Coaching Liberal Professionals in the Start-up Phase What Influences its Effectiveness?
Irmela Seebe, Christian W. Scheiner, Kai-Ingo Voigt
Abstract Within the last ten years an increasing amount of publications can be registered within the field of coaching research. Numerous studies have proven the effectiveness of coaching as an instrument to support the personal and professional development of individuals. Audet & Couteret (2005), however, argue that coaching research is still at the beginning. Especially the research on coaching in liberal professions has been widely neglected in scientific research. Within this study influential factors on the effectiveness of coaching in liberal professions during the pre-start-up and start-up phase are identified and analysed.
1 Introduction Within the last ten years an increasing amount of publications can be registered within the field of coaching research. Numerous studies have proven the effectiveness of coaching as an instrument to support the personal and professional development of individuals. Audet & Couteret (2005), however, argue that coaching research is still at the beginning. Especially the research on coaching in liberal professions has been widely neglected in scientific research. The aim of this study is, therefore, to identify and analyse the influential factors on the effectiveness of coaching in liberal professions during the pre-start-up and start-up phase. Liberal professions illustrate an extraordinary sample, due to their high degree of knowledge intensity, profession-related regulations and heterogeneity. Foundations are, in addition, mainly conducted solely. Next to the target group of the analysis also the measurement tools for the analysis display a challenge. Lippmann (2009) argues that research on coaching lacks
measurement instruments to conduct a holistic, comparative and integrating analysis. Therefore, an adequate measurement instrument which summarises the prior scientific findings is developed.
2 Liberal Professions This paper focuses on coaching techniques for entrepreneurs in liberal professions. Following the list of characteristics derived from a vocational-sociological perspective, liberal professions are characterized by the “domination of intellectual and ideational performance”, “personal work performance”, “freedom of instructions and self-reliance”, “economic self-sufficiency”, a “qualified education and creative competency”, “mutual trust between freelance professional and employer” as well as a “public interest obligation” (Taupitz 1991; Deneke 1969; Institut für Freie Berufe (IFB) 2007). Due to its overall economic significance, the regularity of freelance services has to be strongly respected. In order to guarantee a high level of performance quality, there is an intensive professions surveillance, numerous state regulations as well as a strong self-commitment of the liberal professions (Ministerium für Wirtschaft und Arbeit des Landes Sachsen Anhalt 2007). With 1.053.000 self-employed freelancers in 2009, one quarter of Germany’s self-employed workers were engaged in liberal professions (Institut für Freie Berufe 2010b) and roughly one tenth of the total national economic output (Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft 2010a) in this year was generated by the labor force working in liberal professions, which held an overall share of 10.2% in Germany (Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft 2010b).
3 Coaching in Liberal Professions in the Start-up Phase Coaching is basically a results-oriented interactive form of consulting and support, which can be used for the solving or, respectively, for the promotion of personal and/or work-related issues (Dietz, Holetz & Schreyögg, 2007).
Coaching of freelancers in the start-up phase can be divided into general and professionspecific aspects. The general aspects of coaching relate to general issues and problems in the start-up process, which are also applicable to other professional groups. The statistics of consulting services provided by the Statistical institute for liberal professions (2009) can prove an increased need for information and support in these areas. As with other self-employed and entrepreneurs, the issues related to planning and organisation play an important role in the first years of economic independence (Schreyögg, 2001). At the same time, an important part of the coaching in the start-up phase is the skill to teach, to establish networks, to be able to communicate successfully and to represent one’s own business (Deakins, Graham & Wittham, 1998). For those who belong to liberal professions, job-specific aspects are already apparent in the preparation for the business start up. In many cases the clarification of the status of selfemployed is a first obstacle due to the lack of an unambiguous definition in the law. At the same time there are special exemptions or regulations in terms of tax issues, marketing communication activities or interests of the job title. Furthermore, the formal process of settingup a business as a freelancer differs clearly from the one for a tradesman due to the numerous job-specific requirements. Among others, these include specific guidelines for professional life and business organisation. The legal provisions on the choice of legal form as well as on the cooperation and the form of contract with regard to the nature of a freelance business start-up are also specific. In addition, those who belong to liberal professions are bound by a scale of fees and an overall payment system. Besides, self-employed must often meet personal and professional requirements in order to be allowed to perform their activity as freelancers. In this aspect the personal qualifications are generally connected with health or civil law aspects, while the technical requirements are related to specific qualifications.
