A formative and summative evaluation of digital coaching for leadership development in organizations : a mixed method study

Leadership coaching is an evidence-based intervention for leadership development. Scalability is often not possible for most organizations due to shortages of time and financial resources. E-coaching counteracts these issues to some extent by using technology for non-face-to-face coaching. Furthermore, e-coaching systems represent a more promising approach for facilitating coaching, particularly via smartphone applications. This dissertation investigates a leadership coaching approach similar to the characteristics of an e-coaching system: digital coaching. First, a formative evaluation was conducted to investigate the usage of digital coaching in organizations. Second, the effects of digital coaching on individual and organizational objectives were evaluated with summative evaluation criteria: reactions, behavior, and organizational outcome. Third, digital coaching outcomes were compared to those of personal coaching, which were conducted via telephone. To meet the research objectives, a mixed method approach was used with semi-structured interviews (n = 27) and a field experiment (N = 82). Field experiment participants were randomly assigned to a control (n = 26), digital (n = 29), or personal group (n = 27). Digital coaching was found to have a positive effect on behavior (r = .30) and organizational outcome (r = .92). The positive effect on behavior did not occur in cases of high levels of leadership behavior prior to coaching. Furthermore, digital coaching had a low effect on reactions. The comparison between digital and personal coaching revealed more positive effects of digital coaching toward behavior (r = .28) and organizational outcome (r = .47). However, the effects of personal coaching on reactions (r = .40 to .55) were significantly higher than those of digital coaching. This dissertation presents evidence that digital coaching is more suitable for leadership behavior, and personal coaching for personal development. This conclusion is applicable to coachees showing a moderate level of leadership behavior prior to coaching. Furthermore, digital coaching requires self-motivation and awareness for coaching with a smartphone application. Overall, these findings have numerous practical implications for organizations, coachees, and intervention designers, and provide a foundation for future research on digital coaching.