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

6

Developing a Universal Integrative Framework for Coaching and Mentoring

Introduction

In the last chapter I have proposed that coaching or mentoring is a vehicle for developing a learning organization or community. The fact that change has been the trigger for the need to develop a coaching model applicable across diverse cultures is the focus of this chapter. Here I shall further expand on the issues of coaching and mentoring, taking them from personal and organizational contexts into a cross-cultural realm. The context is also enlarged to reveal international and professional aspects of the subject. I argue that, in order for coaching and mentoring to be applicable across different countries, it has to be applicable across different cultures. On the basis of the learning theories that were discussed in Chapter 3, a coaching framework that underpins cross-cultural practice is developed here. The earlier version of a universal integrative framework (UIF) – which was developed in the first edition (Law, Ireland and Hussain, 2007) and also reported in the literature (see Law, Laulusa and Cheng, 2009) – was set within the context of diversity in the UK. In this chapter I shall explore and revise UIF further, taking on board the recent years’ experience of applying the framework across cultures.

I shall first extend the discussion of learning beyond the framework of the organization, to individual differences in how we conduct our relationships to stimulate learning. This part builds ...