4 Theoretical Framework and Hypotheses The development of the concept, which serves as a basis of the empirical analysis, is inspired by the theoretical models of Grief (2008) and Wissemann (2006). According to the model of Greifs (2008), certain requirements regarding the character of the coach and his client must be fulfilled and this will result in the occurrence of general and specific impact factors. On the other hand, Wissemann (2006) distinguishes between factors that affect the structural quality, the process quality and the outcome quality of the coaching. Based on the theories of Hess and Roth (2001), in the first group Wissemann summarizes aspects that arise from the professional and personal competence of the coach. According to him, the process quality depends on the labour relations between the coach and the clients. The measuring of the result quality is based on established criteria. Based on the work of Grief (2008) and Wisssemann (2006), the impact factors are subdivided in the following five categories: “coach-coachee relationship”, “personality of the coach”, “personality of the coachee”, “framework of coaching” and “role of the organisation of the coachee”.
Coach-Coachee-Relation Studies by Baron and Morin (2009), Kampa-Kokesch and Anderson (2001), Smither and Reilly (2001), Dirks (1999) and St-Jean and Audet (2009) suggest that the interpersonal relationship between the consultant and his client significantly affects the consultation process. The quality of the labour relation is largely dependent on interpersonal comfort (Allen, Day & Lentz, 2005). This comprises mutual trust (Bluckert, 2005) and discretion with regard to achieved insight into professional and personal issues (Bluckert, 2005). Another important aspect is the openness of both partners (Schreyögg, 2008). It is closely related to the trust and discretion relation. Furthermore, respect and respectively appreciation are of crucial importance (Hess & Roth, 2001). A high degree of equality between the two coaching partners is required. There should
be no relationship gap (Hess & Roth, 2001), which can influence the coaching in a negative way (Rauen, Strehlau & Ubben, 2009). To sum up, it can be said that above all the quality of the coach-coachee relationship is affected by factors such as mutual trust, openness, respect and appreciation. Therefore the aim is to find out to what extent the recent findings of coaching research are applicable in the context of liberal professions.
Hypothesis 1a: The higher the quality of the coach-coachee relationship, the higher the effectiveness of the coaching intervention from the perspective of freelancers.
Contractual agreements between coach and coachee The formal basis of coaching is the conclusion of a formal agreement, in which formal modalities such as the daily rate are settled (Lippmann, 2009; Bluckert, 2005). The coaching programmes targeted at the founders of a new freelance business and considered within the frames of this survey, prescribe the mandatory arrangement of a formal contract and determine the essential elements of the contract. However, the formal contract has no significant influence as far as the effectiveness of the activity is concerned. On the contrary, it is assumed that the arrangement of a moral (Lippmann, 2009) or psychological contract (Hess & Roth, 2001) has a significant impact on the quality of the labour relationship (Looss, 1997; Audet & Couteret, 2005). On the basis of these general theoretical insights, it is deductively assumed that the positive correlation between the development of a moral contract and the quality of the labour relationship can be analogically transmitted to coaching in the start-up phase, especially for those who fall into the category of liberal professions. Hypothesis 1b: The development of a jointly drawn-up moral contract between the freelancer and his coach affects in a positive way the quality of the coach-coachee relationship, whereby it is valid that the positive impact on the relationship increases with the increase in the comprehensiveness of the regulations.
