The Psychology of Coaching, Mentoring and Learning, 2nd Edition

2

The Coming of Age

Coaching Psychology, Coaching and Mentoring

Introduction

This chapter describes the developments in coaching psychology, coaching and mentoring. It provides an up-to-date review, drawn from various disciplines that underpin coaching psychology, coaching and mentoring. Through the discussion of the literature, it will trace the ‘journey’ of development in coaching psychology, coaching and mentoring. This journey will involve many disciplines: science, social science and various branches of psychology: educational, social, behavioural as well as business psychology; also sociology, business studies, management systems and economics. The chapter will then explain how coaching psychology, coaching and mentoring are interrelated. The discourse leads to the convergent integration of coaching and mentoring through learning, which provides a bridge between two emerging fields in psychology: positive psychology and community psychology.

The Coaching Psychology, Coaching, Mentoring and Training Market

The coaching, mentoring and training market has been in a state of flux. In 2004, when the first edition of this book was being written, our initial estimate of the average turnover of companies that would offer coaching was £8 million, with £500,000 pre-tax profit. This figure was found to be conservative. As the coaching and mentoring industries continue to grow exponentially, the total turnover is now estimated to exceed many billions of dollars (on a global scale).

Each month, ...