Ethics in coaching: An ethical decision-making framework for coaching psychologists

Objectives: This paper explores the process of ethical decision making in coaching psychology. The paper seeks to develop a suitable model for application in coaching psychology to complement existing codes of practice. The model of course can be adjusted for use by coaching practitioners.

Design: The study used a semi-structured interview design within a qualitative approach, which was complemented by a focus group.

Methods: Grounded theory was employed to analyse interview transcripts and to build a series of descriptive and conceptual codes. The model was discussed and further developed through a focus group of experienced coaching psychologists.

Results: The study identified the key elements used by coaching psychologists in making decisions which include ethical principles such as those presented in professional codes and relevant literature, personal ethics and moral values, duty to society, standards of practice, the law, conversations with others such as supervisors, experience, respected others’ views, implicit and explicit contract with clients along with boundaries and implications involved with a situation. These elements were used to build firstly descriptive and later conceptual codes and from these a decision-making framework was developed and tested on coaching psychologists. This model offers a sequential but non-linear model to decision-making with six core stages.  In addition, the research identified the value in building ethical maturity.Ethical maturity is the capacity to make ethical decisions. This can been enhanced by engaging in regular supervision in which hypothetical testing of dilemmas can be utilised, by recurrent ethical thinking, engaging in activities associated with coach training and pursuing wider continual professional development.

Conclusions: The study offers a model for ethical decision-making in coaching for use by coaching psychologists and in coach training.

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