Does Coaching Work? A Meta-Analysis on the Effects of Coaching on Individual Level Outcomes in an Organizational Context

Is personal coaching effective? What are the precise effects of coaching in an organizational environment? This groundbreaking paper presents the first comprehensive analysis of coaching effectiveness in an organizational context. While the use of coaching as a management tool is increasing, empirical research in the field lags. Researchers from the University of Amsterdam conducted a comprehensive meta-analysis of 18 studies on coaching in organizations to examine its effectiveness across five key outcome domains: performance/skills, well-being, coping, work attitudes, and goal-directed self-regulation. The results paint a clear picture: coaching is effective, with significant effect sizes across all outcome areas. Notably, the impact is particularly pronounced on goal-directed self-regulation (g = 0.74) and performance/skills (g = 0.60). The research also identifies that coaching effectiveness is not necessarily dependent on the number of sessions and emphasizes the importance of selecting appropriate research designs when examining coaching effectiveness. Alongside these encouraging findings, the authors call for theoretical development and enrichment of the coaching field, and for a shift from the question “does coaching work?” to the more advanced question “how does coaching work?” – which will lead to a deeper understanding of the mechanisms and processes underlying coaching effectiveness. Link to the full article >>

Research quote “Theeboom, T., Beersma, B. and van Vianen, A.E.M. (2013) ‘Does coaching work? A meta-analysis on the effects of coaching on individual level outcomes in an organizational context’, The Journal of Positive Psychology, DOI: 10.1080/17439760.2013.837499.”