Impressionistic protectiveness, team formation, and alignment building in coach education work: An ethnographic study

Studies on collective impression management in the broader sport coaching literature have shed initial light on the backstage and frontstage (Goffman, 1959) techniques used by enduring teams of professional sport coaches. This study is the first to examine how practitioner teams engage in team assembly, deployment and alignment building within a neoliberal employment context. Data were generated via participant observation, fieldnotes, and semi-structured interviews. The data were subject to multiple rounds of emic and etic analysis. Data generation was primarily sensitised by Goffman’s (1959) dramaturgical theorising, which was enriched by complementary perspectives (e.g., Bauman, 2000) as analysis evolved. Broadly, analysis revealed that, (1) a neoliberal, contrived approach to team administration rendered transient team relations and limited opportunities for backstage alignment building, (2) the short-term and implementation-focused nature of team associations encouraged a cynical, pragmatic and instrumental orientation to staging and alignment activities, and (3) teams relied on deception and the construction of fabricated lines of action to translate curricula and navigate performativity culture. These findings offer a new agenda for researching collective impression management and offer a stimulus for office holders to refine team administration procedures and (re)design practitioner training to incorporate the necessary skills for authentic collaboration.