What is it about?
This study explores how corporate managers in high-pressure business environments balance their demanding daily workloads with the responsibility of coaching and developing their teams. Through detailed interviews with 21 management professionals in Hong Kong, the research identifies 15 common workplace challenges, such as rigid corporate hierarchies and severe time constraints. To overcome these obstacles, the study introduces a practical tool called the Proactive Coaching Integration Framework (PCIF). This model shows organisations how to move away from quick-fix, reactive firefighting and instead build self-sustaining, long-term team capabilities.
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Why is it important?
Most executive coaching models are derived from Western corporate contexts, leaving a major gap in our understanding of how management operates in fast-paced Asian business hubs. This research is highly timely as modern organisations grapple with heavy workloads and employee retention issues, proving that traditional, external 'one-off' training workshops are no longer enough. By providing an explicit blueprint for establishing internal coaching structures, this paper offers senior executives, HR professionals, and leadership scholars an actionable way to transform daily workplace pressures into continuous learning opportunities.
Perspectives
As a practitioner, I frequently see talented managers caught in a vicious cycle of firefighting daily operational crises, leaving them with no room for strategic talent development. I chose to undertake this study to build a practical bridge between academic management theory and real-world corporate realities. This paper is an invitation to redefine the managerial role entirely. My hope is that the Proactive Coaching Integration Framework helps organisations recognise that coaching should not be a separate item on a manager's overstuffed to-do list, but an organic, supportive philosophy that drives human connection and sustainable growth.
Peter Chum
University of Wales Trinity Saint David
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Deriving the Proactive Coaching Integration Framework: A Grounded Theory Study of Managerial Coaching Challenges in Hong Kong's Corporate Sector, International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring, June 2026, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/17418305261455167.
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