Identity and influence: player captains' activity during interactions with sport officials
Résumé
Insight into complex interactions between players and officials is limited, particularly from players’ views (Dosseville et al., 2014; Rix-Lievre et al., 2015). Considering the hierarchical position of the officials, role and identity concerns are one group of preoccupations in interaction but can radically shift and be reconstructed given contextual changes across unfolding interactions (Goffman, 1967). The investigation aims to study player captains’ activity during match interactions with officials to understand their situated preoccupations and how identity concerns arise from moment to moment and potentially direct their interaction. Course-of-action theory (Theureau, 2003) was used as a frame to describe players’ lived experience during interactions including what is most meaningful and salient for them. Five professional European rugby union matches were studied involving self-confrontation interviews conducted with seven player captains. Findings show inconsistency between captains’ perceived role description and enacted identity during interactions. Most captains are preoccupied with the official’s perception of match events that precede explicit and implicit methods of influencing the official’s future decision-making through self-initiated interactions. Captains generally participate in a front-stage interaction, or "working communication" with limited adaptation to the official’s activity. The findings lend information to inform training to help officials manage and adapt their interaction to players’ activity. An integration of cognitive anthropology and sociological perspectives helps to progress modelling of sport officials' communication to account for dynamism and co-construction of interactions.