Ufhrd Research Honorarium Report

UFHRD RESEARCH HONORARIUM REPORT

DUAL RELATIONSHIPS AS HOT PRACTICE IN COACH-MENTORING

-SOME IMPLICATIONS FOR HRD PRACTITIONERS

SANDRA POWLEY

31 JULY 2009

Background

The award was made in July 2007 to complete a qualitative study to investigate the experience of (non-sexual) dual relationships and in particular the HRD implications of these relationships.

Executive Summary: Goals and Key Findings

  1. Identify and challenge shadow methodologies operating about dual and multiple relationships in coach-mentoring.
  • Challenged dominant dyadic discourse with transformational perception of dual relationships as a complex adaptive system
  • Identified dual relationships in coach-mentoring as “unspeakable” (Gabriel, 2005)
  • Found practitioners functioned in a vacuum, without any effective dialogic arena for knowledge transfer, or actuating social capital, impeding double-loop learning and practice evolution
  • Found that non-sexual dual relationships were ridden with unintended consequences and could also be profoundly damaging and harmful and sometimes career-changing
  • Level of practitioner experience did not appear to be a mitigating element in the quality of the experience
  1. To better understand the implications and ethical considerations of dual relationships, especially for practitioners, supervisors, human resource professionals and professional bodies
  • Found that functioning in a vacuum with low supervision take up, practitioners in dual relationship adopted “black box working” (Powley, 2009) in the face of dual relationships as dilemma and wicked problem (Cuban, 2001) contributing to tendency for newer practitioners to adopt directive models (NB little extant material)
  • Practitioners experience considerable coercion and isolation, shame and taboo and sense of being unable to negotiate (with commissioners); no national database of abuse and harm or independent complaints procedure
  • Practitioners rarely considered competence or capability in their decision-making to undertake a dual relationship and once committed felt they had “crossed the Rubicon” – kairos was a significant factor in the decision for practitioners and clients
  • Practitioners in dual relationships entered a “fog of practice” (Powley, 2009) with a loss of lucidity and disrupted vision, uncertain, incomplete and inaccurate data– raising the human resource development challenge:“when does incompetent practice become unfair or unethical?”
  • Seemingly high correlation between dual relationships and malicious behaviour and complaints from clients
  • Experiences closely matched the findings of Gabriel (2005) and Syme (2003) of dual relationships in counselling and psychotherapy
  • HRD paradox: dual relationships can be an expression of a social network, which can increase social capital, yet implications (e.g. homphily, boundary management) make operative environment more complex and intervention potentially less effective
  • Impacted across whole HRD cycle from strategy and policy, commissioning, resourcing, managing delivery and evaluating – challenge of practical judgement and intuition ‘what can be learned and what must be taught?’ needs profile and recognition within HRD as a core practitioner skill and issue that “will come up at different times and different ways across your career” (Coe, 2009)
  • Identified four themes for HRD response to dual relationships sought by practitioners – professional engagement, consistent organisational approach, specific professional development (informed by own assessments) and practice guidance
  1. To develop guidelines and frameworks to support and improve coach-mentoring practice in this context for coach-mentors and their clients (and contracting clients) and supervisors
  • Identified areas for further research and the research honorarium project has also informed development of my PhD proposal looking at managing risk in dual relationships delivered in organisational settings.
  • Posited that dual relationships represent “hot practice” (Powley, 2009) in coach-mentoring, posing a complex, risky operative environment nb warrant extra care, additional resource and adapted practices (e.g. closer monitoring scrutiny, evaluation and tracking)
  • Developed a typology of practitioner motivations for entering dual relationships in coach-mentoring
  • Mapped the practitioner dilemma finding that dual relationships converge Bentley’s (1998) polar tensions
  • Developed an information-sharing framework to improve iterative micro-contracting in dual relationships and to improve expectation management and reduce issues such as commoditisation of practice
  • Highlighted need for HRD to provide the dialogic arena as part of an improved safety culture, so there is a secure environment critical for sharing dilemmas, fears, mistakes and failure – a dynamic of collaborative curiosity
  • Found narrative principles (White & Denborough, 2005) and practitioner self awareness of gaze and professional DNA could help to address power relations; not necessarily a case of devising new techniques and practices, but finding a flexible, negotiated model of working (that could make assessment more complex)
  • Key HRD challenge: “Is it enough to rely largely on assumptions of practitioner experience and capability, good judgement and common sense – and a less than 50% chance of supervision when we set practitioners off on dual relationships?”

Outputs

Dissemination

  • Briefing and working note for York St John University
  • Submitted conference paper for UfHRD 10 Conference (to be published on UfHRD and Triskell websites)
  • Delivered UfHRD 10 presentation and distributed handouts (positive feedback, 15 attendees)
  • Submitted revised paper to six UfHRDconference attendees who expressed interest in the subject (Eire, USA, UK, Netherlands)
  • Conference paper submitted for EMCC (in progress)
  • Revised paper submitted to Jonathan Coe, Chief Executive, Witness (Professional Boundaries Charity) for library
  • Dr Lynne Gabriel, Chair, British Association of Counselling & Psychotherapy
  • Chapter (Misty Mirrors and Clear Windows: A Personal Perspective of Dual Relationships) in upcoming book “The Reflective Practitioner” (ed. Bob Garvey)

Journal articles

In discussion with:-Management Learning; Personnel Review; Coaching: International Journal of Theory & Practice; Human Resource Management Journal (HRMJ); Therapy Today

News articles

Centre for Individual and Organisational Development, Sheffield Business School; Triskell website; Sheffield Hallam University website; Training Zone; Coaching at Work (CIPD); Witness.

SANDRA POWLEY, Director, Triskell. 31 July 2009

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