The personality of the coach The effectiveness of coaching depends to a large extent on the professional and personal competence of the coach (Hess & Roth, 2001; Boening & Fritschle, 2005; Roth, Bruenning and Edler, 1996; Thoele, 2004). Technical competence of the coach Regarding technical competence, Eilles-Matthiesen and Janssen (2005) point out that the coach must have knowledgerelated to business management (for example personnel management, strategy, operational planning, etc.). Furthermore, branch knowledge and understanding of the professional context is an important part of the professional competence (Audet & Couteret, 2005; Hess & Roth, 2001). A number of legal, tax or other professional issues are especially relevant in the context of liberal professions. These issues are thematised in the considered coaching interventions. However, there are no known scientific publications of research in the sphere of coaching or entrepreneurship. The coach should not only be a good mentor, but also have an extensive network, which he should make available to the client. Besides, he should promote the abilities of his clients to socialize (Deakins, Graham and Wittham, 1998). As far as technical competence is concerned, the following hypothesis can be formulated:
Personal skills of the coach: Empathy Couteret and Audet (2005) and Bluckert (2005) point out that the ability to demonstrate empathy is an essential character trait of coaches. Empathy means that the coach has the ability to empathize with the emotional experience of another person. In order to achieve this and to provide the needed understanding to his coachee (Griffiths & Campbell, 2009), the coach must have the ability of active listening (Hess & Roth, 2001), or where appropriate, he must be able to draw on his/her own experiences (Schreyögg, 2001). For this reason, empathy is a key requirement for the type of coaching that is individually tailored to the needs of the client
(Niermeyer, 2007). This makes it a key element for the success of the coaching activity (St-Jean & Audet, 2009). Based on these findings, it can be assumed that high empathic abilities have a positive influence (and respectively the lack of empathy has a negative influence) on the effectiveness of coaching in liberal professions.
Hypothesis 2b: The more distinguishable the empathic abilities of the coach, the higher the effectiveness of the coaching intervention for the founders of a new business in liberal professions. Personal skills of the coach: Cognitive and Communication Profile Bluckert (2005) argues that the task of supporting the coachee from an outside, neutral position with regard to personal and work-related issues and promoting his self-formation potential makes great demands on the cognitive and communication profile of the coach. It is therefore necessary that the coach has the ability of active listening and the skill of high-impact questioning (Edwards, 2003). Furthermore, high demands on the cognitive and communicative abilities of the coach are made by the task of assessing the actions of the client through feedback and also by the need to provide job-related or personality-related concrete and accurate information or advice (Niermeyer, 2007). So, in general it should be assumed that the cognitive and communicative abilities of the coach are a factor of major influence on the effectiveness of coaching in the context of freelance professions. Hypothesis 2c summarizes these findings:
Hypothesis 2c: The more distinguishable the cognitive and communication profile of the coach, the higher the effectiveness of the coaching intervention for the founders of a new business in liberal professions. Personal skills of the coach: Commitment The commitment with which the coach performs his consulting services also plays an important role in the success of the coaching activity. Schmidt and Keil (2004) have identified the
"involvement" of the coach as a relevant impact factor. Here by using the term "involvement" one shall understand not only the commitment of the coach, but also the willingness to cooperate as well as his interest in the personality of the coachee, his individual situation and professional activity (Niermeyer, 2007). Expression of involvement is also found in the reliability of the coach, especially at points where no contractual basis has been established. The coaching research assumes that a high degree of commitment of the coach has positive influence on the effectiveness of the activity (Hess & Roth, 2001). Transferring this to the startup coaching in the field of liberal professions, the following hypothesis can be formulated: Hypothesis 2d: The more distinguishable the commitment of the coach, the higher the effectiveness of the coaching intervention for the founders of a new business in liberal professions.
Personal skills of the coach: ability to motivate the client towards self-reflection Effective coaching requires that the coachee analyses autonomous problems and develops possible solution strategies. The development of the private initiative of the coachee is usually not a self-initiating process, but requires a certain driving force (Rauen, Strehlau & Ubben, 2009). A possible driving force in this regard is the coach himself/herself (Chull 2006). The literature explains this initial function through the skill and the persuasive power of the coach to motivate the coachee towards active participation in the coaching process and thereby towards self-reflection (Burchardt, 2009; Griffiths & Campbell, 2009). Audet and Couteret (2005) as well as Baron and Morin (2009) managed to prove a positive effect in this regard. Given these findings, it is assumed that the following hypothesis should be valid for the coaching in connection with business start-up in liberal professions:
Hypothesis 2e: The better the skill of the coach to motivate his clients towards self-reflection, the greater the effectiveness of the coaching intervention for the founders of a new business in liberal professions.
