As a result of an intensive, interdisciplinary collaboration within the QueSCo project, i.e., between the linguists at the University of Klagenfurt and the Leibniz Institute for German Language in Mannheim as well as the psychologists at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences, our coding manual for coaching-specific question types and questioning sequence types was published online and open access on June 9, 2023. It is available on our homepage under Results but also via the repository of University of Klagenfurt.
The manual includes descriptions and examples for the 12 coaching-specific question types, which have been assigned to 7 main functions within the coaching process. In order to describe the question sequences, these are extended by categories for the prior actions (i.e., actions preceding the question or the embedding of the question), the possible reactions of the clients to the question, as well as coaches’ reactions of in 3rd position (i.e., reactions to the reaction of the client).
Based on an inductive, data-driven analysis of authentic coaching processes, these categories now allow us to answer one of the research questions underlying the project: “Which questions and question sequences are actually found in business coaching?” The manual also forms the basis for the coding of the entire collected data set, which is now in full swing and should be completed by the end of September. The data comprises 14 processes, 52 sessions and an estimated 10,000-11,000 questioning sequences. The calculations that can be carried out after the coding will make it possible to gain further insights about the frequency or success of the various questioning sequences.