Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-zzh7m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-26T13:05:10.577Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

12 - Meetings as Interactional Achievements

A Conversation Analytic Perspective

from Capturing and Understanding Dynamics and Processes of the Meeting

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2015

Joseph A. Allen
Affiliation:
University of Nebraska, Omaha
Nale Lehmann-Willenbrock
Affiliation:
Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam
Steven G. Rogelberg
Affiliation:
University of North Carolina, Charlotte
Get access

Summary

Abstract

This chapter offers an overview of the unique contributions of conversation analysis (CA) to research on the science of meetings. We introduce CA as a sociological framework for studying the structures and processes of talk and interaction, showing how this approach enriches our understanding of human activity in meeting interaction. After a sketch of CA theory and method and the ways that basic interactional mechanisms are adapted to meetings, we review CA research on face-to-face meetings, including practices for distributing turns at talk, the interactional constitution of organizational identities, practices for displaying affect and building relationships with team members, and interactional resources for decision making in meetings. Moving into current developments in CA and meetings, we detail one interactional strategy used to manage disagreement during decision-making episodes in scientific peer review meetings. It involves the use of “formulations,” discourse practices in which interactants summarize and paraphrase the prior talk of other participants. We provide initial evidence of the use of formulations in peer review meetings to collaboratively navigate interactional troubles, allowing participants to work toward resolution of conflict, move ahead in the progression of meetings, and to possibly introduce individual biases into meeting deliberations and decision making.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2015

