Busting the blackbox between managerial coaching behaviors and employee outcomes from a perspective of discrete emotional process mechanism

Purpose As coaching assumes an increasingly critical role in satisfying employees' demands for growth, the function of coaching has progressively shifted towards direct supervisors. This study seeks to investigate the distinct effects of managerial coaching behaviors on employee outcomes from an emotional perspective. Specifically, we aim to explore whether leaders' encourage-to-explore and guide-to-learn behaviors impact employees' creativity and performance through discrete emotional mechanisms upon appraisal theory of emotion. Design/methodology/approach We conducted two studies to test our proposition. In study 1, an experiment using coaching scenarios was performed with 128 students majoring in management. In study 2, data were collected from 311 supervisor-subordinate dyads. Findings The results indicate that encourage-to-explore behaviors are positively related to employee creativity by fostering feelings of inspiration, and guide-to-learn behaviors are positively related to employee performance by alleviating anxiety. These findings suggest that different leaders’ coaching behaviors influence employee outcomes through different emotional processes. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are also discussed. Originality/value These findings suggest that different leaders’ coaching behaviors influence employee outcomes through different emotional processes. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are also discussed.