Case Studies
This section contains a series of case studies drawn from doctoral research conducted by Geoffrey Abbott into the effectiveness of executive coaching in assisting expatriate managers to deal with the diverse challenges faced by international business assignment. The study was done in Central America. The cases are real but the details have been changed to protect the confidentiality of participants. The studies include real dialogue between the coach and the client.
There are fifteen case studies, with people of diverse nationalities. Following is an overview of the research and a summary of each study (including references to the full case study in the dissertation).
OVERVIEW OF RESEARCH STUDY
This research study explores executive coaching as an intervention to assist expatriate managers in dealing with the many challenges faced during overseas sojourns. The research methodology is a form of action research in which the researcher (Geoffrey Abbott) worked with participants in the role of an executive coach and then analysed the impact of the coaching programs. There are fifteen case studies of individual coaching engagements of between three and eighteen months in Central America.
The research includes a discussion of what might be an appropriate philosophy to underpin this kind of international business coaching. Geoffrey proposes that the pragmatism of William James, John Dewey and others provides a solid foundation for coaching in international/cross-cultural environments. The more recent philosophical position of critical realism is also discussed. Critical realism embraces multiple realities at the local level while acknowledging the influence of universal social laws and tendencies.
Each case study is presented as a self-contained story. Together, the studies provide rare in-the-moment descriptions of the processes of executive coaching and expatriate manager acculturation. A cross-case analysis demonstrates that coaching - in this context - was effective as an additional intervention with expatriates to (1) improve performance, and (2) increase personal satisfaction. These are two recognized measures of success for both coaching and acculturation. The author concludes that coaching worked because it:
- was tailored to the individual needs of diverse individuals in diverse cultural contexts;
- applied sound models from coaching (Grant & Greene, 2001) and acculturation (Ward, Bochner, & Furnham, 2001; Earley & Ang, 2003) to operate interactively across the affective, cognitive and behavioral domains, giving particular attention to the often-ignored affective domain;
- encouraged expatriate managers to operate from a basis of trust in professional cross-cultural relationships;
- clarified and worked from the personal values of the individual expatriate managers;
- facilitated reflective thinking, allowing the expatriate managers to step back from their complex and pressured situations to better-understand themselves and their contexts and to plan effective actions;
- provided a medium to transfer and apply knowledge (theory, research and experience) from other contexts into the local situations of the individual expatriate managers; and
- from a cultural perspective, promoted the leveraging of individual and group differences.
The dissertation proposes that these finding could potentially be extended to other contexts if considered by skilled researchers and practitioners using the technique of analytic generalization (Yin, 2003). The research also demonstrates the efficacy of executive coaching as a research tool with the capacity to get inside decision-making processes in complex environments.
Looking ahead at the future application of executive coaching in international business, the author recommends that (1) coaching be delivered in combination with mentoring and training (e.g. mentor-as-coach initiatives) in ways that are appropriate to each context, and (2) the current individual focus of coaching (inspired by the traditions of Western thinking) be expanded into a greater consideration of family, organizational, community and societal systems and cultures.
CASE STUDIES
1. Linda Gateau (Refer to p.136 of thesis)
Linda was a 48 year old Canadian-American. She was an audit manager with a US government organization. Linda arrived in El Salvador in September 2003. Her husband was working from home as a software developer and was distributing the product in the USA. Linda had a background in non-profit and Government aid, including two years in Afghanistan. We had nine sessions over eleven months. Linda arrived in El Salvador three months before beginning the coaching sessions. She anticipated being here for five years.
