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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol. 8, No. 3
Publication Date: March 25, 2021
DOI:10.14738/assrj.83.9886. Uludag, C. (2021). Attitude and Behavior of the Coaches towards their Professions in the Context of Being Fair. Advances in Social
Sciences Research Journal, 8(3) 562-578.
Attitude and Behavior of the Coaches towards their Professions in
the Context of Being Fair
Candide Uludağ
Beykent University, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences
Istanbul, TURKEY
ABSTRACT
Examining the attitudes and behaviors of coaches towards their
profession in the context of being fair has been an important issue for
both researchers and practitioners. The being fair of coaches in their
profession can be broadly defined as the right action aimed at
creating a positive impression. Research in this area can be
developed to strengthen the theoretical basis by examining it in an
organizational context in a consistent and effective manner. This
research is a study of bringing the Fair Coaching Behavior (FCB)
phenomenon to the literature within the scope of the theoretical
literature review with the sample of coaches. The aim of the study is
to determine the attitudes and behaviors of individuals who are
coaching in their profession within the scope of fair behavior. Two
different scenarios have been created for this. Firstly, an online
questionnaire was applied to the participants who were coaching in
the specified sectors and whose numbers are known. The second
survey study was applied face-to-face this time, taking into account
the same target audience, and questions including personal
information were asked by one-on-one interviews with the
participants. The second survey study was conducted four weeks
after the first survey study. Thus, the attitudes and behaviors of the
coaches towards their profession were examined in both different
situations. Structural Equation Modeling was used in the analysis of
the hypotheses predicted in the study. Composite Model of the
Attitude-Behavior Relation (Eagly and Chaiken, 1993) was applied to
explain FCB. Thus, it was aimed to obtain valuable information about
the dynamics among the potential precursors of the fair behavior of
coaches towards their professions with the help of predicted
hypotheses. The three main results obtained in the research are as
follows: (1) The Habit of Integrity is not an applicable direct or
indirect premise of FCB. (2) In addition to the attitude towards FCB,
the attitude towards the coaches' profession should be included in
the FCB. (3) Idealistic Ethical Position was not observed in this study
as an important predictor of the intention to be fair.
Keywords: Coaching, Coaching Research, Attitude and Behavior, Behavior
Theory
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Uludag, C. (2021). Attitude and Behavior of the Coaches towards their Professions in the Context of Being Fair. Advances in Social Sciences Research
Journal, 8(3) 562-578.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.83.9886. 563
INTRODUCTION
Coaching support is one of the most important factors for employees to reach their goals. For this
reason, a lot of research has been done on coaching and different features of coaching have been
explained in detail. There is not enough research in the literature on coaching behaviors and their
attitudes in different situations that may affect these behaviors. Individuals' attitudes about a
subject affect their behavior on this issue. Individuals' attitudes shape their behavior by affecting
their knowledge and their interpretation of this information. For this reason, it can be said that
coaches' positive or negative attitudes towards their profession may also affect their behavior
while performing their profession (Maio, 2018). Generally speaking, attitude is one of the basic
concepts of behavioral sciences. Attitude; It is a mental, emotional and behavioral reaction in
which an individual unites against himself or any object around him, social problem or event,
based on his own experience, knowledge, emotion and motives. Individuals' attitudes and
behaviors are generally accepted as their positive or negative attitude towards an object,
situation or event they are interested in. If the attitude is towards individuals' professions, this
concept is defined as professional attitude (İnceoğlu, 2010). Professional behavior; It is an
important factor affecting professional competence perceptions and professional success. For
example, when the attitudes that can be seen in people who will turn to the profession are
examined;It has been stated that there are attitudes such as being aware of the harmony between
the profession and personal characteristics, having an inevitable internal approach to the
profession, and finding the profession attractive in terms of its features (Inuwa et al., 2017).
These positive attitudes expressed can enable individuals to have more positive experiences in
their profession.
As stated above, the positive attitude of the coaches towards their profession makes it easier for
them to skillfully transfer their knowledge and experience to their employees, while allowing
them to continue their personal development and fulfill their professional responsibilities.
Behaviors and attitudes are important factors that determine people's perception in daily life.
