Diversity in Coaching: Working with Gender, Culture, Race and Age

Citation

by Jonathan Passmore, E. (2010), "Diversity in Coaching: Working with Gender, Culture, Race and Age", Human Resource Management International Digest, Vol. 18 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/hrmid.2010.04418bae.002

Diversity in Coaching: Working with Gender, Culture, Race and Age

Article Type: Suggested readings From: Human Resource Management International Digest, Volume 18, Issue 2

Edited by Jonathan PassmoreKogan Page2009ISBN 9780749450793

As coaching has emerged as more than a passing fad, the need for more rigorous texts on the subject has grown. Diversity in Coaching is the third book in a series from the Association for Coaching.

Like its predecessors, Excellence in Coaching and Psychometrics in Coaching, this book seeks to address a specific theme within coaching and to review the literature. Moreover, it challenges practising coaches to understand and embrace the challenges of working with an increasingly diverse marketplace. In the words of the author of the chapter entitled “Coaching Indian Sub-Continent Heritage Coachees”, Idrani Choudhury: “It is essential to understand our own cultural heritage and world view before we set about understanding and assisting other people. Lack of such understanding may hinder effective intervention. Subtle ethno-centric bias could lead the coach to make inaccurate inferences about a client’s motivations and other personal attributes.”

The first part of the book focuses on coaching in North America, Europe and Australasia. While coaching is widely practised in all these areas, there is a dearth of rigorous coaching services in Australasia. Even within Europe, different nations favor different topics for, and methods of delivery of, coaching.

The second part examines coaching practices in emerging markets and the key challenges faced by coaches who take into account cultural references and belief systems when working with clients new to coaching.

Coaching is being increasingly used in Brazil, Russia, India and China, yet in each case cultural heritage plays a part in the way clients may view the world and the coaching process itself. In India and China, for example, many people avoid naming their own ambitions outright or criticizing the work of their “superiors”. Similarly, Russians have historically emphasized patience, steadfastness and achievement through suffering.

The challenge is to reconcile cultural values with the coaching process, which is itself born out of a western emphasis on the individual rather than the team or community and the unrelenting belief in creating one’s own destiny.

The third section focuses on coaching in the UK and USA, and in particular on issues faced by people who are not white and male. Chapters on coaching people of Indian or African descent detail the challenges faced by those attempting to ascend a “snowy peak” – where most people in leadership positions are white. These chapters also detail the impact of “micro-inequalities” in the workplace, which can cause non-majority-group members to question their decisions to the detriment of their health, well-being and self-esteem.

The book is worthwhile for anyone interested in the interplay between culture and effective coaching.

Reviewed by Suzanne Doyle-Morris, Doyle-Morris Coaching and Development, Cambridge, UK.

A longer version of this review was originally published in Equal Opportunities International, Vol. 28 No. 7, 2009.