Coping with emotional labour in tennis coaching

A tennis coach works in a social environment, employed in a service
based economy with the outcome of client-customer interactions
significantly impacting on the consumer experience. Research
conducted outside of sport has shown that positive affective
displays during interactions, which in a tennis situation may
include providing support through displays of warmth, empathy,
positivity and compassion as the client attempts to master a
new technique, have shown positive associations with customer
satisfaction. Hochschild (1983) coined the term ‘emotional labour’
to describe the process of, and demands resulting from adjusting
one’s demeanour, language and tone during social encounters
in a planned and strategic manner in order to facilitate a positive
outcome. Hochschild proposed that individuals in jobs which
require a high degree of face-to-face interaction with the public are
particularly at risk of experiencing potentially deleterious effects
that result from dealing with emotional labour demands on a daily
basis. It would appear that tennis coaches work in environments
that make them susceptible to experiencing emotional labour and
as such the intention of this article is to first introduce the concept
and then to provide suggestions for how a coach may cope with
these demands.