Dimensions and Factors of Successful Executive Coaching: A Study in National Iranian Gas Company

Executive coaching, as a one of the new ways of developing and fostering managers, basically focuses on behavior change, self-awareness, learning, and ultimately job excellence. Although this new approach has achieved increasing acceptance worldwide, its potential has not been fully achieved as expected by leading organizations. Especially, Iranian organizations have shown no interest in executive coaching and consequently there is no evidence on this topic in Iranian organizations. Accordingly, this paper, using qualitative research design, semi-structured interviewing with 18 experts, and applying thematic analysis method in MAXQDA software, explores the dimensions and factors of executive coaching in National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC). The research findings show that 21 factors of executive coaching can be conceptualized and categorized in five dimensions: manager characteristics, coach characteristics, organizational characteristics, relationship quality, and coaching practices. Also, the Implications of the research for managers, coaches and organizations are presented at the end.