THE ROLES OF MANAGERIAL COACHING , EMPLOYEES SELF-EFFICACY AND EMPLOYEES DEVELOPMENT IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR

Managers are the most immediate individuals to employees in an organization. Previous studies have shown that leaders’ attitude and behaviour in coaching employees can affect the employees’ motivation towards their work. Coaching in the context of this study is one of the responsibilities and roles played by the managers in ensuring that the employees get the proper support from the leaders at the workplace. Although the studies concerning the coaching have been widely-known and discussed since the 1980s, the subject of these studies is still a hot subject that being discussed until now. The role of the immediate leaders as a coach is a never-ending and it is continuous in nature as long as there are goals to be achieved. Moreover, the research theories also support that the role of leaders in coaching can influence the employees positive attitude and behaviour through their own internal support. The results of the hypotheses testing using PLS-SEM show three important findings: Firstly, the management coaching and employees’ self-efficacy have a significant relationship with the employees’ performance. Secondly, the feedback environment and employees’ self-efficacy have a significant relationship with the employees’ performance. Thirdly, the validation that the employees’ self-efficacy serves as an effective intermediary variable between the management coaching and employees’ performance in the studied organization. Subsequently, this study provides the discussions, implications and conclusions. Keywords: Coaching, Mentoring, Feedback, Self-Efficacy and Employees’ Performance. INTRODUCTION In order to face the increasingly complex and challenging workplace, the organizational management needs to ensure that they have leaders who are able to use their authority to influence the behaviour, attitude, knowledge and practices of their followers towards achieving the expected organizational goals and agenda (Jong & Hartog 2007; Kim et al., 2015; Mohd, 2013). Research on literature review concerning the leadership in dynamic organizations has shown that the role of Management Coaching (MC) is seen as a leadership style based on a humanistic approach that is crucial to be practiced in managing dynamic and diverse organizations, emphasizes on new knowledge and responsive to customer needs (Hagen, 2012; Pousa et al., 2015). The MC is a multi-dimensional construct and can be defined according to the language and organizational perspectives. In general, the MC is one of the leadership styles that connects the role of managers and employees in dynamic organizations. Most early studies concerning the MC found that the ability of managers to plan and mentor their employees Submit Date: 05.07. 2018, Acceptance Date: 22.08. 2018, DOI NO: 10.7456/1080SSE/349 Research Article This article was checked by Turnitin Copyright © The Turkish Online Journal of Design, Art and Communication The Turkish Online Journal of Design, Art and Communication TOJDAC ISSN: 2146-5193, September 2018 Special Edition, p.2726-2734 in a structured manner can help to improve the employees’ self-efficacy in organizations. It is often defined, from the language perspective, as the role and responsibility played by the leaders as coaches and mentors to the employees (Kamus Dewan, 2010). In addition, the MC is also known as an effective managerial and leadership practice that advances employees learning and effectiveness (Cambridge Dictionary, 2013). On the other hand, in the organizational context, the MC is often formally and informally conducted to all working levels regardless at the level of executive or executive management (Ellinger et al., 1999; Hagen et al., 2012). Practically, the MC is practiced in day-to-day work involving routine activities such as on-the-job training that is not foreign among previous researchers (Ellinger et al., 1999; Mclean, 2005; Park, 2008). According to the perspective of Human Resource Development, the MC is viewed as a very important instrument especially in contributing towards increasing the productivity and employees’ development (Egan 2013; Ellinger et al., 2014; Merwe & Sloman 2013; Short et al., 2009). The main purpose of this MC practice is to give emphasize and empower managers to provide clear and organized mentoring in order to ensure employees are in line with the organizational objectives (Grant & Cavanagh, 2004; Baron & Morin, 2009). The importance of MC in organizations is one of the efforts to enhance the organizational achievement by believing that all parties, namely the managers and their subordinates, are able to implement it through a well-planned system to face any working condition (Hashim 2011; 2013). For instance, managers are the individuals empowered to mentor their subordinates by imparting relevant knowledge, skills and work experience while performing core duties in the organization. The present work performance