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Purpose
Team coaching (TC) is a popular new addition to the team learning and development toolkit. However, the conceptualization of TC and the distinction between TC, team training, team development and team building interventions remains unclear. The paper aims to discuss these issues.


Design/methodology/approach
The authors address this significant gap by abductively exploring how TC is conceptualised in practice (n=410). The authors survey practitioners engaged in delivering TC to ask how they would define TC and distinguish it from other team interventions.


Findings
A thematic analysis of the data reveals eight themes, which can be used to define TC and illustrate areas of overlap and distinctiveness with other team interventions.


Research limitations/implications
The absence of a clearly defined construct is hindering the development of a rigorous theory of TC. The contribution of the paper is, therefore, a clear and comprehensive definition of TC, which can be used by researchers and practitioners alike when working within the domain of TC.


Originality/value
The paper provides the first systematic exploration of a definition of TC in relation to alternative team interventions. By utilising an abductive approach in the research, the authors are able to capitalise on practitioner experience in this practice-led field.

AbstractWe integrate insights from attachment theory and relational leadership to develop a novel interpersonal explanation of why, how and when followers' attachment anxiety and avoidance impact performance. Drawing on the attachment system dynamics model, we posit that attachment avoidance will be negatively related to LMX quality, whereas attachment anxiety will be positively related to LMX ambivalence. Furthermore, we predict that followers' anxious (and avoidant) attachment styles will interact with leader neuroticism leading to a hyperactivation (deactivation) of the attachment system, manifesting in greater LMX ambivalence (and lower LMX quality). Across three studies, we found consistent evidence for a positive relationship between follower attachment anxiety and LMX ambivalence, as well as an indirect effect between attachment anxiety and job performance. Leader neuroticism was especially likely to induce LMX ambivalence and, in turn, undermine job performance in anxiously attached followers. Attachment avoidance, although unaffected by leader neuroticism, was negatively related to LMX quality across all three studies and demonstrated an indirect effect on job performance in Study 3. Overall, our findings shed light on the unique explanatory power of relational mechanisms, beyond previously examined intrapersonal mechanisms, for understanding the attachment style–performance relationship as well as the role that leader characteristics play in triggering the attachment system in anxious followers.

This study examines the relationship between a specific type of team climate for perceived organizational support, team perceived organizational support for teamwork training (team POS-TT), and its effects on the productivity and innovation of acute health care teams. Drawing on organizational support theory, we examine how this relationship emerges via the mediating mechanism of shared objectives. Using survey data from 88 teams based in 13 health care organizations across the United Kingdom, we found support for the indirect effects of team POS-TT via shared objectives, but not for the direct effect of team POS-TT, thus indicating a mediated relationship with team productivity and innovation. As predicted, through the satisfaction of important esteem and affiliation needs of team members, team POS-TT compelled teams to engage in the process of generating shared objectives, which, in turn, positively predicted team productivity and innovation. These findings contribute to the scant literature on perceived organizational support (POS) as a form of team climate, and respond to recent calls to consider different types of POS by focusing on perceived support for teamwork training, an area which has particular relevance in the context of health care. Furthermore, the study serves to extend understanding regarding exactly how team POS-TT affects team outcomes via the specific process of shared objectives. We conclude with a discussion of these contributions to the literature and delineate several practical implications for leaders and managers in health care organizations.