Goals and goal setting have become important to governmental effectiveness and accountability (Kettl, 2000) and have been viewed as critical to organizational success (Ordóñezet al., 2009). Goal-setting theory (Locke & Lantham, 1979) has been the central framework for inquiry into this area and has been extended by Steel and Konig (2006) in two important ways, (1) goal clarity/specificity and (2) goal feedback. Because of the scope of most organization-level goals, employees could become overwhelmed, unless they develop and are supported in the setting and achievement of individually manageable goals within the context of the organization’s larger aims. Managers can play a key role in framing and supporting employee goals and performance. We argue that one of the most important behaviors for managers to elicit, as part of employee goal achievement, is managerial coaching.

Recently, managerial coaching has been gaining more popularity within government organizations and in management training (Kim et al., 2013). According to a recent International Coaching Federation (ICF) study (International Coaching Federation, 2011) more than fifty percent of the general population are aware of coaching and many governmental organizations and agencies consider coaching to be an important part of manager training. Managerial coaching—defined as an effective managerial practice that improves employee learning, goal achievement, and effectiveness through targeted manager-employee one-on-one interaction (Ellinger, Ellinger, Hamlin, & Beattie, 2010; Kim & Egan, 2011)—is becoming a frequent subject among employees in organizations of all types, including governmental organizations.

Managerial coaching has been often addressed as a critical tool to benefit organizations, such as improving employee job performance, clarifying employee roles, and moving employees toward organizational and individual goals (Ellinger et al., 2010; Mintzberg, 1994; Yukl, 1994). As even governmental organization environments have become more dynamic and unpredictable, organization complexity has grown to be higher and intricate, it has been argued that timely feedback provided from the manager might reduce employee ambiguity and stress levels and better motivate them to meet shared goals (Kim, 2014). Despite the growing emphasis on managerial coaching, few studies have been conducted—particularly in governmental context.

Using goal-setting and organization support theories (Eisenberger et al., 1986), the purpose of this two-wave study was to investigate the relationships between perceived managerial coaching behavior and employee outcomes for 1,273 members of a statewide public employees association, located in the central US. The identified dependent variables (or endogenous factors) were perceived employee satisfaction with work, goal clarity, goal achievement and job performance. The linear and non-linear (or direct and indirect) relationships between perceived managerial coaching behavior and employee attitude and goal/ job performance-related reactions were the focus of this research. We began with a cross-sectional design and followed up with managers of 302 respondents from the round one data collection to determine manager estimations of theses employees goal achievement and job performance—structural equation and hierarchical linear modeling approaches are utilized. Study results support managerial coaching to be important for employee satisfaction, goal clarity, goal achievement, and job performance. Implications for public management are explored.