Coaching framework This section aims to analyse the impact factors that can be summarised under the category of the framework. These aspects have direct or indirect influence on the effectiveness of the coaching intervention. A total of four impact factors can be distinguished: development of the coaching concepts (Schreyögg, 2008), duration and frequency of coaching sessions, search and selection process, and structural formation. The structural formation is related to whether the coaching is entered voluntarily or is set as mandatory. Since only informal, i.e. voluntarily formed coaching dyads are considered within the framework of this study, this impact factor will not be further taken into consideration.
Elaboration of the coaching concepts At the start of the activity the coach should already have an idea of the concrete formation of the coaching concepts and should discuss them in detail with his client. Against this background, on the basis of the coaching concept, a concrete action plan and timetable for the various coaching stages will be established. These stages will be explained to the client and their benefits clarified (Hess & Roth, 2001). Besides, the concept should be formulated in such a way that it can be adapted to the coaching situation and to the individual progress which the client can make (Schreyögg, 2008). The concept should also include a written record of the objectives, the procedures and the role allocation during the coaching. The overall formulation of goals and the setting of achievement criteria play a fundamental role in this process (Wissemann, 2006). The written formulation of the objectives and the development of a concrete implementation plan
have the advantage that in this way the coaching is practiced from the beginning with a high goal orientation in mind (Grant, 2007; Griffiths & Campbell, 2009). Subsumed by hypothesis 3a, the importance of the coaching concept can be empirically proven in relation to the effectiveness of start-up coaching for freelancers. Hypothesis 3a: The better the development of the coaching concept, the higher the effectiveness of the coaching intervention for the founders of a new business in liberal professions.
Duration and frequency of the coaching sessions Jansen, Mäthner and Bachmann (2003) describe as moderating factors the duration and the frequency of the coaching sessions on the basis of their effect. The duration and the frequency of the coaching intervention can lead to variation in the values of other impact factors or effects of the coaching (Allen & Eby, 2003). On the one hand, what is self-evident here is the influence on the effect of the client's training. This effect turns out to be higher with increasing durations and shorter intervals between the individual coaching sessions (Peel, 2008). On the other hand, it should be assumed that more problem statements respectively coaching content can be covered more intensively in long-term and respectively time-focused coachings than in entertaining or rare coaching sessions.
Hypothesis 3b: The more increasing the duration and / or the frequency of the coaching sessions, the higher the effectiveness of the coaching intervention for the founders of a new business in liberal professions.
Process of search and selection of a suitable coach The selection of a coach is based largely on the presence or the absence of the identified necessary skills and characteristics of the coach (Nowotny, 2005). However, in the process of
search and selection one must also consider criteria that represent the essential building blocks of a productive and stable labour relationship, for example sympathy, trust, openness and interest (Audet & Couteret, 2005). Besides, the spatial and temporal availability of the coach plays an important role. In this study it will be verified through descriptive data analysis on whether the empirical observations provide indication that clear similarity features are of special importance for freelancers in the context of the search and selection process.
Measuring the effectiveness in the case of start-up coaching in freelance professions Following the approaches of Audet and Couteret (2005) and Lippmann (2009), the effectiveness of coaching will be measured on the basis of the individual satisfaction of those who participate in the freelance coaching. The appropriateness of this approach is supported by the finding of Kaufman and Keller (1994). It is thereby assumed (in the light of the studies of Jansen, Mäthner and Bachmann (2003) and St-Jean and Audet (2009)) that the satisfaction of freelancers depends not only on the influence of the found impact factors, but also on the observable desirable and undesirable effects of the coaching and on the extent the activity corresponds to the individual desires and expectations of the freelancers. This assumption is examined below through hypothesis 4: Hypothesis 4: The more the desirable, observable effects turn out to be, the higher the satisfaction of the coaching participants (and with it the effectiveness of the coaching intervention) for the founders of a new business in freelance professions.
