Playing the game: how football directors make sense of dismissing the coach

Nissen, Rasmus

doi:10.1504/ijsmm.2014.072009

Cited by 7 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 40 publications

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“…As a consequence of these market pressures, significant movements have been made to promote the role of Sporting Directors, who characteristically take responsibility for overseeing the football business and in some instances take responsibility for dismissing the head coach (Nissen, 2014). As such, there is a legitimate need to examine the role of Sporting Directors, as they are often overseeing the football club in a custodian role through periods of turmoil and change.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The emergence of the sporting director role in football and the potential of social network theory in future research

Parnell

Widdop

Groom

et al. 2018

Managing Sport and Leisure

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The aim of the Leeds Beckett Repository is to provide open access to our research, as required by funder policies and permitted by publishers and copyright law. The Leeds Beckett repository holds a wide range of publications, each of which has been checked for copyright and the relevant embargo period has been applied by the Research Services team. We operate on a standard take-down policy. If you are the author or publisher of an output and you would like it removed from the repository, please contact us and we will investigate on a case-by-case basis.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The emergence of the sporting director role in football and the potential of social network theory in future research

Parnell

Widdop

Groom

et al. 2018

Managing Sport and Leisure

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“…The current study contributes by exploring and critically discussing how job insecurity compares across the HPC context to a more traditional occupational health context, in which white- and blue-collar employees have been primarily investigated [ 45 , 49 ]. Typically, HPC have temporary contracts that are often strongly related to performance outcomes (i.e., win-loss records) [ 95 , 96 ]. In practice, unsatisfactory performance can result in the termination of the employment contract, sometimes during the season [ 96 , 97 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Typically, HPC have temporary contracts that are often strongly related to performance outcomes (i.e., win-loss records) [ 95 , 96 ]. In practice, unsatisfactory performance can result in the termination of the employment contract, sometimes during the season [ 96 , 97 ]. Indeed, performance outcomes are important for employees in other sectors, however, the consequences are not equally dramatic and/or other employees have more strongly protected positions (e.g., through support from trade unions).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impact of Job Insecurity on Psychological Well- and Ill-Being among High Performance Coaches

Bentzen

Kenttä

Richter

et al. 2020

IJERPH

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Background: The evaluative nature of high performance (HP) sport fosters performance expectations that can be associated with harsh scrutiny, criticism, and job insecurity. In this context, (HP) sport is described as a highly competitive, complex, and turbulent work environment. The aim of this longitudinal, quantitative study was to explore whether HP coaches’ perceptions of job insecurity and job value incongruence in relation to work would predict their psychological well- and ill-being over time. Methods: HP coaches (n = 299) responded to an electronic questionnaire at the start, middle, and end of a competitive season, designed to measure the following: job insecurity, values, psychological well-being (vitality and satisfaction with work), and psychological ill-being (exhaustion and cynicism). Structural equation model analyses were conducted using Mplus. Results: Experiencing higher levels of job insecurity during the middle of the season significantly predicted an increase in coaches’ psychological ill-being, and a decrease in their psychological well-being at the end of the season. However, value incongruence did not have a significant longitudinal impact. Conclusions: These findings cumulatively indicate that coaches’ perceptions of job insecurity matter to their psychological health at work. Consequently, it is recommended that coaches and organizations acknowledge and discuss how to handle job security within the HP sport context.

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“…Nevertheless, job insecurity and the risk of job termination is acknowledged as an integral part of the coaching profession [23]. The head coach in football has a key role in their club, which means that they are responsible and accountable for sporting failure [24]. Consequently, football coaches work under pressure of getting fired if the team underperforms and fails to meet the expectations of stakeholders, regardless of how this is evaluated [24,25].…”

Section: Job Insecuritymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The head coach in football has a key role in their club, which means that they are responsible and accountable for sporting failure [24]. Consequently, football coaches work under pressure of getting fired if the team underperforms and fails to meet the expectations of stakeholders, regardless of how this is evaluated [24,25]. In fact, a third of the football clubs in Sweden (10 out of 32 clubs) from the two top leagues fired their coaches last season.…”

Section: Job Insecuritymentioning

confidence: 99%

Elite Football Coaches Experiences and Sensemaking about Being Fired: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

Bentzen

Kenttä

Lemyre

2020

IJERPH

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Background: Chronic job insecurity seems to be a prominent feature within elite sport, where coaches work under pressure of dismissals if failing to meet performance expectations of stakeholders. The aim of the current study was to get a deeper understanding of elite football coaches’ experiences of getting fired and how they made sense of that process. Method: A qualitative design using semi-structured interviews was conducted with six elite football coaches who were fired within the same season. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was chosen as framework to analyze the data. Results: The results reflected five emerging themes: Acceptance of having an insecure job, working for an unprofessional organization and management, micro-politics in the organization, unrealistic and changing performance expectation, and emotional responses. Conclusion: All coaches expressed awareness and acceptance regarding the risk of being fired. However, they experienced a lack of transparency and clear feedback regarding the causes of dismissal. This led to negative emotional reactions as the coaches experienced being evaluated by poorly defined expectations and by anonymous stakeholders. Sports organizations as employers should strive to be transparent during dismissal. In addition, job insecurity is a permanent stressor for coaches and should be acknowledged and targeted within coach education.

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Playing the game: how football directors make sense of dismissing the coach

Cited by 7 publications

References 40 publications

The emergence of the sporting director role in football and the potential of social network theory in future research

The emergence of the sporting director role in football and the potential of social network theory in future research

Impact of Job Insecurity on Psychological Well- and Ill-Being among High Performance Coaches

Elite Football Coaches Experiences and Sensemaking about Being Fired: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

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