Business Management

Kilburg's (1997) review of the literature revealed that numerous articles have been written in the general area of coaching. However, as applied to core competencies and the art and practice of coaching techniques, limited empirical data was available to support the techniques and approaches coaches' use with business leaders. Wasylyshyn (2003) found this to have been true six years later.

Brotman (1998) echoed Judge and Cowell's (1997) research findings. As might be expected within the context of development, the authors reported that the higher a person is promoted, the more likely they will participate in executive coaching. In addition, the researchers discovered that educational experiences of the executive coaches varied greatly. The greatest amount of participants had a bachelor's degree, but the undergraduate degrees varied widely in specialty. Those with master's degrees were concentrated in business and the social sciences. The study also revealed that over 40% had doctoral degrees.

Age and gender demographics did not show the same variance. Most of the coaches (approximately 60%) were male, and 80% were between 35 and 55 years old. Very few were younger than 35 (which seems reasonable considering the experiential element). Other investigators obtained similar findings during their research into the executive coaching demographics (Edwards, 2003; Goldsmith and Lyons, 2006; Kilburg, 1996).

Hollenbeck and McCall (1999) proposed that executive coaching effectiveness has tended to be appraised anecdotally rather than by empirical evidence. Fortunately, the small body of empirical research has been growing.

In 2001, Kampa-Kokesh and Anderson published their landmark literature review, in which they found only seven existing empirical studies: Olivero and Kopelman (1997) investigated the outcomes of executive coaching in a public sector agency; Judge and Cowell (1997) surveyed executive coaching practices; Gegner (1997) studied the effectiveness of executive coaching through quantitative and qualitative methods; Hall, Otazo, and Hollenbeck (1999) interviewed both executives and coaches regarding executive coaching practice, effectiveness, and future directions; the fifth study investigated the effect of eye movement desensitization reprocessing (EMDR) as a technique used in executive coaching; Laske (1999) explored the transformative effects of executive coaching on an executive's professional agenda; and Garman, Whiston and Zlatoper (2000) examined public perceptions of executive coaching.