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Antaki, C. (Ed.). (2011). Applied conversation analysis. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave-Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arminen, I. (1996). The construction of topic in the turns of talk at the meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous. International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, 16, 88130. doi: 10.1108/eb013258CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arminen, (2001)Google Scholar
Arminen, I. (2005). Institutional interaction: Studies of talk at work. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Asmuß, B. (2008). Performance appraisal interviews. Journal of Business Communication, 45, 408429. doi: 10.1177/0021943608319382CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Asmuß, B., & Svennevig, J. (2009). Meeting talk: An introduction. International Journal of Business Communication, 46, 322. doi: 10.1177/0021943608326761CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Atkinson, M. A., Cuff, E. C., & Lee, J. R. E. (1978). The recommencement of a meeting as a member's accomplishment. In Schenkein, J. N. (Ed.), Studies in the organization of conversational interaction (pp. 133153). New York, NY: Academic Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Atkinson, J. M., & Heritage, J. (Eds.). (1984). Structures of social action: Studies in conversation analysis. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Barnes, R. (2007). Formulations and the facilitation of common agreement in meetings talk. Text & Talk, 27, 273296. doi: 10.1515/TEXT.2007.011.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barske, T. (2009). Same token, different actions: A conversation analytic study of social roles, embodied actions, and ok in German business meetings. Journal of Business Communication, 46, 120149. doi: 10.1177/0021943608325748CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Boden, D. (1994). The business of talk: Organizations in action. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Bolden, G. B. (2010). ‘Articulating the unsaid’ via and-prefaced formulations of others' talk. Discourse Studies, 12(1), 532. doi: 10.1177/1461445609346770CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Button, G., & Casey, N. (1988/9). Topic initiation: Business-at-hand. Research on Language & Social Interaction, 22, 6192.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clayman, S., Elliott, M., Heritage, J., & Beckett, M. (2012). The president's questioners: Consequential attributes of the White House Press Corps. International Journal of Press/Politics, 17, 100121. doi: 10.1177/1940161211420867CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clifton, J. (2006). A conversation analytical approach to business communication: The case of leadership. Journal of Business Communication, 43, 202219. doi: 10.1080/08351818809389298CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clifton, J. (2009). Beyond taxonomies of influence: “Doing” influence and making decisions in management team meetings. Journal of Business Communication, 46, 5779. doi: 10.1177/0021943608325749CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cuff, E. C., & Sharrock, W. (1985). Meetings. In van Dijk, T. A. (Ed.), Handbook of discourse analysis (Vol. III, pp. 149159). London, UK: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Deppermann, A., Schmitt, R., & Mondada, L. (2010). Agenda and emergence: Contingent and planned activities in a meeting. Journal of Pragmatics, 42, 17001718. doi: 10.1016/j.pragma.2009.10.006CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Djordjilovic, O. (2012a). Managing tasks and relations in meeting interaction (Doctoral dissertation). University of Oslo, Norway.Google Scholar
Djordjilovic, O. (2012b). Displaying and developing team identity in workplace meetings: A multimodal perspective. Discourse Studies, 14, 111127. doi: 10.1177/1461445611427205CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Drew, P., & Heritage, J. (1992) Analyzing talk at work: An introduction. In Drew, P. & Heritage, J. (Eds.), Talk at work: Interaction in institutional settings (pp. 365). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Duranti, A. (1994). From grammar to politics: Linguistic anthropology in a Western Samoan village. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duncan, S., & Fiske, D. W. (1977). Face-to-face interaction. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Egbert, M. M. (1997). Schisming: The collaborative transformation from a single conversation to multiple conversations. Research on Language & Social Interaction, 30, 151. doi: 10.1207/s15327973rlsi3001_1CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ford, C. E. (2008). Women speaking up: Getting and using turns in workplace meetings. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ford, C. E., & Stickle, T. (2012). Securing recipiency in workplace meetings: Multimodal practices. Discourse Studies, 14, 1130. doi: 10.1177/1461445611427213CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fox, B., Wouk, F., Hayashi, M., Fincke, S., Tao, L, Sorjonen, M., Laakso, M., & Hernandez, W. F. (2009). A cross-linguistic investigation of the site of initiation in same-turn self-repair. In Sidnell, J. (Ed.), Conversation analysis: Comparative perspectives (pp. 60103). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gardner, R. (1997). The conversation object Mm: A weak and variable acknowledging token. Research on Language & Social Interaction, 30, 131156. doi: 10.1207/s15327973rlsi3002_2CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garfinkel, H. (1960). The rational properties of scientific and common sense activities. Behavioral Science, 5, 7283. doi: 10.1002/bs.3830050106CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garfinkel, H. (1967). Studies in ethnomethodology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Garfinkel, H. & Sacks, H. (1970). On formal structures of practical actions. In McKinney, J.D. and Tiryakian, E.A. (Eds.), Theoretical sociology (pp. 337366). New York, NY: Appleton-Century Crofts.Google Scholar
Goffman, E. (1964). The neglected situation. American Anthropologist, 66, 133136. doi: 10.1525/aa.1964.66.suppl_3.02a00090CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodwin, M. H. (1990). He-said-she-said: Talk as social organization among black children. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University PressGoogle Scholar
Griswold, O. (2007). Achieving authority: Discursive practices in Russian girls' pretend play. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 40, 291319. doi: 10.1080/08351810701471286CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gumperz, J., & Hymes, D. (1972). Directions in sociolinguistics. New York, NY: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.Google Scholar
