While managers' coaching of their subordinates continues to grow in organisations, little empirical research exists to inform the practice. The current paper seeks to further our understanding of this type of coaching - which we refer to as employee coaching - by exploring the coaching relationship formed between the supervisor and subordinate. Past research has noted that the process and effectiveness of coaching are contingent on this relationship. The purpose of the current paper is twofold: to better define the constructs of employee coaching and the employee coaching relationship and to develop a measure of the perceived quality of the employee coaching relationship