Critical Analysis of Executive Coaching for Women: A Study Critique

This report critically analyzes a psychological study focused on executive coaching for women, examining its effectiveness in fostering leadership roles. The study investigates the impact of coaching on women's perceptions of their managerial potential within organizations. The analysis highlights the study's methodology, including its constructivist grounded theory approach and purposive sampling of participants. It critiques the research design for potential biases and limitations in participant selection, suggesting alternative approaches to gather more comprehensive data. The report also discusses the study's findings, emphasizing the importance of executive coaching in motivating women and addressing challenges related to societal expectations, management perceptions, and leadership skill development. The report also acknowledges the constraints faced by women in leadership, such as societal and familial responsibilities and biases within the workplace. The analysis concludes by offering insights into the implications of executive coaching for women and the need for a broader understanding of the factors influencing women's advancement in leadership positions.

Running head: EXECUTIVE COACHING TO WOMEN
Critiques of a Psychological Study Relevant to Coaching/Mentoring
[Executive Coaching to Women]
Name of the student:
Name of the university:
Author note:

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Study background:
Leadership position in organisation is largely being dominated by male employees.
Despite being so much advancement in regards to advocating the role of women at the workplace
they are still far much behind to their male counterpart. It is still a male dominated world. The
managerial positions are still occupied with male in most cases. Participation rate at the
workplace is not the answer that this study is looking for. It is actually about women being at the
managerial positions. Surprisingly, only three countries could only break the beliefs and are in
managerial positions even more than male employees. Interestingly, the Unites States of America
is not one of them. Jamaica, Colombia and Saint Lucia are those three countries where female
managers or the bosses are in majority number (Wilson 2016). The fact just shows that female
bosses or the managers are still a strange concept to many countries. This even includes
developed countries like the United Kingdom and the developing nations such as China (Wilson
2016). The study is aimed at understanding whether the executive training given to women to
make them realise that they can also be the mangers or bosses, is sufficient. The fact is being
demonstrated by making an analytical review of the chosen article.
Assignment A:
In the chosen article “Understanding the importance of gender and leader identity
formation in executive coaching for senior women”, the focus of the literature review section is
on women in context to enabling them to identify their potential as managers. The study starts
with a fact that in the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) list of 200 largest companies,
women only occupy 9.7% of executive management roles (Skinner 2014). The study has tried to
illustrate that executive coaching can be really helpful in uplifting the lost ground for women in

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countries where high difference exist in the participation rates at the managerial post. The study
has found this effective also as women who were being trained through the executive coaching
program had sensed their importance for organisation.
The study did not cover facts like whether the executive coaching is sufficient for
actually positioning women at the leadership positions. There is evident difference between
sensing something as important and applying thoughts to attain the same. The ground facts that
make up the mind and make women believe that they are better at the executive level. They have
more challenges than male and hence, they cannot assume them to be at the leadership position.
The chosen literature review has not covered facts like the circumstances which build up such
perception in women. Those factors may or may not be the constraints; however, the otherwise
situation is also unpredictable without doing any proper study on the topic (Alvesson and
Sköldberg 2017).
There are indeed a variety of reasons that keep women out of the race for becoming the
bosses or the managers. One of those reasons is the societal background which keeps thinking
of a male dominated company. Societal beliefs are one of the obstacles to women transgression
to the leadership position. In most countries, women are believed as home maker which means
they have varying responsibilities under different situation. They need to take leaves when they
are pregnant. They need to be flexible when they have given birth to a child, so that, child gets
the required cares (Hakim 2016). There are alternative solutions also like approaching the care
homes, hiring baby-sitter and others. However, undeniably this all depend on the decision maker
that whether they have faith and trust on such options. Some might not prefer to go with such
options. In all such cases, women, the mother is the only member which is believed as the fittest
role model (Hakim 2016). Male do not take up the position and take care of their kids. The factor

