Survival in a Marginal Role: The Professional Identity of the Physical Education Teacher

Any organization is a mass of integrated roles with constant demands and adaptations.l Role behaviour arises from these organizational demands and idiosyncratic needs, the person balancing advantages and disadvantages in given situations, making adaptation to both personality needs and organizational 'press'. Thus, Getzels and Guba have described role behaviour as the outcome of interplay between ideographic and nomothetic dimensions in an institutional setting2; and, in his analysis of organizations, Levinson took a similar position and suggested the concept of 'personal roledefinition' as a link between personality and social structure.3 As Parsons has pointed out, there is an element of'looseness' between personality and role performance.4 This element may be crucial within marginal roles in organizations. What are marginal roles? Stonequist has utilized the term 'marginality' to define roles in an organizational setting which are peripheral to the main functionings of the institution. Such individuals can be alienated.5 They may work very hard but lose direction because their roles are not clearly defined and they are subject to role strain.6 Where there is no clear system of rules which adequately defines the actor's behaviour in the system, and where his role is not central to the goals and function of the organization a marginal role-then he can be subject to type-casiing and role pressures. Wilson has discussed conflict which arises: