Beyond the Shadows: A Coaching-Based Approach to Postgraduate Supervision

Postgraduate supervision in business and management education has traditionally followed a mentor-driven model, often reinforcing academic conformity and constraining the development of independent research identities. This structure prioritizes supervisor expertise over student agency, reducing critical engagement, promoting passive knowledge consumption, and misaligning students’ research interests with dominant paradigms. This conceptual chapter critiques hierarchical power structures in postgraduate supervision through the theoretical lenses of Critical Management Studies (CMS), Critical Management Education (CME), and Leadership Coaching. Drawing on the metaphor of Plato’s Cave, we argue that students frequently internalize their supervisors’ research worldviews without fully engaging alternative epistemological perspectives. As an alternative, we propose a coaching-based supervision model that prioritizes student autonomy, reflexivity, and the formation of an authentic research identity. In this hybrid model, supervisors adopt the role of coaches, facilitators of learning rather than transmitters of knowledge, employing dialogical, student-led supervision practices rooted in coaching principles such as active listening, powerful questioning, and goal alignment. We provide examples of how this model can be operationalized within real business and management education contexts, including structured coaching sessions, co-created supervision contracts, and reflective practice frameworks. The coaching-based model offers significant benefits for business education by cultivating critical thinkers, empowering students to challenge entrenched managerial ideologies, and nurturing diverse scholarly voices. It also contributes to institutional policy reform by advocating for a more inclusive, student-centered approach to postgraduate supervision.