Date of Award

2022-8

Degree Name

PhD Leadership Studies

Dissertation Committee

Robert Donmoyer, PhD, Chairperson; Fred Galloway, EdD, Member; Cheryl Getz, EdD, Member

Keywords

social network analysis, team coaching, coaching, developmental coaching

Abstract

While theory and research point to the need to focus on the development of the team, the majority of leadership development efforts still focus on equipping the individual leader (Hawkins, 2017; Terblanche, 2018). The practice of team coaching, however, seems to offer much promise in addressing the complex, networked, and multi-faceted relational reality of a team. To assess the actual utility of team coaching and to optimize the team coaching experience, there is a need to understand what the experience of team coaching is like from the perspective of those being coached and how the experience of team coaching impacts those being coached during the coaching experience (Cox et al., 2014). More specifically, there is a need to know how team coaching affects team members' perceptions of each other over time.

Team coaching is often used to address the complex relational realities present within a team, but a way to measure and evaluate relational changes for the team is needed (O’Connor & Cavanagh, 2017, p. 500). Social network analysis offers the necessary theory and methods to fulfill this need. This mixed-method case study of a team coaching experience in an organization, in this case, a church, employed social network analysis, along with interviewing, and analysis of video recordings, and the administration of questionnaires, to explore, in-depth, the impact of team coaching on the relational structure of a team.

Findings suggest (1) church leadership team relational networks are strong, (2) developmental team coaching influences team member’s perceptions of each other, (3) deterministic theological values can complicate the team coaching process, and (4) reflecting on competing commitments can be a catalyst for developmental team coaching. This study supports the use of social network analysis as a team coaching tool and lays an initial foundation for developing new developmental team coaching network theories.

Document Type

Dissertation: USD Users Only

Department

Leadership Studies

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a CC BY License.

Share

COinS