The discourse of being a business executive: an exploration of executive coaching advertisements to illuminate the discourse of being a business executive and the degree to which executive coaching engages in psychotherapy : a thesis presented in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master in Management, Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand

Abstract

There has been growing interest in the field of business management in developing methods to improve management competency. One popular management development method has been executive coaching, but because of the unique needs of business executives, executive coaches are constantly looking for new and more effective methods to work with business executives’ life, career, physical, and psychological problems. There has not been an agreed upon solution discovered to solve this problem. On the one hand, it was proposed that there is a need for executive coaches to employ psychotherapeutic methods in coaching to meet the psychological demands of business executives. But on the other hand, there are numerous issues related to standardizing executive coaching methods, qualifying executive coaches, and resolving ethical dilemmas. The author of this thesis views this issue as an over expectation of society of individuals in positions of power and responsibility. This thesis uses social theories to explore the expectations behind the high demands on the performance of business executives, and to illuminate the degree to which executive coaching engages psychotherapy. The findings of this study show that certain themes such as business skills, leadership, self-development, success, interpersonal skills, and achieve work-life balance dominates the advertisements of executive coaching professionals. These advertisements also use rhetorical devices to make these skills seem attractive and important to possess, which inevitably impacts on the view of self of executives and stimulates their desire to self- improve. It was also found that 21.26% of the advertised executive coaching services could be promoted by psychotherapists instead.