ABSTRACT
Globalisation is changing work as we know it. Many organisations operate worldwide, trade internationally and are composed of increasingly mobile and diverse workers. This means that the coach now typically serves coachees from different cultural backgrounds either within one country (intra-national) or across cultural boundaries (international) (Turner, 2007). As a result, coaches and in particular work or executive coaches are increasingly facing a new challenge in their practice, which is the influence of culture (St Claire-Ostwald, 2007). Whether working for multi-national clients or with a multicultural workforce within one country, the coach’s role is now likely to comprise the following aspects:
• understanding various cultural preferences and their implications for coaching, which includes the coach’s own ‘cultural lens’ as well as the coachees’;
• dealing constructively with cultural differences, which may manifest themselves in potential bias and stereotyping, and helping our coachees do the same;
• appreciating that behaviour is a product of our environment (culture) and own natural preferences (personality);
• acknowledging that culture is a fluid and transient concept that goes beyond national cultures and ethnic origin.
