Exploring the discursive and multimodal strategies of collective leadership in a professional football team

Abstract

This article explores the discursive and multimodal strategies through which leadership is accomplished collectively among the coaches of a professional football team. We demonstrate the benefits of using a modified version of Drath and colleagues’ (2008) DAC ontology in sociolinguistic research, and we show what can be gained by conceptualising leadership as a process rather than a set of behaviours or traits associated with an individual in a senior position. Drawing on authentic audio- and video-recordings of the interactions among the coaches of a national football team during a live match, and utilising the analytical concepts of epistemic and deontic status and stance (Stevanovic & Peräkylä 2014), we describe some of the complex discursive and multimodal processes through which leadership unfolds across a web of different interactions, taking place at different moments and in different locations throughout the match. (DAC ontology, collective leadership, professional football, web of leadership)