The coaching experience as identity work: Reflective metaphors
SA Journal of Industrial Psychology
| Field | Value | |
| Title | The coaching experience as identity work: Reflective metaphors | |
| Creator | Steyn, Linda Barnard, Antoni | |
| Description | Orientation: Coaching facilitates identity work, and metaphors are often used in coaching to make sense of the self.Research purpose: To explore coaching clients’ coaching experience as expressed through metaphors, from an identity work perspective.Motivation for the study: The use of metaphor in coaching has not been realised, and coaching as a vehicle for identity work is underexplored.Research approach/design and method: A hermeneutic phenomenological methodology and qualitative design directed the study. Face-to-face, semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven clients who had participated in a coaching programme. Reflective metaphors from the interviews constituted the data set, which was analysed through hermeneutic phenomenological analysis.Main findings: Guided by identity theory, four themes were co-constructed from the data, which describe how coaching develops a self-processing competence reflected in these iterative cycles: (1) self-exploration and self-reflection; (2) self-awareness and self-insight; (3) self-acceptance and self-determination; and (4) self-actualisation and self-transcendence. These cycles of identity work align with transactional and transformational identity work to enable construction of an independent and interdependent self.Practical/managerial implications: The findings highlight the value of metaphors as a self-reflective sensemaking tool. Coaching is aligned with integrated transactional and transformational identity work, which can be used to assess the transformational value of coaching as a process.Contribution/value-add: The study describes the personal transformational value of coaching through metaphors, and it establishes identity work as a key process outcome of successful coaching. The findings offer a novel conceptualisation of transactional and transformational identity work as a process perspective to effective coaching. | |
| Publisher | AOSIS | |
| Date | 2024-03-13 | |
| Identifier | 10.4102/sajip.v50i0.2132 | |
| Source | SA Journal of Industrial Psychology; Vol 50 (2024); 12 pages 2071-0763 0258-5200 | |
| Language | eng | |
| Relation |
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:
https://sajip.co.za/index.php/sajip/article/view/2132/3855
https://sajip.co.za/index.php/sajip/article/view/2132/3856
https://sajip.co.za/index.php/sajip/article/view/2132/3857
https://sajip.co.za/index.php/sajip/article/view/2132/3858
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