Campus Location
Dallas Campus (Online)
Date of Award
7-2025
Document Type
Dissertation
Department
Organizational Leadership
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Committee Chair or Primary Advisor
Tim Atkinson
Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor
Dena Counts
Third Committee Member or Committee Reader
Jim J Adams
Abstract
The problem explored through this research involved the lack of consensus on executive coaching knowledge, skills, and abilities for facilitating ethical behaviors on the part of business executives. This problem led the researcher to employ a mixed-method Delphi study to explore professional executive coach perceptions concerning the establishment of a governing body overseeing the activity of executive coach consulting and to assess the knowledge, skills, and abilities perceived as fundamental to executive coaching. The researcher focused the research approach through a systematic, iterative research design where a panel of six experts in the field of professional executive coaching located in the United States described the qualifications, best practices, and preferred methods of self-governance for executive coaches, emphasizing effective, ethical executive coaching. Sociocultural theory and institutional theory guided this study as its theoretical framework. Three rounds of surveys were given to the sample. The findings included evidence that executive coaches must hold a significant depth of knowledge concerning leadership principles and theories of human motivation to provide effective executive coaching. Such coaching involved competencies that included the management of confidentiality and sensitivity. Finally, the findings showed that executive coaches foresee the standardization and governance of executive coaching knowledge, skills, and abilities for ethical, effective executive behaviors through a shared competency framework to enhance ethical practices and coaching effectiveness. The results confirmed sociocultural theory but not institutional theory. Future research should include qualitative exploration concerning the divergence between professionals concerning competencies and improving external validity.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Fletcher, Richard R., "Toward the Professionalization of Executive Coaching: A Delphi Study of the Requisite Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities for Coaching Executives to Behave Ethically" (2025). Digital Commons @ ACU, Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 918.
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/etd/918
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