5 Methodology For the purpose of this study an online survey was conducted. The contact data stem from the data base for coaching programmes of the Institute on Liberal Professions which is responsible for the coordination of coaching of liberal professions in Germany. The offered coaching programmes address self-employed persons during their pre-start-up and start-up phase. In this
data base all participants are collected since the introduction of coaching programmes in 2002. From the total amount of 1125 participants the contact data of 1015 are available. Between Mai and June 2010 1015 founder in liberal professions were contacted via mail. 349 persons opened followed the invitation to participate in survey. After plausibility checks were conducted 160 completed data sets could be used for the empirical analysis.
Operationalisation of Varibles For the purpose of this study the dependent and the eight independent variables had to be developed. Following the recommendation of Kaufman and Keller (1994) the effectiveness of the coaching as dependent variable is measured best with the subjective perception of satisfaction towards the coaching by the participants. The used scale is derived from scientific literature (Audet & Couteret 2005, Lippmann, 2009; St-Jean & Audet 2009). The scale of Baron and Morin (2009) serves as basis for the latent construct “QCCR”. Scales of the KfWBeraterdatenbank (2010) were taken to measure the perception of the professional and (inter-) personal competencies of the coach (“empathy”, “CCP, “involvement” and “AIMS”). The scales for the measurement of “DFM” as well as the “CD” are orientated on structural, representative characteristics of the coaching programmes. In addition to the literature-derived factors, an index for unintended and observable effects (OIIE) was calculated that puts the individual coaching content in relation to the evaluation of achieved outcomes. To identify the latent constructs confirmatory factor analyses (varimax rotation, main component analysis) is carried out. The explained total variance of the identified constructs varies from 61.31% to 84.9%. The factor loading lies between 0.573 and 0.949. The Kaiser-Meyer-Olkincriterion shows moderate (0.619) to good (0.878) values (Kaiser & Rice 1974). To ensure the quality and internal consistencies of the constructs the reliability coefficient cronbachs-α was tested for each construct which takes on values from 0.754 to 0.943.
For the analysis a multiple forward regression was conducted. With the value of 1.931 in the Durbin-Watson-test the probability of autocollinearity is neglectable just as heteroscedasticity (White-test).
6 Findings Structural composition of the data The present dataset represents relatively well the structural composition of liberal professions, especially in terms of socio-demographic characteristics of age, gender and educational level. A comparison of the proportional distribution shows that people in liberal health professions as well as liberal legal, business and tax advisory professions are relatively undervalued in the sample. In contrast, the shares of free technical and scientific professions as well as culturerelated professions coincide exactly with the percentages for the entire Federal Republic of Germany. As to activities for business start-ups by freelancers, the data set, showing a high proportion of solo business start-ups (88%) and newly founded companies (93%), is representative of Germany. What is striking in this sample is the low experience of the freelancers in the context of business start-ups as well as the high proportion of start-ups out of unemployment. The majority of the test persons have already completed the coaching (70.6%), while at the time of the survey a quarter of them were still involved in this activity and for 3.75% the coaching had already been discontinued. With most of the respondents, the coaching was held no more than 1.5 years ago. The average duration of aided coaching programs adds up to a total of three - six days.
Process of search and selection of a suitable coach The process of search and selection of a suitable coach is held in a time before the coaching process and in this way it can affect the interaction of the other impact factors. For this reason,
the first subject of analysis is which aspects are considered particularly important and, respectively, totally unimportant from the perspective of freelancers. Through absolute and relative frequency distributions the data set can be compressed on a ranking list of the considered criteria. This ranking list shows that the first-line soft factors, related to the personality of the coach, are in the foreground in the search process. Thus, deep trustworthiness (Rank 1) and reliability (Rank 2) of the coach as well as the mutual sympathy between coach and coachee (Rank 3) are identified as particularly relevant by almost all test persons. Contrary to theoretical assumptions, the data show, however, that similarity features such as physical aspects, age, gender or education level are of rather secondary importance to the surveyed freelancers. As far as the technical competence of the coach is concerned, his experience in the field of entrepreneurship (Rank 9) is particularly important for the freelancers, while the experience of the coach in the field of freelance professions (Rank 13) is regarded as low-ranking.
