Person-oriented and context-oriented goals in job coaching at the workplace.

PURPOSE: The aim of this job coaching study was to explore and describe goals of coachees (employees with a severe disability) and the companies they were employed in by examining goals, whether these changed from beginning to end, and if these were reached or skipped.

METHODS

Sixty-two case files of job coaching were analysed qualitatively. Job coaching is an intervention on the job for employees with severe disabilities. The intervention had a duration of several months, and included training of the person as well as adjustment of the workplace. Goals were formulated by the coach in the beginning, during the intervention and at the end of job coaching. A deductive-inductive analysis based on Mayring was conducted to classify and quantify the expressed goals.

RESULTS

A total of 370 goals were classified into 13 categories, within two overarching dimensions: context-oriented and person (i.e. coachee)-oriented goals. These goals covered a wide range of topics, with most goals focusing on mastering work (task) (24.55%), followed by workplace & task adaption (12,42%).

CONCLUSIONS

Despite the fact that job coaching is person-focused, especially on work tasks, context aspects such as work environment and team communication need to be addressed, in order to ensure work integration.