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Coaching in organisations: how the use of fictional characters can develop coaching practice

Christine Angela Eastman (Institute for Work Based Learning, Middlesex University, London, UK)

International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education

ISSN: 2046-6854

Article publication date: 5 December 2016

563

Abstract

Purpose

This paper consists of a case study that reports on a pedagogical intervention undertaken among a group of postgraduate students in the area of coaching. The purpose of this paper is to design an intervention to bridge the gulf between coaching theory and practice, a gap identified by coaching research and corroborated by professional practice students on the university course examined here.

Design/methodology/approach

The study gives an account of how literary fiction was used with a cohort of students as a source of hypothetical scenarios used to simulate workplace problems and as a simulative context in which coaching students could apply theoretical models to make-believe scenarios. In this case study, the author evaluates the success of this innovative pedagogical methodology based on a qualitative analysis of excerpts from students’ written work.

Findings

The author advocates the use of literary fictional texts as a means of enhancing coach training and makes a case for the benefits of exposing students to literary fiction as part of a rich humanities curriculum. Reading about how fictional characters negotiate the terrain of life and work can help coaching students to create stronger, more creative narratives in their work-based projects.

Originality/value

Exploring how fictional characters respond to challenges in the workplace (and in life generally) will support students to formulate their own coaching interventions in a more coherent fashion. The paper contends that stories are the cornerstone of learning, and that educators can support students to explore issues of core identity, (in)coherent life themes and narrative representation in students’ professional practice by getting them to read fiction.

Keywords

Citation

Eastman, C.A. (2016), "Coaching in organisations: how the use of fictional characters can develop coaching practice", International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education, Vol. 5 No. 4, pp. 318-333. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJMCE-06-2016-0048

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2016, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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