Coaching Research: who? what? where? when? why?

The remarkable growth of coaching to date has not, so far, been matched by a similar growth in the research corpus that underpins it. There may be several explanations for this, including the pace of growth relative to the pace of research; coaching’s location at the juxtaposition of business consultancy and applied psychology; and competing imperatives that leave coaches themselves torn between being coaches and being researchers. Drawing from a model of these competing imperatives of research and practice in occupational psychology, this article outlines some of the core issues that coaches might face when thinking about research. It suggests some possible answers to the questions of who, what, where, when and why of coaching research, and concludes by identifying the critical questions that will likely shape the future evolution of coaching