Christine Vitzthum

The challenges of gender diversity have long been on the agenda of many organisations around the globe. While coaching is an initiative regularly used in organisations to address gender diversity challenges, critics point out that it can be an instrument to make individuals fit into organisational cultures. Underpinned by a critical realist stance, coaches and organisational stakeholders in Germany were interviewed to explore their motivations, strategies, practices and procedures in using coaching to promote gender diversity. Data were analysed using thematic analysis and retroductive approach. The study makes a practical contribution by providing an empirical framework that highlights the opportunities and challenges of coaching to promote gender diversity in organisations. A theoretical contribution is made to the gender diversity coaching literature that extends existing debates in these fields, particularly concerning the gendered nature of organisations and the emergence of coaching as a social process.