2. David Redmond (Refer to p.152)
David Redmond was a 55 year old senior development officer in a government development organization in San Salvador. David and his family had been in El Salvador since 2001. He arrived in El Salvador under difficult conditions post-earthquake - with a sick son. He found he was working for an alcoholic boss and one of his senior staff was murdered shortly after his arrival. He was a Mexican-born American and was married with two children. He and his wife adopted their daughter in El Salvador, with the process being completed during the period of the coaching. He had extensive experience overseas with his organization, including in Eastern Europe and Malaysia. We had nine sessions together over thirteen months after which David and his family returned to the USA. David continued his career in the organization while at the same time looking for other opportunities in education and consultancy. His wife took up a position in government at a senior level. David was referred to me by his wife whom I had interviewed about her work in the area of spouse employment for US government officers in El Salvador
3. Neil Barber (Refer to p.166)
Neil Barber was a financial manager with a European-based multinational corporation. He was South African and recently married. El Salvador was his first long overseas posting, though he had spent some time in Russia which he found difficult due to the aggressive attitude of the local people to foreigners. I was referred to Neil by the company’s human resources manager. I had also spoken to Neil’s immediate supervisor (Craig) who talked in general terms about the possibility of my coaching one of his staff. We worked together for a relatively brief period of time (five sessions). Neil remained in a similar role in the company for another 18 months, after which he was promoted.
4. Paul Plummer (Refer to p.181)
Paul was a 36 year-old financial manager with a South African multinational company when we commenced the coaching in late 2003. He moved from finance to marketing and was later appointed to a senior director position. Paul was Kenyan and married with two daughters. El Salvador was his third overseas assignment with the company. He intended to move to Australia to start his own business when he finished in Central America.
5. Wesley Trudeau (Refer to p.198)
Wesley Trudeau was a 35 year old Canadian American who came to El Salvador with his wife who had taken up a US government position in San Salvador. Prior to this, he had been running an election monitoring project in Poland. Wesley was a qualified lawyer. He was proficient in Spanish, and also spoke French (his first language), Polish, and Portuguese. For his first six months in El Salvador he remained at home to care for two sons. He then applied for and gained the position of country manager for a project with a US non-government aid organization to assist local craftspeople with product development and access to international markets. Shortly after the coaching commenced, Wesley was made regional manager. Wesley was referred to me by the director of the local American Chamber of Commerce.
6. Jack Trimboli (Refer to p. 213)
When we met in November 2003, Jack was country manager for an American multinational company. Jack had been in the country for five years and was fluent in Spanish. He had been in Costa Rica in a previous expatriate position. Jack was married with two daughters. Soon after the coaching began, he was promoted to regional manager for Latin America. In October 2004, he left El Salvador to begin his own beverage company in the United States. We continued coaching by phone (and face-to-face when Jack visited El Salvador). Jack was referred to me from the American Chamber of Commerce, El Salvador.
7. Raul Hernandez (Referto p.230)
Raul was a 28 year old Australian who was born in El Salvador. He moved to Australia with his parents when he was five years old. Raul was a qualified chartered accountant and had worked in one of the top accounting audit firms in Sydney. He said that he moved to El Salvador to reconnect with his cultural roots and to begin a career in a multinational company. He came to El Salvador without a job but quickly found a junior managerial position with a European multinational, working to a Chilean. Raul married a Salvadorian several months after his arrival. Julia did not speak English but was keen to learn the language and move to Australia. Raul was referred to me by one of my other clients, Paul Plummer. Paul befriended and informally mentored Raul when he recognized his Australian accent. (Paul was intending to relocate to Australia.) We had twelve coaching sessions together over a year.
8. Randy Peters (Refer to p. 247)
Randy was a mechanical engineer with considerable experience in public utilities in the USA and Latin America, including some experience with the US military. He had recently left his position in Honduras to become Environmental Health and Safety Manager with a public utility in El Salvador, owned by a US multinational. He was married to Alicia Peters, a Salvadorian (who was also a participant, see Appendix A1). He had lived in El Salvador off-and-on over 18 years, including during the war in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Randy turned 50 during the coaching program. I started working with Randy shortly before he took up his new position. Randy was referred to me by the pastor of the English-speaking church. Randy had been attracted by the concept of ‘situational awareness’ which I had put in an information sheet about coaching.
