Who coaches and how do they coach? The interactive effects of coaching agents and coaching styles on social enterprise sustainability

Coaching, an important and effective managerial activity for employee learning and development, has attracted increasing attention and endorsement from human resources scholars and practitioners (Bartlett & Ghoshal, 2002), and as a means of mentoring new economic entrepreneurs (St. Jean & Audet, 2012). Global companies such as Motorola increasingly expect their managers to coach their subordinates to enhance talent growth and development (Latham, Almost, Mann, & Moore, 2005). Traditionally, a coach has been perceived as typically working in an organizational setting and is the individual “who works with others to develop and implement strategies to improve their performance” (Sue-Chan & Latham, 2004, p. 261). Despite its efficacy in increasing the performance of individuals within an organizational setting, coaching as a management practice to enhance performance in other domains is relatively unexamined. In this article, we contend that coaching may be a valuable and effective management resource that social entrepreneurs can call upon to enhance their enterprises’ growth, development, and sustainability.