Leadership coaching, leader role-efficacy, and trust in subordinates….

Leadership coaching, leader role-efficacy, and trust in subordinates. A mixed methods study assessing leadership coaching as a leadership development tool Gro Ladegard a,?, Susann Gjerde b a Oslo School of Management, P.O. Box 1195 Sentrum, 0107 Oslo, Norway b UMB School of Economics and Business, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, P.O. Box 5003, 1432 Aas, Norway article info abstract Article history: Received 19 February 2013 Received in revised form 11 December 2013 Accepted 4 February 2014 Available online 22 February 2014 Handling Editor: Kevin Lowe In this study, we used a two-phase exploratory sequential design consisting of qualitative and quantitative research methods to assess leadership coaching as a leadership development tool. A focus group study combined with a review of theory resulted in hypotheses linking coaching to increased leader role-efficacy (LRE) and leader's trust in subordinates (LTS). Using data from leaders participating in a six month coaching program and a control group, the results showed that LRE and LTS increased in the coaching group, but not in the control group. We also hypothesized that increased trust in subordinates would be related to subordinates' psychological empowerment and turnover intentions. A significant relationship between increased LTS and reduced turnover intentions was found. Finally, we found that the degree of facilitative behavior from the coach positively affected the changes in both leader role-efficacy and trust in subordinates. While the results should be interpreted with caution as the sample is small, our findings support claims that coaching represents a promising leadership development tool. Furthermore, the results regarding trust in subordinates represent contributions to the development of a relational perspective o