Frontline employees in the health clinic: Impression management multiplexing when performing in-the-round

ABSTRACT

Using Goffman's dramaturgical perspective of impression management, the present study focuses on the staged performances of frontline employees (FLEs) at a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC). Qualitative analysis reveals how FLEs in health clinics engage in staged communication to perform their jobs and facilitate patient care. Our findings highlight three overarching themes in which FLEs’ communication compounds frontstage and backstage practices: performing on a multidimensional stage, enacting scripted and improvisational roles, and incorporating regulatory strategies to accomplish their work. We argue these communicative practices culminate into the proposed theoretical concept of impression management multiplexing (IMM). Implications for clinic FLEs, patient care, and patient privacy are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Impression management
• dramaturgical perspective
• frontline employees
• healthcare
• emotional labor
• customer service
• privacy
• patient care

Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge our research site for the generous access provided to our team, and Bill Hawker for his helpful assistance with data collection. We also wish to express our gratitude to the editor and three anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback and counsel throughout the review process.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Millie A. Harrison (MA, Auburn University) is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Communication Studies at The University of Texas at Austin. Her research focuses on the communication of resilience, stress and support, boundary work, and emotion in healthcare and other organizational contexts.

William Roth Smith (MA, Clemson University) is an organizational communication doctoral candidate in the Department of Communication Studies at The University of Texas at Austin. His research interests include communication among emergent citizen-led disaster response groups, informal organizing for collective action, and innovation as an occupational role.

Mackenzie R. Greenwell (MA, Purdue University) is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Communication Studies at The University of Texas at Austin. Her research emphasizes family communication about stigmatized health topics, particularly mental health and mental illness, as well as integration and evaluation of communication training in medical professional and scientific contexts.

Keri K. Stephens (PhD, The University of Texas at Austin) is an Associate Professor of Organizational Communication and Technology in the Department of Communication Studies and an Associate Director with the Center for Health Communication at The University of Texas at Austin. Her research brings an organizational perspective to how people use technology to communicate in crisis, emergency, and health-related contexts.