This study addressed two main gaps in the managerial coaching literature including the lack of attention given to negative managerial coaching outcomes from the manager's perspective, and the deficiencies in managerial coaching training. Numerous authors present cautionary notes as to how acting as a managerial coach is challenging, compared to an external coach, but these statements remain untested. In order to confirm these statements, it was hypothesized in the present study that negative outcomes would emerge in certain moderating situations (i.e., lack of sufficient coaching training and development, low coaching self-efficacy, and low organizational support for coaching) due to engaging coaching behaviors.

The study surveyed 104 middle- and upper-level managers at a Midwestern steel company. Managers completed measures of coaching training quality and quantity, managerial coaching behavior, managerial coaching satisfaction, coaching self-efficacy, perceived organizational support for coaching, coaching role ambiguity, coaching role conflict, coaching burnout, and demographics. The managers' archival direct supervisors' ratings of coaching behavior on-the-job were also incorporated. The moderations were tested using Hayes' PROCESS macro in SPSS (Hayes, 2013).

Results indicated the relationship between managerial coaching behaviors and the negative well-being outcomes of role ambiguity, role conflict, and burnout were consistently inversely related regardless of the moderators. Although this did not support the hypotheses in the study, it eases concerns raised that coaching may be detrimental to managers. A post-hoc exploratory analysis revealed organizational support for coaching played an important role in influencing the negative relationships between coaching satisfaction and the outcomes of role ambiguity and burnout. Coaching behaviors were found to be consistently positively related to on-the-job coaching performance regardless of the moderators.

Additionally, results confirmed the notion that training for managers should be tailored to them and not to external coaches who do not need to navigate around the same obstacles (e.g., power distance, role switching, time constraints). This study asked managers about their past training and development experiences in addition to their concerns pertaining to coaching obstacles. Generalized coaching training at the host organization was unrelated to coaching performance on-the-job, which suggests the need for adapting these programs to the manager's role. Specifically, managers indicated the top topic they wished was covered during their past coaching training was how to deal with adverse reactions from coachees. All in all, this study sought to more formally explore concerns presented in the managerial coaching literature and possible mechanisms by which they can be explained.