Coach Hurt: Understanding Service Failures in Coaching and Mentoring Relationships
Keywords:
Coach Hurt, Relational Service Failure, Mentoring Relationships, Employee Satisfaction, Consumer Dissatisfaction, Psychological Safety, Trust BreachAbstract
Coaching and mentoring relationships are critical for personal and professional development, yet they remain understudied in the context of service failure and consumer dissatisfaction. This research introduces the concept of "Coach Hurt," a unique form of service failure in coaching, mentoring, and managerial relationships that results in dissatisfaction, disengagement, and long-term negative consequences. Unlike transactional service failures, Coach Hurt is relational, involving breaches of trust, psychological safety, and professional expectations. Key behaviors contributing to the phenomenon of Coach Hurt, including micromanagement, public criticism, breaches of confidentiality, and misaligned guidance, are categorized and examined for their impact on individuals and organizations. In addition, systemic failures that perpetuate dissatisfaction, such as gaslighting and lack of accountability, are discussed. By situating Coach Hurt within the broader service failure literature, the analysis underscores its implications for consumer satisfaction, organizational effectiveness, and directions for future research. Addressing these failures is essential for fostering ethical, effective coaching and mentoring practices in professional settings.
References
Agarwal, R., Mehrotra, A., & Barger, V. A. (2016). Personality traits and re-patronage intentions after service failure. Journal of Consumer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction and Complaining Behavior, 29, 31–51. https://jcsdcb.com/index.php/JCSDCB/article/view/227
Aron, D. (2016). Digital dysfunction: Consumer grudgeholding and retaliation in the digital era. Journal of Consumer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction and Complaining Behavior, 29, 119–129. https://jcsdcb.com/index.php/JCSDCB/article/view/239
Arora, S. D., Das Gupta, D., & Naylor, G. S. (2021). Negative word of mouth: A systematic review and research agenda. Journal of Consumer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction and Complaining Behavior, 34, 33–78. https://jcsdcb.com/index.php/JCSDCB/article/view/384
Bitner, M. J., Booms, B. H., & Tetreault, M. S. (1990). The service encounter: Diagnosing favorable and unfavorable incidents. Journal of Marketing, 54(1), 71–84. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224299005400105
Blau, P. M. (1964). Exchange and power in social life. John Wiley & Sons.
Carmeli, A., Brueller, D., & Dutton, J. E. (2009). Learning behaviors in the workplace: The role of high-quality interpersonal relationships and psychological safety. Systems Research and Behavioral Science, 26(1), 81–98. https://doi.org/10.1002/sres.932
Cropanzano, R., & Mitchell, M. S. (2005). Social exchange theory: An interdisciplinary review. Journal of Management, 31(6), 874–900. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206305279602
Davidow, M. (2003). Organizational responses to customer complaints: What works and what doesn’t. Journal of Service Research, 5(3) 225-250. https://doi.org/10.1177/1094670502238917
Davidow, M. (2003). The role of organizational responses in resolving service failures and creating customer loyalty. Journal of Consumer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction and Complaining Behavior, 17, 34–49. https://jcsdcb.com/index.php/JCSDCB/article/view/76
Eby, L. T., & Allen, T. D. (2002). Further investigation of protégés' negative mentoring experiences: Patterns and outcomes. Group & Organization Management, 27(4), 456–479. https://doi.org/10.1177/1059601102238356
Eby, L. T., Butts, M. M., Lockwood, A., & Simon, S. A. (2008). Protégés' negative mentoring experiences: Construct development and nomological validation. Personnel Psychology, 61(3), 567–598. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2008.00120.x
Eby, L. T., McManus, S. E., Simon, S. A., and Russell, J. E. A. (2000). The protégé's perspective regarding negative mentoring experiences: The development of a taxonomy. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 57(1), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.1999.1726
Edmondson A. C. (1999). Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), 350–383. https://doi.org/10.2307/2666999
Grégoire, Y., Tripp, T. M., & Legoux, R. (2009). When customer love turns into lasting hate: The effects of relationship strength and time on customer revenge and avoidance. Journal of Marketing, 73(6), 384–403. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1509/jmkg.73.6.18
Higgins, M. C., & Kram, K. E. (2001). Reconceptualizing mentoring at work: A developmental network perspective. Academy of Management Review, 26(2), 264–288. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2001.4378023
Liu, S. Q., & Mattila, A. S. (2015). "I want to help" versus "I am just mad": How affective commitment influences customer feedback decisions. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 56(2), 213–222. https://doi.org/10.1177/1938965514567930
Maxham, J. G., & Netemeyer, R. G. (2002). A longitudinal study of complaining customers' evaluations of multiple service failures and recovery efforts. Journal of Marketing, 66(4), 57–71. https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkg.66.4.57.18512
McClure, T. A., Killian, G., & Pearson, J. M. (2019).
Observer retaliation: Apology components’ effect on observing customers’ reactions. Journal of Consumer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction and Complaining Behavior, 32, 1–15. https://jcsdcb.com/index.php/JCSDCB/article/view/296
Newman, A., Donohue, R., & Eva, N. (2017). Psychological safety: A systematic review of the literature. Human Resource Management Review, 27(3), 521–535. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2016.11.002
Oliver, R. L. (1997). Satisfaction: A behavioral perspective on the consumer. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Ragins, B. R., Cotton, J. L., and Miller, J. S. (2000). Marginal mentoring: The effects of type of mentor, quality of relationship, and program design on work and career attitudes. Academy of Management Journal, 43(6), 1177–1194. https://doi.org/10.5465/1556344
Robinson, S. L., and Morrison, E. W. (2000). The development of psychological contract breach and violation: A longitudinal study. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 21(5), 525–546. https://doi.org/10.1002/1099-1379
Rosander, M., Hetland, J., & Einarsen, S. (2022). Workplace bullying and mental health problems in balanced and gender-dominated workplaces. Work & Stress. Routledge. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678373.2022.2129514
Rousseau, D. M. (1995). Psychological contracts in organizations: Understanding written and unwritten agreements. Sage Publications.
Scandura, T. A. (1998). Dysfunctional mentoring relationships and outcomes. Journal of Management, 24(3), 449–467. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920639802400307
Singh, J. (1990). Voice, exit, and negative word-of-mouth behaviors: An investigation across three service categories. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 18(1), 1–15.
Singh, J. (1991). Understanding the structure of consumers’ satisfaction evaluations of service delivery. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 19(3), 223–244.
Smith, A. K., Bolton, R. N., & Wagner, J. (1999). A model of customer satisfaction with service encounters involving failure and recovery. Journal of Marketing Research, 36(3), 356–372. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224379903600305
Straus, S. E., Johnson, M. O., Marquez, C., & Feldman, M. D. (2013). Characteristics of successful and failed mentoring relationships: A qualitative study across two academic health centers. Academic Medicine, 88(1), 82–89. https://doi.org/10.1097/ACM.0b013e31827647a0
Tax, S. S., Brown, S. W., and Chandrashekaran, M. (1998). Customer evaluations of service complaint experiences: Implications for relationship marketing. Journal of Marketing, 62(2), 60–76. https://doi.org/10.2307/1252161
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Each volume is copyrighted by Consumer Satisfaction, Dissatisfaction and Complaining Behavior. We encourage authors to submit published articles to research aggregators such as researchgate.net or academia.edu. You may use the PDF files from the published journal for submission to these aggregators.