title: Finding Their Way - An Action Research Case Study on Individual Goal Striving, and its Implications for Managerial Coaching for Performance
Creators: name: Snowdon, Paul
Publisher: name: University of Reading
Year: 2020

description: Through a year-long multiple case study, involving 14 participants in two separate
organizations in Canada, a qualitative action research project explored how individuals strive
for goals, and the role that managerial coaching plays in goal achievement. This study
provided answers to three research questions: 1) how do individuals strive for goals in
complex, uncertain environments; 2) what are the goal striving characteristics of high
performing individuals in complex, uncertain environments; and 3) what influences a
manager’s choice to coach for performance. Data were collected via 41 semi-structured
interviews and were analysed using a grounded approach, primarily through a constructivist
lens.
The results of this study indicate that striving for goals in a complex, uncertain environment is
an iterative, emergent process of finding your way. A framework – the Goal Pursuit Cycle
(GPC) – was developed to describe the process of ‘finding your way’. This model also
served as a framework for coaching and described the process of self-regulation in the
language of business. To move through the GPC, the individual made choices and took
action. These choices and actions were influenced by the individual’s identity and how they
responded emotionally to the observed performance gap. Two separate models, and five
different constructs, were developed to describe this complex journey. In these models, the
constructs of Identity, Emotions, Options &amp; Decisions, Actions, and Results were present and
interacted with each other. Emotions were shown to influence the relationship between
Observed Results and Reasons for Success/Failure, and Identity was shown to influence the
relationship between Reasons for Success/Failure and Self-Confidence. 

A set of attributes were demonstrated by high performing individuals in complex, uncertain
environments. These attributes (Goal Focus, Persistence, Growth Mindset, and SelfReflexivity) allowed the high performer to effectively move through the GPC, and 'find their
way' to their goals. Individuals that did not demonstrate these characteristics
underperformed compared to their peers. In addition, high performers, with low to moderate
levels of expertise, proactively engaged their manager for coaching, while low performers,
regardless of experience level, rarely sought out this expertise. High performers with high
experience did not typically seek coaching from their manager, instead they tended to rely on
their own knowledge or that of their peers to overcome challenges.
Managerial Coaching for Performance was studied indirectly, but was found to be effective in
elevating an employee’s performance when the manager chose to engage in the coaching
moment. Two constructs influenced this choice – the Available Time to Coach, and the
Appetite to Coach. The Available Time to Coach was found to be influenced by the effort
required to action other business priorities, and the manager’s span of control. The Appetite
to Coach was influenced by the degree to which the employee sought coaching, the
manager’s fear of the employee’s reaction to coaching and the manager’s mental energy for
coaching.
This study contributed to our understanding of the impact of managerial coaching on
performance. It highlighted the influence of Identity and Emotions in the GPC and
contributed to the managerial coaching literature by demonstrating how the GPC, as an
expression of self-regulation, could be considered as a coaching framework. It contributed to
action research methodology by developing four principles to improve the effectiveness of
intervention workshops, and added to grounded theory methodology by detailing an
abductive thinking process to generate middle-range theory. It contributed to practice by
highlighting the characteristics of top performers, which can be used to strengthen professional development programs for individuals. It also made contributions by visualizing
self-regulation as a goal pursuit cycle, and making the concept of self-regulation more
approachable by articulating it in the language of business. The GPC also contributed to
practice through its use as a coaching framework and the corresponding set of coaching
questions that were developed as a result of this study. Lastly, the pathway to the coaching
moment highlighted the role of fear and mental energy in a manager’s choice to coach, and
these insights can be used to develop coaching interventions to help managers overcome
these barriers.