This study aims to examine the role of coaching in helping private sector organisations in the UAE to manage diversity and achieve inclusion in support of Emiratisation initiatives. The research question originates from a personal interest in the field of diversity management and inclusion and stems from experience working with foreign-owned private sector organisations in the UAE in their pursuit to improve local-expatriate work relations.
The research paradigm is based on the social constructivist perspective which defines my ontology and role as a researcher-practitioner in diverse contexts and the research strategy adopted a grounded theory approach. Procedures of data collection, coding and analysis were systematically and sequentially carried out in a simultaneous iterative process and included semi-structured interviews with 19 participants working in private sector organisations. Codes were used to retrieve and organise information, which created a web of meaning grounded in the data, constant comparison of the different conceptual levels of data analysis drove theoretical sampling and the ongoing data collection in developing theory.
Findings highlight three mains categories illustrating the role of coaching in the context of study: 1) the contextual factors impacting upon the practice of coaching, 2) the use and value and the coach, 3) the coach’s attributes. The theory suggests that the role of coaching should be considered in relation to the contextual factors influencing its use and value, which depends on the coach’ s attributes. This means that the latter supersedes the use and value of coaching, and are preconditions which impact on the role of coaching from the start