Interest in coaching and mentoring has increased over the past decades. However, confusion about what is meant in practice and in the literature and the lack of sound definitions makes it hard to research the antecedents and outcomes of both concepts. We show that coaching and mentoring share a lot, but they are often treated as separate fields. By developing models that combine the concepts of coaching and mentoring, we aim to provide a base for more rigorous research.
Such a base hopefully encourages researchers and practitioners of coaching and mentoring to work together instead of struggling against each other. Accepted for publication: 14 February Published online: 01 February Although such support is not new, popular and academic interest grew substantially in the past decades.
It seems that almost every manager who wants to succeed needs a soundboard, motivator, counsellor, mentor or coach for their development. In the last 20 years coaching and mentoring have become a large industry. One estimate mentions Although not all are making a living of coaching or mentoring, the relevance of coaching and mentoring for business is clear. There is evidence that mentoring increases the chance of becoming a leader of a company Janssen, ; Stogdill, but having a personal coach or mentor is also a sort of status symbol.
Since its first use, the meaning of the words coaching and mentoring changed. First Thackeray describes a coach as a tutor. A more recent description is, to facilitating of the learning process Feldman, These changing definition show that coaching has shifted from instructing to more facilitating development. For mentoring, Homer describes mentor as a guard, advisor and friend. Kram , p. At the same time as we begin to clarify what makes for effective coaching and mentoring, however, the very popularity of the approach has resulted in greater confusion.
Almost every related profession has participated in a land-grab, trying to stake out its own coaching territory, with definitions, rules and practices based on its own particular perspectives and interests. While coaching and mentoring are both engaged in personal development or learning, the histories of coaching and mentoring are juxtaposed in this paper. The aim of this study is to analyse the directions in which the research in mentoring and coaching has evolved, to give a better understanding of interaction of these and understand the current state.
