Business Commons^™

Mindfulness In Coaching: Philosophy, Psychology, Or Just A Useful Skill?, Michael Cavanagh, Gordon Spence

Gordon B Spence

Summary This chapter contains section titles: Introduction The Changing World Mindfulness: A Confused Construct So, What is Mindfulness? Mindfulness Practice and Purposeful, Positive Change The Coaching Engagement – Five Reflective Spaces Future Directions for Research Conclusion Acknowledgement References

Introduction To Happiness Interventions, Gordon Spence, Suzy Green

Gordon B Spence

No abstract provided.

Management: A Focus On Leaders, Annie Mckee, Travis Kemp, Gordon Spence

Gordon B Spence

A new view of the four functions of Management: through the lens of leadership The pace and scope of change in the world and organisations during the past 10 years is unprecedented. In this environment, staying ahead of the curve and preparing for success in work, management and leadership is challenging.

Amidst the financial crises, catastrophic disasters, and business scandals frequently making headlines, Annie McKee and the Australian authors of this new text Management: a Focus on Leaders, believe there is a unique opportunity to re-focus the way students are prepared for their future in business.

Show future managers how …

Coaching And Well-Being: A Brief Review Of Existing Evidence, Relevant Theory And Implications For Practitioners, Gordon Spence, Anthony Grant

Gordon B Spence

THIS chapter is about coaching and its influence on human functioning and well-being. The chapter is presented in two sections. In the first section coaching is defined and accompanied by a brief description of its essential practices, along with a review of what is currently known empirically about its impact on human functioning and well-being. Having reviewed some evidence that supports the efficacy of coaching, the second section will focus on the important question: Why does coaching work? In proposing an answer to this question we will draw upon self-determination theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 1985), a metatheory of human …

Development And Validation Of The Solution-Focused Inventory, Anthony Grant, Michael Cavanagh, Sabina Kleitman, Gordon Spence, Michaela Lakota, Nickolas Yu

Gordon B Spence

Solution-focused coaching and solution-focused therapy are strengths-based approaches which emphasize people's resources and resilience and how these can be used in the pursuit of purposeful, positive change. The Solution-focused Inventory (SFI) is a 12-item scale with three subscales: Problem Disengagement, Goal Orientation and Resource Activation. Three studies in this article provide support for the validity of the SFI as a measure of solution-focused thinking. The SFI negatively correlated with psychopathology and positively correlated with measures of well-being, resilience and perspective taking. Test-retest reliability over 16 weeks was 0.84. Cronbach's alpha for the 12-item scale was 0.84. It also demonstrates sensitivity …

Further Development Of Evidence-Based Coaching: Lessons From The Rise And Fall Of The Human Potential Movement, Gordon Spence

Gordon B Spence

Although several authors have argued for the development of an evidence-based approach to coaching practice, few attempts have been made to draw support for these arguments by examining events of the recent past. This paper seeks to learn some lessons from history by exploring events surrounding the rise and fall of the human potential movement (HPM), which occurred between the 1940s and 1970s. The demise of the HPM is of relevance to the coaching industry because it powerfully illustrates how the promise and potential of innovative practices can be easily lost when its practitioners become disconnected from theoretically sound rationales …

The Integration Of Mindfulness Training And Health Coaching: An Exploratory Study, Anthony M Grant, Michael Cavanagh, Gordon Spence

Gordon B Spence

Coaching has attracted much attention from health professionals interested in collaborative, person-centred approaches to motivating behaviour change. Whilst initial research supports the efficacy of coaching in health contexts, more theoretical and empirical work is needed. Based on recent work demonstrating the important role that mindfulness plays in self-regulation, it was hypothesised that the efficacy of health coaching could be enhanced through the inclusion of Mindfulness Training (MT). To test this, 45 adult were randomly assigned to three health programmes for eight weeks. Using a crossover design, two groups received an alternative delivery of MT and cognitive-behavioural, solution-focused (CB-SF) coaching, whilst …

Towards A Positive University, Lindsay Oades, Suzy Green, Gordon Spence, Paula Robinson

Gordon B Spence

"This article explores the concept of a 'positive university'. Whilst positive education is becoming a better known concept, particularly applied to secondary schools, and positive organizational scholarship is further assisting the understanding of positive institutions, it is useful to examine the university as a special institution, in its entirety beyond a circumscribed focus on student academics (e. g. student motivation) or student well-being (e. g. wellbeing of medical students). In this article, we will sample the relevant evidence to date from positive psychology and positive organizational scholarship and apply it to five key environments of the university: Classroom and formal …

Coaching With Self-Determination Theory In Mind: Using Theory To Advance Evidence-Based Coaching Practice, Gordon Spence, Lindsay Oades

Gordon B Spence

The scholarly coaching literature has advanced considerably in the past decade. However, a review of the existing knowledge base suggests that coaching practice and research remains relatively uninformed by relevant psychological theory. In this paper it will be argued that Self-Determination Theory (SDT; Deci & Ryan, 1985) presents as a useful theoretical framework for coaching as it can help understand coaching practice at both macro and micro levels. The utility of SDT as a theoretical framework for coaching is explored, with particular attention given to the role that coaching would appear to play in the satisfaction of three basic psychological …