We can also define people's behavior as their choices that arise due to their attitudes. Allport
(1935) expressed attitude as situations that apply cognitive and emotional responses to
situations or objects and direct their behavior.
When studies that reveal the relationship between individuals 'personal characteristics and their
attitudes towards their professions are examined, it is seen that some characteristics affect
individuals' attitudes towards their professions. In addition, it can be thought that characteristics
such as personality traits, working conditions in the field of coaching, and quality of education
may affect individuals' attitudes towards the coaching profession.
Efforts to place coaching on a professional and scientific basis have been widespread since the
2000s. Studies are conducted in the field of coaching psychology in America, South Africa and
Europe (Işıklar-Pürçek, 2014). In this context, Harvard University Coaching Institute was
established (Landsberg, 1996: 8.) Coaching, a sub-discipline of psychology, is known as
“Coaching Psychology” especially in the business world. Coaching psychology is practiced as
professional coaching based on experimental and theoretical foundations. It can be said that
professional coaching, which is the field of coaching psychology, has a comprehensive
experimental and theoretical basis (Grant, 2010: 125).
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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal (ASSRJ) Vol. 8, Issue 3, March-2021
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
Today, it is seen that studies on the concepts of attitude and behavior, which are the subject of
scientific research in many fields from education to politics, from trade to industry, are increasing
day by day. Individuals belonging to any professional group are expected to exhibit fair and
humane behavior while performing their profession. Competence in a profession is not only
about having knowledge and skills, but also having the right attitudes and behaviors related to
that profession. This also applies to coaches who are indispensable for the working environment.
In addition to the duties of a coach to educate employees or show them how to do useful skills, it
is extremely important to convey information to employees and combine and synthesize their
existing knowledge. A coach's job isn't just to technically train employees. At the same time, a
coach must demonstrate attitudes and behaviors that provide a psychological win against their
opponents. Therefore, the attitudes and behaviors of coaches are extremely important in the
formation of concepts such as employee success, team climate, and organizational
communication.
LITERATURE RESEARCH
It is noteworthy that the majority of research on the attitudes and behaviors of individuals who
coach is designed according to qualitative research methods. Therefore, the present study aims
to develop a technique (online and face-to-face survey) based on two different scenarios that will
enable the analysis of coaches' attitudes and behaviors with the model presented by Eagly and
Chaiken. The model developed by Eagly and Chaiken (1993) has been defined as a single model
as a combination of models based on attitude towards behavior and attitude towards goals
(Figure 1). With this model, it is estimated that the behavior can be explained by five basic
variables. These are respectively attitudes towards goals, utilitarian results, normative results,
self-identity results and habits. Eagly and Chaiken's (1993) model combines many attitude
theories for a more inclusive representation of the interaction between attitudes and important
psychosocial factors. In addition, this model includes variables and hypothetical relationships
that can provide better predictions for behaviors that require more than just will (i.e.,
opportunity, skill, resources). Composite Model of the Attitude-Behavior Relation was originally
developed as an integration of the current attitude theory, namely the Theory of Planned
Behavior, TPB (Ajzen, 1985; Nguyen, 1997; McConnon et al., 2012).
Eagly and Chaiken (1993) suggested adding elements of habit and self-identity to this theory to
increase the success of TPB in predicting behavior. These variables are in the form of self-identity
consequences and dilemmas experienced in ethical situations. These variables are especially
valid for FCB. Since being fair is a form of honesty (Griffith & McDaniel, 2006), there may be a
person inclined to be honest in all situations. In a less prone person, they are more likely to be
less fair. The habit of being honest can predict this observed variance of fair behavior and trigger
the behavior. In addition to these variables, Eagly and Chaiken explain two different attitude
structures: "attitude towards behavior" and "attitude towards goal". This reconceptualization
provides a more positive support for a perceived behavior due to goal-oriented attitude.
The main purpose of this study is to present the behavioral research of coaching individuals
towards being fair as a study that combines attitude theory. A similar study was conducted by
Grieve and McSwiggin (2014) by experimentally testing TPB. Grieve and McSwiggin expanded
the model by including the predictive variable of moral obligation norms.