The Barriers of Effective Managerial Coaching When Facing Employees' Unsatisfactory Performance in a Data Center Services Unit

The purpose of this research was identifying the barriers of effective managerial coaching and their mechanisms of influence when "a manager faces the employee's unsatisfactory performance" in a data center services unit. The research was carried out using the grounded theory strategy. Data was collected through semi-structured interviews with eighteen people comprising eight managers and ten employees, using theoretical sampling. Five barriers were identified one of which is a contextual characteristic of data center industry and its influence on coaching in that industry was not studied before. Two other barriers were not identified in previous studies either. The core category of the identified barriers is that sometimes the manger or the employee, ignore the unsatisfactory performance situation as a coaching situation. The mechanisms of influence of barriers were not found in the literature but in this study, three mechanisms were identified. First, they prevent manager from coaching behavior. Second, they prevent employee’s learning despite manager’s coaching behavior. Third, they weaken the employee-manager work relationship despite manager’s coaching behavior. Three solutions are suggested to data center service providers. First, employees and managers can take the situations of unsatisfactory performance as an appropriate opportunity for coaching by enhancement of their self awareness and mindfulness such that they consciously recognize the suitable moments for coaching. The organization should also promote the supportive approach of managers when they react to the employee’s unsatisfactory performance. Second, the human resource specialists and managers should help the employees develop required non-technical competencies. Third, the human resource specialists should help the managers learn how to motivate their employees and mechanisms of employee motivation for learning should be designed in the organization.