The systemic nature of duty of care in coaching: coach, client, customer and beyond

Abstract

Duty of care is part of the ethical framework of conduct in how coaches act, and whilst codes of ethics can help guide coaches, they do not address the complexity of duty of care. The executive coach's role is complicated as they operate in tripartite relationships which include the coach, the client and the customer. This qualitative research involved interviews with thirty executive coaches where duty of care in coaching was explored. This article discusses one of the practical contributions of the study, how a coach’s duty of care is systemic and includes all those in the coaching relationship.

Keywords

• duty of care
• coaching
• executive coaching
• systemic
• ethics