Content and observable desired and undesired effects of coaching
Coaching content A total of 154 freelancers were interviewed on the analysed coaching content and the desired and undesired effects obtained in it. 21 subject areas per coaching were included and they were divided into work-related and personality-related topics. The present study shows that coaching is mostly inquired by freelancers in areas such as marketing and sales, and information and communication. This result is consistent with the statistics of the Institute for liberal professions, which analyses the overall information needs of liberal professions (2009a). Furthermore, the topic areas of strategic planning, organisation, founding-specific aspects, business plan and formal process of business start-up are of high relevance to the surveyed freelancers. The thematic areas of personal and social topics, production, supply and environment are the least
relevant from the perspective of the freelancers. With regard to personality-related issues, topics such as communication style and communication abilities of freelancers, the ability to define and respectively to achieve goals and also the behaviour of a businessman are the most inquired.
Observable desirable and undesirable effects In regard to coaching content, the test persons were asked to assess to what extent they have observed a positive or negative effect of the coaching. An index value was calculated for the descriptive analysis of the desirable and undesirable effects of the coaching. The consideration of the index values shows that, on average, self-employed could rather obtain positive effects through coaching. Only four of the surveyed 154 freelancers had an index value that suggested predominance of negative effects from the coaching. Among these, 2 were only marginally in the negative area. The distribution of the index values in relation with the subsidized coaching period shows that when the number of the days of aided coaching was increased, the freelancers observed increasingly positive effects.
Analysis of the impact factors for coaching in liberal professions Two linear regression models were derived for analysing the anticipated one-sided effect relations by means of regression analysis. (1) Model explaining the effectiveness of start-up coaching in liberal professions In order to analyse the effectiveness of coaching for the founders of a new business in liberal professions, the relation to the satisfaction of the participants in the freelance coaching is analysed with eight impact factors. It is assumed that a high level of satisfaction corresponds to high effectiveness of the activity. The impact factors, on one hand, include quality of the coachcoachee relationship (H1a) and technical (H2a) and personal competence of the coach. The personal competence is expressed through the variables of empathy of the coach (H2b), cognitive and communication profile of the coach (H2c), commitment of the coach (H2d) and
ability of the coach to motivate his clients towards self-reflection (H2e). Furthermore, the impact factors of concept design (H3a) and duration and frequency of the coaching sessions (H3b) are integrated in the regression as relevant framework conditions. In addition to these impact factors, the model takes into account the previously calculated index for the observed desirable and undesirable effects of the coaching (H4). Table 1 shows that the Pearson correlation coefficients of the dependent and independent variables are partly relatively high. Table 1: Pearson Correlation Pearson correlation
1
1 - Satisfaction
1.0*
2
3
4
5
6
7
8.
9
2 - QCCR
,831*
1.0*
3 – Technical competence
,769*
,618*
1.0*
4 - Empathy
,835*
,844*
,707*
1.0*
5 – Cognition/ Communication
,694*
,689*
,732*
,792*
1.0*
6 – Engagement (commitment)
,740*
,778*
,628*
,769 *
,730*
1.0*
7 - Ability to motivate
,666*
,705*
,663*
,759*
,766*
,761*
1.0*
8 - Concept design
,640*
,612*
,654*
,606*
,631*
,654*
,641*
1.0*
9 - Duration / frequency
,801*
,754*
,667*
,727*
,627*
,695*
,587*
,684*
1.0*
10 - Effects
,679*
,661*
,649*
,655*
,576*
,615*
615*
,541*
,621*
10
1.0*
* (One-sided) significance of p = o, ooo In order to take into account the sometimes strong correlation between the illustrative variables, a hierarchical regression method was chosen for the estimation of the multiple linear equations. Table 2 shows that the forward integrated regression analysis returns a model with a very high quality (R 2 = 0.83) and a high overall significance (F test). The estimated model
shows that the satisfaction of the coached freelancers can be explained satisfactorily through four of the nine parameters originally assumed as relevant.