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is not being covered in the literature review section. Another factor can be the management
which preferably can keep women out of the leadership race. They may have the perception that
men can only be the better leaders. In such case, women may not be getting the support which is
required for being at the mangers level. Women may also not have the same resources like the
education and others which is required to become a leader. Women may be judged against a
large set of standards while men not. They may be judged on many parameters than men. The
imbalance system at the management level is also a potential cause for women not being the
managers in most cases (Hakim 2016).
The chosen literature review did not cover any such factors. It is rather focussed on
identifying the productivity of executive coaching to women. Such coaching may be
motivational for women; however, training does not answer to all such questions which are not
being covered. The study identifies the importance of executive coaching and gives ample of
evidence for it; however, it may be just confined to coaching but, not to the consequences.
The research design resembles its orientation to the constructivist grounded theory. The
constructivist grounded theory state that neither data nor theories are discovered but, the
researcher actually colours the selected research participants and the data on the basis of their
own perception. In the chosen article also, the researcher has selected purposive sampling for
selecting the list of participants. The snowball technique was being used by the researcher. The
research has purposefully selected women who were all working at the managerial positions
within four levels of CEO (Corbin, Strauss and Strauss 2014). Another list of women was those
who had at least a minimum six one-to-one sessions across six months of time span with an
executive mentor. The list was purposefully being constructed, so that, effective concluding
thoughts could be collected. Those experienced women were being supposed to be providing

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useful responses in regards to the prospect of executive coaching given to women. Women at the
senior management level were being selected, so that, validation of the executive coaching can
be interpreted.
There are issues with the research design being adopted by the researcher. The research
design seems to be giving place to biasness. The design was being purposefully made, so that,
the researcher could get supportive facts in context to executive coaching. This is relatively
easier to interpret results as being assumed at the start of the research. However, this is relatively
challenging to find something that was not being assumed (Flick 2014). The study appears as if
very well planned and looks like being aimed at attaining the desired outcome. On the other
hand, the selection of women belonging to managerial positions may have been done to find the
facts which motivates for being into the leadership positions. It looks like as if the researcher is
trying to support the executive coaching format for women. The selection of participant in this
way may lead to unproductive results. It is like not giving an attempt to find something new
which could help to establish whether coaching is an ideal process for motivating women at the
workplace. The eligibility criteria set for the selection should not be this way. It should have also
considered women who at least for once had considered to go with the executive coaching and
had denied any such opportunity in future. This may have produced sufficient facts regarding
what they did not like about the executive level coaching. The researcher has probably tried to
establish the presumed facts (Gravetter and Forzano 2018).
Data analysis is being done through intensive interview process, so that, sufficient time
could be provided to the participants. The data analysis was also done by making a constant
comparison of data to data and data to code. All data were being analysed using the NVIVO 8
software system. Nine of the eleven interviews had produced the in-depth results. Adhering to

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the CGT process, saturation had occurred by the eleventh interview (Higginbottom and
Liamputtong 2015). The quality of data may expectedly be good considering a fact that
participants were being interviewed thoroughly. Sufficient time was being given to enable them
share what they want to speak up about the executive coaching or mentoring. However, results
could have been even better, had the selection of participants not been done the way it was
actually being done. The process to capture the data and everything was all good. The researcher
had noted down the facts shared by the participants and the data were being transcribed verbatim,
so that, authenticity of data can be ensured.
The data analysis was also being supported through a line by line coding of using the
NVIVO 8 software system. The coding had continued for months till the time the researcher has
reached to the findings. Despite the adherence to every single technique the data analysis section
had lacked in making an appropriate selection of participants. The participants as being discussed
earlier were done intentionally to get supportive results on the chosen topic. The interview was
conducted with the purposefully selected participants. Had it been the different way of selection,
the outcome could have been the different (Holloway and Galvin 2016). In this regard, a bit
modification in the eligibility level could have been a much fairer selection. The researcher could
have been able to get a wide variety of data and the way the researcher has made the analysis, it
could have produced a wider view of the topic. Moreover, the data collection or the eligibility
criteria for the sampling of participants could have been much better.
The research has produced some useful contribution to the pre-established facts of the
research regarding the executive coaching or mentoring. The researcher has presumed that
executive coaching is a better option to motivate women at the workplace. According to the
researcher, women need motivation and courage to think of the managerial positions in places

