Online coaching is human work

• introduction
• state of the art
• cultural competency
• social competency
• outlook
• literature

"If you want to invest for one year, grow rice.
If you want to invest for 10 years, grow trees.
If you want to invest for 100 years, grow people."

(Confucius, 551-479 BC)

Introduction

These days we tend to rely heavily on the technologicalpotential of society. Modern multimedia means facilitate themanagement development (MD) process, such as interactive cd romswith simulation games, recruitment, practice cases, instruments,and professional development opportunities. MD websites (e.g. http://opal.ddiworld.com/opal, and http://www.sylvan.net )enable the new domain of virtual MD.

In this article we will use the concepts of the managers(trainees or managers) and their coaches in the online MDenvironment (learning and/or working). We will concentrate onthe issue of online coaching and explore essential competencies(knowledge, skills, behaviour) of online coaches. First, thestate of the art of virtual training will be described. Itwill be shown that currently attention is mainly focussed on thetechnical competencies of online coaches. The Open UniversityBusiness School (UK) is a pioneer in identifying competencies ofonline coaches. The cultural and social competencies will beanalysed in cultural competency and in socialcompetency. Both competencies are essential to make the onlineMD process a success. Outlook offers some suggestions for furtherresearch.

State of the art

A competent conventional coach is not always a competent onlinecoach. In an online MD environment, the coach is not able topresent his/her personality in the same way as a real learningsituation. The coach has to give some control to the manager. Afterall, it is questionable whether the power of a competent coach canbe condensed digitally. Virtual communication is much more informaland managers work more independently. In everyday practice manybottlenecks remain unsolved. Especially senior coaches have seriousdifficulties working in an online MD environment. A forced transferto online work is almost as unrealistic as asking someone to changehis/her religion. The online manager has the feeling of listeningto a talking head which can isolate him from the real MD process.Unfortunately, there are very few training courses for onlinecoaches. The Business School of the British Open University is apioneer in this respect (Salmon, 1999).

Case OUBS

Currently, the OUBS has 650 part-time tutors and associatelecturers, spread over Europe. These teachers have advancedmanagerial and educational experience. The OUBS considers ComputerMediated Conferencing (CMC) an important new instrument to be usedby management students to share knowledge. The OUBS has completed alarge scale investigation among their online teaching staff. It wasconcluded that online teachers should be able to developconferences for various purposes, undertake counselling and onlineassessment by e-mail, use the available online student and lecturertime efficiently, and learn online communication and e-moderatingmethods.

The OUBS acknowledges that there are very few onlineteachers with the empathic skills described above.

Cultural competency

A hidden dilemma of online MD concerns the issueof culture. Increasingly, online materials are being developed inwestern universities/organisations, and subsequently disseminatedworld-wide. Companies are facing the portability problem ;how can we transfer online materials to different(learning)cultures. And how can we coach people from differentcountries to work effectively; in other words how can we increasethe degree of connectedness . This issue goes far beyondcreating a new software package. Like Gerrissens (1999, p.58)comment concerning African students: "Can we expose students fromthe South to the cultural change in instructional design andorganisation, from face-to-face lecture/seminar-oriented learningto a discovery-based self-study through ICT-supported virtualclassroom?"

In many countries, the learning culture iscompletely different from the Dutch one (see http://www.emdcentre.com formeasuring international management competences). The teaching styleis more directed from the teacher to the student, and is more basedon memorising than the western style of learning. The western styleof online learning is based on self- directed instruction.Textbooks are replaced by a kind of travel guide.

Social competency

Online coaching lacks the social synergy of the actual coachingenvironment, whereby managers and coaches can react to each othersemotions. Feelings of fear, friendship, humour, sorrow, aggression,and groupthink create an emotional stability in the actual group.Social distance in work or learning situations can result in anerosion of confidence among managers. In many organisations the MDenvironment is very abstract and constantly changing. It isprecisely these kinds of situations where humans need trust andconfidence. A mouse click is not the same as a pat on the back.

" It Takes two to create distance " (S. Raghuram et al.,1998). The authors point out that teleworkers, after a longerperiod of time, feel isolated from social activities. The authorsmention the irony of teleworking. Geographical distance is the lessimportant barrier. More important, is the psychological and socialdistance. The psychological distance is huge, because one is notable to walk and talk with colleagues.

How can we explain this kind of behaviour? While communicatingwith his colleagues, the online manager feels the need to get toknow more about the surrounding tacit information, theinformal aspects of the culture of the online counterpart. Usually,one only gets access to this tacit information through physicalpresence. Faust (1999) introduces personalisation techniques tobreak through the isolation of the online manager. By creating aninformal atmosphere, managers become more committed which, in turn,enhances the MD process.

Subjects of a group chat may vary from favourite ice cream,grand children, animals, hobbies, place of birth, to favouritecars. The individual at a distance has become a real person. Bysharing informal facts, the online manager or coach is no longer afaceless and voiceless participant, but a personality.

Case TUD

An initiative of the Technical University Delft, Departmentof Technology and Management, shows that simple methods can solvesome of the social isolation problem. Within the framework of aEuropean collaborative programme, the TUD provides a number ofonline workshops on `professional development in virtual learningenvironments for teacher trainers, researchers and policymakers.Preferably, more participants from the same company or organisationare recruited. For instance; three students from Iceland experiencethe geographical distance between their fellow students in othercountries. At the same time they do not experience any socialdistance.

