ABSTRACT
Since the late 1980s, business coaching has generated an increasing interest, mostly in Western organizations, where new skills seem to be required to face uncertain and changing environments. Therefore, coaching appears as a support to managers looking for new landmarks or ways to achieve increased performance, as well as to HRM managers who have adopted it as a new business tool to develop their employees. However, there are risks in adopting this ‘solution’ too rapidly and its implementation requires great care. Since many different stakeholders are involved, a full range of expectations are raised, either explicitly or implicitly, consciously or unconsciously, making coaching a rather ambiguous practice. Thus coaching raises a number of underlying ethical issues relating to the use of coaching made by the three main stakeholders: the coach, the coachee and the sponsor. Who really benefits from coaching in organizations? What interests does the coach serve? Under which conditions should coaching be implemented as a successful HRM practice?