Table 2: Model summary Modell
R
R
2
korr. R
SE
Änderung in R
2
2
Änderung in F
df 1
df 2
Sig. Änderung in F
1
,835
,698
,695
,55243
,698
240,064
1
104
0,000
2
,882
,777
,773
,47649
,080
36,790
1
103
0,000
3
,898
,807
,801
,44577
,030
15,686
1
102
0,000
4
,911
,830
,823
,42055
,023
13,600
1
101
0,000
DurbinWatson 1,931
SE: standard error of the estimate; Table 3: Results of multivariate linear regression analysis Model
Variable
1
Constant
-5,793E
Empathy
0,835
Constant
8,701E
0,046
Empathy
0,537
0,068
Duration/ frequency
0,411
0,068
Constant
3,364E
0,043
Empathy
0,416
0,070
Duration/ frequency
0,327
Competence
0,257
Constant
3,102E
2
3
4
B
Standard error -17
0,054 0,054
-18
-18
-17
Beta
T
Sig
0,000
1,000
15,494
0,000
0,000
1,000
0,537
7,923
0,411
VIF
1,000
1,000
0,000
0,471
2,121
6,066
0,000
0,471
2,121
0,000
1,000
0,416
5,916
0,000
0,383
2,612
0,067
0,327
4,901
0,000
0,424
2,356
0,065
0,257
3,961
0,000
0,451
2,219
0,000
1,000
0,041
0,835
Tolerance
Empathy
0,216
0,086
0,216
2,523
0,013
0,230
4,356
Duration/ frequency
0,231
0,086
0,231
3,380
0,001
0,362
2,764
Competence
0,273
0,061
0,273
4,455
0,000
0,448
2,231
QCCR
0,306
0,083
0,306
3,688
0,000
0,244
4,095
Table 3: ANOVA Model
1
2
3
4
Squaresum
df
Mean of the squares
F
Sig
Regression
73,262
1
73,262
240,064
0,000
unstandardized residuals
31,738
104
0,305
Total
105,000
105
Regression
81,615
2
40,807
179,735
0,000
unstandardized residuals
23,385
103
0,227
Total
105,000
105
Regression
84,732
3
28,244
142,136
0,000
unstandardized residuals
20,268
102
0,199
Total
105,000
105
Regression
87,137
4
21,784
123,171
0,000
unstandardized residuals
17,863
101
0,177
Total
105,000
105
(2) Model for evaluation of the influence of a moral contract In order to verify hypothesis 1b, a simple linear regression function was used with the constructs "Quality of CCR" as a dependent variable and “Moral contract” as an independent variable. The hypothesis is based on the assumption that the conclusion of a moral contract between the two coaching partners leads to improvement in the quality of the coach-coachee relationship. With p<0.001, the t-statistics (t = 9.335) of the regression equation shows that the regression coefficient is significantly different from zero.
Table 4: Model summary Model
1
R
R2
,609
,371
corr. R2
,366
SE
Change in R 2
, 796
Change in F
,371
df 1
df 2
1
148
87,146
Sig. change in F
DurbinWatson
0,000
1,747
SE: standard error of estimate;
Table 5: Results of univariate linear regression analysis Model
Variable
B
Standard error
1
Constant
-5,789E
0,065
Empathy
0,609
0,065
Beta
0,609
T
Sig
0,000
1,000
9,335
0,000
Tolerance
VIF
1,000
1,000
Verifying the linearity assumptions of the regression model In order to verify the linearity assumptions of the regression model, different statistical criteria were used. Among other things, the following ones were applied: tolerance, respectively variance inflation factor (VIF) for exclusion of multicolinearity, Durbin-Watson test for exclusion of positive or negative autocorrelation and modified White test for exclusion of heteroskedasticity. Finally, one more case-by- case diagnosis of the residual statistics was used so as to exclude possible measurement errors caused by outliers in the data set.
Results of the regression analysis of Model 1 and Model 2 The regression analysis leads to the conclusion that the satisfaction of the freelancers with the coaching in the start-up phase depends positively on the quality of the coach-coachee relation, the technical competence of the coach, his/her empathic abilities as well as the duration and the frequency of the coaching sessions, where satisfaction was used to measure the effectiveness of the coaching in the start-up phase in liberal professions.
The simple linear regression analysis shows that the drawing up of a moral contract between the coaching partners makes a positive impact on the quality of their collaboration (Hypothesis 1b). Table 6 summarizes one more time the findings of the survey and indicates which hypotheses are confirmed by the empirical investigation and which must be empirically rejected. Table 6: Summary H.