9. Danielle Powell (Refer to p. 263)
Danielle Powell was a 40 year old computer services manager for a US government organization in El Salvador. She came to El Salvador in September 2004 from Ecuador with her husband (Drew McLaren, Case Study 6.10) who was a senior manager in the same organization. They had three sons. Danielle had six previous overseas assignments and had moved ahead in her career at a face pace. Danielle was referred to me by a contact in the organization who was aware that she and her husband were on their way to El Salvador. Danielle was certain that she was going to retire from Government service at age 50. We had five sessions together over seven months. The low number of sessions reflected the disjointed nature of Danielle’s assignment in El Salvador, with training courses and family issues intervening in the flow of the sessions.
10. Drew McLaren (Refer to p. 273)
Drew McLaren was a 40 year old American. He was human resources director for a US Government organization in El Salvador. He was married to Danielle (previous Case Study 6.9). We had eight sessions together over eight months. Drew and Danielle were referred to me by the director of the spouse employment program in the organization. Drew joined the organization after following his wife to their first post in the Caribbean 17 years ago. He moved from a junior position to senior management. He was promoted to the same level as his wife during the time we were working together.
11. Alicia Peters (Refer to p. 333)
Alicia Peters was a 41 year old Salvadorian, married to Randy Peters (Case Study 6.8). She was senior sales manager with a major Salvadorian paint-distributor. She had been in sales for 10 years with the company but was looking for a change. Their two boys were in their early teens and in five years time would be going to university. Alicia considered they would need to have both Randy’s retirement funds and her income to afford their education and a comfortable life in the USA. We had eleven sessions over nine months. Alicia moved to Estonia with Randy shortly after the cessation of the coaching program. In Estonia, Alicia began teaching computing.
12. Julietta Carboni (Refer to p. 344)
Julietta was a 41 year old Filipina-American and wife of a manager in a US government organization. Julietta had been a ‘trailing spouse’ in Saudi Arabia for three years where she did not work, and also in New York where she worked in administration in a small company. She was doing a master’s level course in international management by distance with a US university. Julietta was working part-time with the organization in the area that handled visas for Salvadorians wishing to visit the USA. Her role was to fingerprint people. She was also developing a training consultancy. Julietta had a six-year old daughter. We had eleven sessions together over thirteen months. Julietta was referred to me by a consultant with responsibility for organizing spouse employment in the organization where Julietta worked.
13. Patricia Rivers (Refer to p. 355)
Patricia was a 46 year old public health professional married to a manager in a US government organization. She was in El Salvador as a spouse of an expatriate but had pursued an independent career as a research project manager in public health in El Salvador. Patricia and her husband had been in San Salvador since 1999 and had adopted two Salvadorian children. Patricia finished her PhD shortly before arriving in El Salvador. Patricia was fluent in Spanish. We had twenty sessions together over fourteen months leading up to the family’s departure from El Salvador in June 2005.
14. Rafael Luz (Refer to p. 369)
When I met Rafael, he was working in a middle management project role in finance and information technology with a European-based multinational. Rafael was former manager of operations and administration at the national airline. He was Salvadorian with an engineering degree from a major American University. He saw himself as an engineer at the core. He had an MBA from the top business school in Central American. We had seven sessions together over eleven months.
15. Gillian George (Refer to p. 384)
Gillian George was a 27 year old teacher from the USA. She came to El Salvador in August 2003 with a two-year teaching contract in a leading English language school in San Salvador. San Salvador was her first overseas assignment of any length. Gillian subsequently extended her stay by one year. Gillian was the pilot study for the project. She does not have management responsibility. We had seven sessions together over seven months. I was referred to Gillian by the human resources manager of the school, after I had an initial one hour meeting with the Principal of the school to explain the research and coaching processes. Gillian had little initial understanding of coaching but was keen to participate.