

We can conclude that the effects of cognitive behavioral coaching are strongly validated by research and such interventions provide benefits for both organizations and individuals.

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Theeboom, T., Beersma, B., & van Vianen, A. E. (2014). Does coaching work? A meta-analysis on the effects of coaching on individual level outcomes in an organizational context. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 9(1), 1-18.

Jones, R. J., Woods, S. A., & Guillaume, Y. R. (2016). The effectiveness of workplace coaching: A meta‐analysis of learning and performance outcomes from coaching. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 89(2), 249-277.