Perceptions of Human Resources Managers Regarding Coaching in Brazil

Abstract

Nowadays organizations are concerned with nding a model for restructuring the management of people so they may be able to adapt to the changes and to nd appropriate responses to organizational demands. Coaching appears as a high cost service focused on changing behavior in order to develop people and achieve better results. However Coaching has been considered a growing industry where the results are uncertain and with lack of consistency and clear information to help organizations make informed choices when hiring a coach (Dutra, 2007; Ferreira, 2008; Liljenstrand, 2003; Dagley, 2006; Grant, 2001). This paper presents the initial ndings of our study that intends to describe and characterize the perceptions of Human Resources Managers regarding Coaching in Brazil. A quantitative method was used, via an on-line questionnaire based survey with 60 items developed by Paez (2010)and answered by 136 HR managers in Brazil. Participants were approached via telephone and by e-mail during 2009/2010. An exploratory factor analysis has provided a three-factor solution with 40.04% of variance explained. Factor 1, Results expected (company level), includes items about what HR managers expect as results of the Coaching in organizations and explains 27.94% of variance (a=0.70). Factor 2, Results expected (individual level), includes items related to expectations about skills development and performance improvement of executives and explains 11.38% of variance (a=0.82). Factor 3, Coaching in HRM, includes items regarding the importance of Coaching in HRM and the possibility of using a Coaching service in the future and explains 7.12% of variance (a=0.62). Findings highlighted that HR managers perceived Executive Coaching as a main stream of skills and abilities development in organizations and showed a concern about how to measure Coaching results in individual and organizational level. Results suggested that the questionnaire Perceptions of HR managers about Executive Coaching constitutes a valid instrument for research purposes, an useful tool for giving feedback to the consultants about their coaching practices and also to measure the level of knowledge regarding Coaching of potential clients.