Outlook

In the coming years further research will be needed toaccomplish the online MD environment not only technically, but alsoculturally and socially. The core competencies of the online coachneed further identification. This article will be concluded byformulating some questions for further research. As far as thecultural competencies are concerned the following issues could beraised:

• how can we identify the MD needs of managers at a distance;what is their ` internal map of understanding ? Is itpossible to develop a software system which can intelligently matchthe contents with the cultural diversity of the various MDenvironments. According to Benson-Armer and Tsun-Yan Hsieh (1997)teamwork across time and space can become a nightmare due todifferent cultures, different languages and lack of face-to-facemeetings. In this case of global teams, technology can prove to bea false friend.
• The contents of online courses has received very littleattention. There is a real danger that large internet companies, incollaboration with large training institutions, will determine theMD contents, and due to the large bandwidth will corner animportant part of the educational market. The contents will becomemore superficial, Americanised and mediocre. Knowledge managersmust watch this development critically. A discrepancy could occurbetween free (and less reliable?) information on websites versusexpensive and less accessible online information systems. Themanager needs intelligent courseware and user interfaces, tailoredto his level, without commercial `fuzzy information but withopportunities for in-depth study. There is a danger oforganisations becoming dependent on the Internet, and their courseofferings becoming dependent on marketers. A typical example is theZapMe Corporation, which provides schools with free computers andhigh-speed Internet access in exchange for a schools agreement toplace its student before an ad-laden portal with pre-selectedindexed educational sites, for a certain number of hours each day(Barker, 2000).
• What does the online training of coaches look like? In fact, anonline toolkit for coaches should be available, to offeralternative learning styles and with the right fit in the cultureof the local MD environment; one example might be an electronichelp desk available 24 hours per day to the manager and coach; therole of the programme developers would then be extended. In themanagement consultancy world the company Ernst en Young haslaunched such a help desk ( http://ernie.ey.com) , wherepredominantly specialized questions are asked by small andmedium-sized enterprises (Vergouw, G. 1998, pp.2-3). The commercialprice for MD advice may be an obstacle for most MDinstitutions.

Case toolkits for coaches

There are two toolkits available on the web which are worthmentioning. The first one is www.docent.com . Docent offersonline MD institutions the opportunity to plan their MD objectives,to assess the current level of manager or customer knowledge andskills and define knowledge gaps, and to register, manage anddeliver individual learning activities. Lucent Telecommunicationshas founded the Wireless University with the help of Docent, toaccess thousands of engineers located in more than 90 countries.Lucent is enthusiastic because they can modify the registrationprocess and collect any demographic data they want. Lucent cantrack how well students in China do compared to students in the US.This gives Lucent the capability to adjust the courseware to theindividual or the region. Blackboard ( www.blackboard.com ) is alsoa practical tool for the teacher in the virtual learningenvironment.

Other questions are related to the social competence ofthe online coach:

• Is the online MD environment democratic and social enough?There is discussion about a more democratic organisation caused bythe use of digital networks. Concepts like intelligent andsocial communities are real and, to a certain extent,paradoxical. More often employees will not personally get in touchwith their subordinates, or the director of the company. Thevirtual organisation can imply a weakening of democratic and socialrelations. The gap between the boardroom and the grassroots levelis only increasing.
• Is it possible to make the MD environment completely virtual?One example is the American company eMpowering eMployers where theHRM department is fully virtually organised, and training,assessments and even leadership tests are offered virtually ( http://www.e.kennis.nl/links/ID=156).
• How can socially competent but technofobic coaches beassisted?
• Does online working save time because people do not have tomeet anymore? It is doubtful whether the whole work process isfaster due to virtuality. If there is a vacant job on the Internet,the applicants expect an earlier answer because of the Internet.Huizing (in BanenNet, p.25) cautions against too much optimism:Only submission of the applicants letter is faster, though theapplicant expects the whole process to be faster. But the carefulselection procedure cannot be sped up.

Like Sara Kiesler pointed out in 1986: " Today we can performmore and more technical miracles with computers, but realmanagerial leverage will come from asking what social miracles weperform with them ".

Footnote

An extended Dutch version of this article will be published inTijdschrift voor Management Development, Volume 8, Number 1, March2000.

Literature

BanenNet The Second Generation (1999)
KeyMark Services, Amsterdam

Barker, M. (2000)
E-education is the New New Thing , In: http://www.strategy-business.com/strategy/00110/images/111.gif, First Quarter Journal

Benson-Armer and Tsun-Yan Hsieh (1997)
Teamwork across Time and Space, In: http://mckinseyquarterly.com, Number 4, pp.18-27

Faust, S. (1999)
Focus- Getting to know you: Broadening the social element indistance education, In: DESIEN , Electronic Newsletter,University of Wisconsin

Gerrissen, J.F. (1999)
The desirability and feasibility of new educational contentservices. In : The Means and the Ends , H.W. Maltha, J.F.Gerrissen and W. Veen (eds.), Nuffic Paperback 1

Kiesler, S. (1986)
The Hidden Messages in Computer Networks, In : Harvard BusinessReview , January-February

Raghuram,S., R. Garud and B.M. Wiesenfeld (1998)
Telework: managing Distances in a Connected World, In: http://www.strategy-business.com, First Quarter Journal , BA&H

Salmon, G. (1999)
Reclaiming the Territory for the Natives , research paperOpen University Business School, November

Vergouw, G. (1998)
Internet-aided management, In: M@n@gement , http://Management.hbp.net ,Section ICT/Internet

Dr Sylvia van de Bunt-Kokhuis
Adviesbureau Dr P.A.E. van de Bunt bv