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where they are being dominated by their male counterpart. The executive coaching or mentoring
is an essential process to groom women and make them realise that they also have the potentials
to be at the leadership position. It may have generated a good amount of knowledge in women
who participated in the interviews. As per the researcher, they lack to have the requisite appetite
for the higher positions. They neither know how to be the leaders nor do they have any appetite
for the same. The executive coaching for such women can be very effective (Ingham-Broomfield
2015).
However, this is not the scenario every time as also being discussed earlier. Women also
have circumstances that do not allow them to think of such thing or they could make it happen.
Women in many society lack to have a proper support at the workplace or from families. They
are considered the sole body to take care of their kids. Male do not take such responsibilities. On
the other hand, managers consider men in most cases for promotions. They are carrying a
perception that women are not free and have loads of other responsibilities to take care of. This is
why it is not fairer enough to assign them to positions which require a complete dedication. They
are not the best choice for the leadership position (Jamshed 2014). Additionally, women may
also lack in few leadership skills which are necessary in some situations. For example, they may
be required making the strategic decisions which needs utmost concentration on everything it
does and an utter planning for the same. However, they have loads of other issues which may
prevent them from being the right person for the situation in concern. Women are believed to
have several reasons for diverted thoughts; however, men are considered to have rock solid
concentration on everything they commence. They are firm solid in any situation and do not
involve the family matter while dealing with critical tasks. They believe to have the capability

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which enables a right and an appropriate balance between the family and the official
responsibilities (Hakim 2016).
Assignment B:
The researcher is philosophical at the point when the researcher has set the eligibility
criteria for the participants. The eligibility criteria set by the researcher can be biased in nature as
only women with past experience of executive coaching and those sitting at the top managerial
positions were being considered. The researcher could have gone a different way and had
selected even those who have only one or two experience. Those women may have disliked the
concept and would have found this unproductive. Considering those women also would have
produced a wider data. The data could have provided why to support such programs or why not.
Overall, the productivity of the system could have then easily judged which is not possible at the
moment with the selection being focussed only on supportive audience (Leung 2015).
The researcher might be struggling to find whether the data collected are the only facts.
The researcher is aware of it that only supportive audience were being selected for the
interviews. Responses would predictably be in the line of the researcher’s perception of
executive coaching. However, the researcher may have struggled to get answers on few
questions which are necessary to understand what the barriers to the success of executive
coaching are. There are obstacles which may not support women reaching to the leadership
position despite being trained from the executive coach. Questions on obstacles would have
created issues for the researcher in making any concluding thoughts. Moreover, it has left place
for future researches on topic like “do other obstacles are the barriers to the success of executive
coaching or mentoring” (McCusker and Gunaydin 2015).

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The focus has remained confined to the research work; however, the researcher had this
thought process going in mind that the result will not be the one which is reliable in every
regards. The result may be able to predict that executive coaching is good for making women
believe in them and think of higher positions in places where they are not given the full leverage.
However, the executive coaching will lack the required resources which are necessary to actually
support women to get to the top positions.
From the researcher perspective, the role is to provide ample of data to support the
importance of executive coaching or mentoring. In course of the action, the researcher has
collected significant data which validates the researcher’s point that executive coaching is the
needs of women. The role of the researcher in this field will be to bring more such results may be
on some other topics like finding the obstacles that prevent women from being at the managerial
position (Noel 2016). The future work will cover other topic as well like whether the executive
coaching is alone sufficient to the purpose of the researcher. The researcher has identified that
the research conducted on identifying the ‘importance of executive coaching on women’ have
certain limitations which may not produce the expected support to women. To add more values
to the purpose, there will be needed few more research works on different topics as discussed in
the section earlier (Noel 2016).
The current research work is expected to produce some positive implications like women
may feel motivated after being trained under the guidance of executive coach or mentor. They
may expectedly get a different vision of their participation at the workplace. However, the
researcher will face certain challenges may be due to the limitations of the research work. The
data collected from the research do only speak of the motivational factor. It does not cover what
could be the other reasons of women not being able to be at top positions in most places across