can be improved through this well-planned learning system between the managers and trainees. This situation is in line with the current organization that encourages the involvement or participation of employees in certain tasks, as well as the authority delegated to the employees that can assist them particularly in the decision-making process (Kim et al., 2014). The development of MC in organizations has been identified since the early of the industrial revolution era in Europe and the United States that was around the second half of the 19th century (Bass, 1999; Jong & Hartog, 2007). The MC approach in the organizational context became an overheated discussion since the 1980s, in which Ellinger et al. (1980; 1999) at that time highlighted the concept of mentoring during working hours that led to the effectiveness of better employees’ behaviour. In order to achieve the organizational agenda, most leaders in this early stage tend to practice their leadership styles based on mechanistic approaches (Azman et al., 2010; Mclean et al., 2008; Kim et al., 2014). Based on this approach, the MC is usually implemented in the form of routine activities, based on working experience, informal and ad hoc mentoring to enhance the capabilities of leaders to perform short-term tasks and responsibilities. Hence, the managers in this phenomenon are more likely to be directing, controlling and improving a problem. Therefore, the leadership styles highlighted by classical management scholars only drive leaders to focus on the formation of task structures, determining group assignments, product manufacturing and production oriented and more likely to provide autocratic directions (Bass et al., 1999; Kim et al., 2014). The idea raised by leadership style based on classical approaches is still relevant and important, however, it is only suitable for organizations operating in the domestic, stable and less competitive market (Azman et al., 2010; Kim et al., 2014). Nevertheless, in the early 70's, the era of globalization emerged in which most small and mediumsized organizations have expanded into organizations that are capable of penetrating the international market and operating globally. This encourages employers to shift the leadership style paradigm from the leadership style that is based on mechanistic approach to the one that is based on humanistic approach in order to achieve the organizational strategies and cultures (Bass 1994; 1999; Hagen et al., 2012; Kim et al., 2014). This phenomenon encourages managers to be more proactive and give emphasize on human capital development such as promoting employees involvement in tasks, distribution of power and responsibility as well as promoting self-learning in the organization. As a result, the transformational-driven leadership style has brought success to organizations, especially from the aspect of improving work performance. Upon conducting an extensive research towards the latest literature review on management coaching, Submit Date: 05.07. 2018, Acceptance Date: 22.08. 2018, DOI NO: 10.7456/1080SSE/349 Research Article This article was checked by Turnitin Copyright © The Turkish Online Journal of Design, Art and Communication The Turkish Online Journal of Design, Art and Communication TOJDAC ISSN: 2146-5193, September 2018 Special Edition, p.2726-2734 it is found that the role of effective coaching has two essential elements: management mentoring and feedback environment (Kim et al., 2014: 2015; Pousa et al., 2015). From a management coaching perspective, management mentoring is defined as the mentoring behaviour, attitude and skills exhibited by the managers to their subordinates such as the managers ability to communicate openly, facilitating towards employees development such as giving the employees the opportunity to try something new and more challenging, working in groups, and evaluating the task outcomes (Kim et al., 2015; McLean 2008). While the feedback environment in this study refers to the five characteristics of the feedback environment process that being emphasized by the organization, namely the reliability of feedback sources, quality of feedback, delivery of feedback, availability of feedback sources, and promoting the sourcing of feedback sources. For instance, managers who emphasize the characteristics of a clear and organized feedback environment are able to help employees to improve their work performance through the confidence towards the feedback given (Fah & Hoon, 2010; Steelman, Levy & Snell, 2004). It is a remarkable phenomenon when a study conducted recently finds that the managers’ ability in implementing management coaching practices in an organization is able to affect the development of employees’ performance through an indirect relationship led by employees’ self-efficacy. Employees’ self-efficacy refers to the individuals’ confidence and belief towards their ability and capability to assume the responsibilities assigned to them (Gist & Mithchell, 1992; Pousa et al., 2015). This situation can be clarified throu