Result
β=b
T
p
H 1a
QCCR
Supported
0,306
3.688
<0.001
H 1b
Moral contract
Supported
0,609
9,335
<0.001
H 2a
Competence of the coach
Supported
0,273
4,445
<0.001
H 2b
Empathy of the coach
Supported
0,216
2,523
0.05
H 2c
Cognitive and communication profile
Not supported
-0,104
-1,422
0.05
H 2d
Commitment of the coach
Not supported
0,010
0,142
0.05
H 2e
AIMS
Not supported
-0,080
-1,192
0.05
H 3a
Coaching concepts
Not supported
-0,033
-0,533
0.05
H 3b
Duration / frequency
Supported
0,231
3,380
<0.01
H4
Desirable / undesirable effects
Not supported
0,032
0,526
0.05
A simple linear regression model with N = 150 and the QCCR as dependent variable.
7 Discussion The high level of participant satisfaction with the obtained coaching comes to show that coaching is an effective supportive measure. The personality of the coach seems to be of fundamental importance for the coaching itself. This result corresponds to the identified findings of existing studies, in which coaching has been examined in a different context (B. Eidenschick, 2007; Bluckert, 2005). In line with scientific literature, the empathic skills and the expertise of the coach seem to have a significant impact on effectiveness. As far as the content topics are concerned, it can be concluded that the participants should have a distinctive and
broad expertise and extensive experience (Eilles-Matthiesen & Janssen 2005; Steinle, Eichenberg & Dietrich 2009). In these studies the interpersonal component also seems to be considered a key factor for the effectiveness of coaching, which is consistent with the work of Bluckert (2005), Audet and Couteret (2005), Baron and Morin (2009), Dirks (1999), Wasylyshyn (2003), Niermeyer (2007) and St-Jean and Audet (2009). Above all freelancers take the coach as a particularly trusty person. This can be explained by the higher degree of professional isolation because of professional rules and the predominant form of solo business start-up (Schreyögg 2001). The empirical observations regarding the possible reasons for the termination of the coaching support that assumption. This throws light upon the significant importance of the moral contract as a supporting factor in the interpersonal relationship. Following the results by Baron and Morin (2009), attention is also paid to the duration and the frequency of the coaching sessions in connection with the establishment of a high-quality labour relationship. However, on the basis of the generally high workload, a resource-saving and efficient coaching in the start-up phase will be taken into consideration (Peel, 2008). Contrary to the theoretical assumptions, the postulated cause-effect relations of the other personal skills of the coach as well as the design of the coaching concept and the observable effects can not be proven empirically. Logically, no meaningful interpretation can be found for this, especially in view of the other personal qualifications of the coach. A possible explanation can be seen in the fact that the statistical non-significance does not necessarily mean that there is indeed no relation (Backhaus et al., 2006). A possible cause of exclusion can also be seen in the fact that the satisfaction of the freelancers can already be explained sufficiently well through the regressors integrated in the model. Another alternative explanation for the nonsignificance of the impact factor is the assumption that it is a matter of "hygiene factors or dissatisfier" as far as these factors are concerned (Schmidt & Keil, 2004).
8 Limitations and Future Research A first limitation of this study is the representativeness of the empirical analysis. The study analysed coachings in the start-up phase for freelancers. These coachings were implemented in the GCD and VNCB programs. Therefore, the findings are based on a limited amount of data that reflect only a part of reality. Against this background, it should be noted that a generalisation of the results of this study is possible only with reservations. A generalisation of the results regarding other countries and cultures is also not straightforwardly possible because no country-specific structures and parameters can be transferred to other countries. Furthermore, it should be kept in mind that the guidelines of the considered coaching programs GCD and VNCB, as well as the freedom of the freelancers and the coaches in terms of the content and the formal design of the coaching in the start-up phase, can also be limited. So it cannot be ruled out that, outside this state aid program, other impact factors (which were set aside in this work) may influence the effectiveness of the activity. A further limitation arises from the heterogeneous structure of the samples with respect to the difference in time between the application, respectively the beginning of the coaching and the period of the survey. The assessment of the effectiveness of the coaching can be affected by this.
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