Accessing cultural orientations: the online Cultural Orientations Framework Assessment as a tool for coaching

Recognition is growing of the advantages of building a cultural perspective into executive coaching, particularly where executives and managers are working in a globalised business environment. There is somewhat less recognition of the contribution that coaching from a cultural perspective can bring into any business coaching situation, whatever the role or context of the coachee. Culture may be perceived as an integral part of the individual’s identity, as well as a set of characteristics held by other groups, and thus an awareness of one’s own cultural orientations and preferences is a powerful aid to self-understanding and sustainable success in roles and relationships. This paper presents and discusses the use of an online assessment tool, the Cultural Orientations Framework (COF) assessment tool (www.philrosinski.com) designed for use by coaches and coachees in an individual or team context. The conceptual dimensions of the COF as operationalised in the tool are described, and in order to demonstrate the way in which the tool stimulates reflective learning, one of the co-authors presents a heuristic reflective account of an experience of completing the assessment tool online. The authors suggest that, for the coach, using the COF online assessment tool opens up greater awareness and clarity about one’s own cultural starting points and assumptions, particularly the cultural foundations of values and beliefs. For coaches, using the assessment tool within the context of a coaching relationship can open the doors to a wider and deeper understanding of learned behaviours; the degree of congruence or incongruence experienced in different aspects of life; and the possibility of consciously choosing different orientations.