An exploratory study on coaching using personality types

This study explored the use of personality types in coaching through a literature review. By identifying research trends and suggesting direction for the effective integration of personality types in coaching, it ultimately aims to contribute to the development of coaching practices. To this end, academic journal articles published in South Korea between 2004 and 2024 that discussed coaching and personality types were examined, leading to the selection of 14 papers that met the study purpose. The papers were analyzed based on research objectives, topics, methods, and keywords, and the results are as follows. First, Enneagram was the most frequently used personality types in coaching, with 12 out of 14 papers focusing on it. Second, although these papers were related to coaching, most had limited relevance to actual coaching practices and mainly focused on verifying or explaining personality types, especially the Enneagram, with little information on their application in coaching. Third, most studies employed literature review and the questionnaire method, with the literature reviews being the most common followed by the questionnaire method. Fourth, there was a noticeable lack of follow-up research in papers on scale or program development. Based on these findings, this study suggested several directions for future research, such as revitalizing research on the application of personality types in coaching, actively developing coaching programs using various personality types, and addressing inconsistencies in the use of personality types in coaching.