About Yi-Ling Lai
Who is Yi-Ling?
Dr Yi-Ling Lai (PhD, CPsychol) is an award-winning academic writer who specialises in applying coaching approaches to facilitate individual learning, growth and well-being. Yi-Ling’s passion for coaching commenced from her former management consultancy career prior to the PhD study. Yi-Ling holds a PhD in Occupational Psychology at University of Surrey, and is a Lecturer (Assistant professor) at University of Southampton. Meanwhile, Yi-Ling is a Chartered Psychologist by British Psychological Society and working closely with the Committee of Division in Coaching Psychology.
More importantly. Yi-Ling is a working mother of a three years old daughter who has transformed her life and research passion.
Yi-Ling's Research Interests
Yi-Ling's research mainly focuses on the empirical evidence of using coaching to facilitate individuals' work-related learning, growth and psychological well-being. In addition, Yi-Ling has also expanded her research in coaching into coaches' professional identity development and ethics awareness when experiencing power dynamics and structural hierarchy in the commissioning organisation. Furthermore, Yi-Ling recently developed interests in gender and equality since she became a mother in 2021. For instance, she is currently investigating working mothers' social identity transition during their perinatal period and how a more inclusive working culture could offer expectant/working mothers a better experience and identity transition.
Yi-Ling's recent main publications
- Lai, Y. & Passmore, J. (2024). Unfolding executive coaches’ identity work through the social constructive lens: coach-coachee – organization. International Journal of Training and Development. 28(1), 1-12.
- Smith, WA., Passmore, J., Tuner, E., Lai, Y. & Clutterbuck, D. (Eds.). (2023). The Ethical Coaches’ Handbook: A Guide to Developing Ethical Maturity in Practice. Routledge.
- Lai, Y. & Strevens, C. (2023). Publish or perish: Coping with peer-review processes through coaching. Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring, 21(1), 99-111.
- Wang, Q., Lai, Y., Xiao, X., & McDowall, A. (2022). The effectiveness of workplace coaching: A meta-analysis of contemporary psychologically informed coaching approaches. Journal of Work-Applied Management, 14 (1), 77-101.
- Lai, Y., & Smith, H. (2021). An investigation of the three‐way joint coaching alliance: A social identity theory perspective. Applied Psychology: An International Review, 70(2), 489-517.
The full publication list can be found via Yi-Ling Lai Google Scholar or official University webpage.
Yi-Ling's paper awards
- Emerald Literati Awards 2023 Outstanding Paper. Emerald Group Publishing: Wang, Q., Lai, Y., Xiao, X., & McDowall, A. (2022). The effectiveness of workplace coaching: A meta-analysis of contemporary psychologically informed coaching approaches. Journal of Work-Applied Management, 14 (1), 77-101.
- Research Paper of the Year (2022) by the Henley Centre for Coaching (Henley Business School): Wang, Q., Lai, Y., Xiao, X., & McDowall, A. (2022). The effectiveness of workplace coaching: A meta-analysis of contemporary psychologically informed coaching approaches. Journal of Work-Applied Management, 14 (1), 77-101.
- The Highly Commended Paper prize at the prestigious Emerald Literati Awards (Emerald Group Publishing, December 2020) for the paper Lai, Y., & Palmer, S. (2019). ‘Psychology in executive coaching: an integrated literature review’. Journal of Work-Applied Management, 11(2), 143-164.