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the world. The places where they are largely ignored and not given fair chances of success. It is
for women working in the men dominated world. The researcher has the challenge to come up
with something that has answers for every single factor forcing women not to think of the top
positions (O'Connor 2015).
The research has supplied some good results but, its productivity will depend on the
number of future researches on different topics covering the same field. From the researcher
perspective, women are not fairly dealt in most places across the globe. The researcher has
certain set of objectives which compels the research for topic as such the role of executive
coaching in women. The researcher wants to know why women are not the part of managerial
posts. To serve the objective, the researcher has kept the research confined just to find the values
of executive coaching to women who are not at the managerial position (Patten and Newhart
2017). However, the objective is only partially served. The future goals are still untouched as the
research has not provided any outcome on what obstacles stop women from being at the top
position. The researcher has already identified the future research works and believes that after
commencing the identified topics, the objective will be served. The future topic of research will
supposedly be “Finding the obstacle that contribute to sex ratio difference at managerial
position” and “Is executive coaching is a sufficient answer for women not being the managers”
(Patten and Newhart 2017).
The objective that the researcher has, will serve in facilitating many future research
works. As already been discussed, the research has certain gaps like it has not covered what
actually prevents women from being the managers. The researcher has made some wrong
considerations and had done it purposefully when sampling the target audience for the interview.
However, the researcher is still in the learning period and aimed at attaining the objective that the

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researcher possesses. From the researcher’s perspective, it is important that the researcher is
careful in sampling the target audience (Pavan and Kulkarni 2014).
The researcher has ample list of opportunities while doing the research work. The
researcher could understand where the researched had mistaken in sampling the target audience.
On the other side, the researcher could identify the suitable tools like NVIVO 8 software system
which is being used to do coding. The researcher had utilised the opportunity and did the coding
at every single stage (Punch and Oancea 2014). The researcher had also noted down the every
single statement and reconfirmed the same with the participants. This has helped the researcher
to get and also secure the useful data. Based on the quality of the data analysis method, the
researcher was able to find the research limitation. The researcher did an intensive study on
analysing the data and had continued the same for several months. This is why the research was
able to get useful results and also identify the future works (Punch and Oancea 2014).
The researcher did also learn some ethical issues which are important to be considered
while doing a research work. The researcher had understood that it was pretty challenging to call
the women serving the top managerial positions in different sectors. Such women may not have
the time for interviews which is not serving their purpose. It requires a thorough understanding
of how could those women be approached. The researcher had ensured that data would be kept
under full protection and not be used for any unethical purpose. From the researcher’s
perspective, it is important to be ethical while doing the research work. There is no point of
being the participant of interviews without having any guarantee for the data protection (Rahi
2017).

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According to the researcher, there are several spots which are blind to the researcher.
From the researcher’s perspective, the researcher failed to sample the correct audience (Stern and
Porr 2017). The research which was on identifying the importance of executive coaching on
women not being at the top most positions in male dominated world. The researcher had
purposefully selected women having at least the experience of 6 one-to-one interviews on the
same topic. The researcher had also selected women who are serving the leading positions in
different sectors. The selection of women who repeatedly considers going for one-to-one
discussion was not only the way. The researcher could have also selected women who have been
for just once in one-to-one interview on the same topic. They might have disliked the topic or
had found this as unproductive. Considering such audience also could have added values to the
overall responses. The responses could have been quite diverse in nature and hence, the
validation of the research (Stern and Porr 2017).
There are other spots as well like the researcher has taken months to analyse the data. The
research needs to be efficient enough to quickly analyse the data. This will increase the
researcher’s efficiency in research works and also open up several doors to more future works. It
also speak of the credibility that the researcher is capable of doing research within a very limited
period of time and that with full perfection. Moreover, the research will get more such options in
future which are necessary for an academic and the professional career in research (Van den
Hoonaard and Van den Hoonaard 2016). The researcher has also other weak areas also. The data
analysis section is perhaps the most prominent weakness that the researcher has. The researcher
was not smart enough in sampling the data required. The researcher had purposefully considered
women who have already been to such interviews in past as well. However, it could have been
much better and results could have been more elaborated if women who have been for such