Can one-to-one coaching improve selection success and who benefits most? The role of internship candidate generalised self-efficacy

Abstract

This study presents a field quasi-experiment to examine whether one-to-one coaching can significantly impact an objective outcome: selection success. Furthermore, we examine whether all participants benefit equally from coaching. We examine whether coaching significantly impacts on selection success (i.e., whether candidates were successfully offered a job role) (N = 357) and whether interactions between coaching and generalised self-efficacy exist (n = 152). Participants were second year undergraduate students in an UK university who were applying for a one year work internship. Our analysis indicates that coaching positively impacted on selection success and specifically, individuals lower in generalised self-efficacy benefitted from coaching. We contribute to the literature on coaching by examining the effectiveness of coaching in relation to an objective outcome. We also advance our understanding of the role of individual differences in coaching by testing the interaction effects for a well-recognised individual difference variable: generalised self-efficacy. Finally, we contribute to the literature regarding the design of career development support in terms of how best to support people based on their individual differences.