Hepburn, A., & Bolden, G. B. (2012). The conversation analytic approach to transcription. In Sidnell, J. & Stivers, T. (Eds.), The handbook of conversation analysis (pp. 5776). New York, NY: Wiley-Blackwell.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heritage, J. (1984). Garfinkel and ethnomethodology. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Heritage, J. (2012). Epistemics in action: Action formation and territories of knowledge. Research on Language & Social Interaction, 45, 129. doi: 080/08351813.2012.646684CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heritage, J. & Clayman, S. (2013). The changing tenor of questioning over time: Tracking a question form across U.S. presidential news conferences 1953–2000. Journalism Practice, 7, 481501. doi:10.1080/17512786.2013.802485CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heritage, J., & Watson, D. R. (1979). Formulations as conversational objects. In Psathas, G. (Ed.), Everyday language: Studies in ethnomethodology (pp. 123162). New York, NY: Irvington.Google Scholar
Huisman, M. (2001). Decision-making in meetings as talk-in-interaction. International Studies of Management & Organization, 31, 6990. doi: 10.1177/1461445612456654CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jefferson, G. (1978). Sequential aspects of story telling in conversation. In Schenkein, J. N. (Ed.), Studies in the organization of conversational interaction (pp. 213248). New York, NY: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Kangasharju, H. (1996). Aligning as a team in multiparty conversation. Journal of Pragmatics, 26, 291319. doi: 10.1016/0378–2166(95)00051–8CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kangasharju, H. (2002). Alignment in disagreement: Forming oppositional alliances in committee meetings. Journal of Pragmatics, 34, 14471471. doi: 10.1016/S0378–2166(02)00073–5CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kangasharju, H., & Nikko, T. (2009). Emotions in organizations: Joint laughter in workplace meetings. Journal of Business Communication, 46, 100119. doi: 10.1177/0021943608325750CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kauffeld, S. & Lehmann-Willenbrock, N. (2012). Meetings matter: Effects of team meeting communication on team and organizational success. Small Group Research, 43, 130158. doi: 10.1177/1046496411429599CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Markaki, V., & Mondada, L. (2012). Embodied orientations towards co-participants in multinational meetings. Discourse Studies, 14, 3152. doi: 10.1177/1461445611427210CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Markman, K. M. (2009). “So what shall we talk about”: Openings and closings in chat-based virtual meetings. Journal of Business Communication, 46, 150170. doi: 10.1177/0021943608325751CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Markman, K. M. (2010a). A close look at online collaboration: Conversational structure in chat and its implications for group work. In Shedletsky, L. & Aitken, J. E. (Eds.), Cases in online discussion and interaction: Experiences and outcomes (pp. 212233). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Markman, K.M. (2010b). Learning to work virtually: Conversational repair as a resource for norm development in computer-mediated team meetings. In Park, J. & Abels, E. (Eds.), Interpersonal relations and social patterns in communication technologies: Discourse norms, language structures and cultural variables (pp. 220236). Hershey, PA: IGI Global.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maynard, D. (2003). Bad news, good news: Conversational order in everyday talk and clinical settings. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Mazeland, H., & Berenst, J. (2008). Sorting pupils in a report-card meeting: Categorization in a situated activity system. Text & Talk, 28, 5578. doi: 10.1515/TEXT.2008.003CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McKinlay, A., & McVittie, C. (2006). Using topic control to avoid the gainsaying of troublesome evaluations. Discourse Studies, 8, 797815. doi: 10.1177/1461445606069330CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mondada, L. (2007). Multimodal resources for turn-taking: Pointing and the emergence of possible next speakers. Discourse Studies, 9, 194225. doi: 10.1177/1461445607075346CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nielsen, M. F. (1998). Afdelingsmøder som middel til organisationskulturel socialisering [Department meetings as a means for organizational socializing] (Doctoral dissertation). University of Copenhagen, Denmark.Google Scholar
Nielsen, M. F. (2009). Interpretative management in business meetings: Understanding managers' interactional strategies through conversation analysis. Journal of Business Communication, 46, 2356. doi: 10.1177/0021943608325752CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nielsen, M. F. (2012). Using artifacts in brainstorming sessions to secure participation and decouple sequentiality. Discourse Studies, 14, 87109. doi: 10.1177/1461445611427211CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Osvaldsson, K. (2004). On laughter and disagreement in multiparty assessment talk. TEXT, 24, 517545. doi: 10.1515/text.2004.24.4.517Google Scholar
Peräkylä, A. (2004). Two traditions of interaction research. British Journal of Social Psychology, 43, 120.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Pomerantz, A. M. (1984). Giving a source or basis: The practice in conversation of telling ‘how I know.’ Journal of Pragmatics, 8, 607625. doi:10.1016/0378-2166(84)90002-XCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pomerantz, A., & Denvir, P. (2007). Enacting the institutional role of chairperson in upper management meetings: The interactional realization of provisional authority. In Cooren, F. (Ed.), Interacting and organizing: Analyses of a management meeting (pp. 3152). London, UK: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Potter, J. & Hepburn, A. (2010). Putting aspiration into words: “Laugh particles,” managing descriptive trouble and modulating action. Journal of Pragmatics, 42, 15431555.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Richards, K., & Seedhouse, P. (Eds.). (2005) Applying conversation analysis. London, UK: Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sacks, H. (1974). Some consideration of a story told in ordinary conversations. Poetics, 15, 127138. doi: 10.1016/0304–422X(86)90036–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sacks, H. (1987). On the preferences for agreement and contiguity in sequences in conversation. In Button, G. & Lee, J. R. (Eds.), Talk and social organisation (pp. 5469). Clevedon, UK: Multilingual Matters.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sacks, H., Schegloff, E. A., & Jefferson, G. (1974). A simplest systematics for the organization of turn taking for conversation. Language, 50, 696735. doi: 10.2307/412243CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Saft, S. (2001). Displays of concession in university faculty meetings: Culture and interaction in Japanese. Pragmatics, 11, 223262.Google Scholar
Saft, S. (2004). Conflict as interactional accomplishment in Japanese: Arguments in university faculty meetings. Language in Society, 33, 549584. doi: 10.1017/S0047404504334032CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sandlund, E., & Denk, T. (2007). “Everybody agree?” Några observationer kring att driva multipartsbeslut [“Everybody agree?” Some observations on the accomplishment of multiparty decisions]. Paper presented at OFTI 25, Karlstad University, Sweden.Google Scholar
Schegloff, E. A. (1987). Analyzing single episodes of interaction: An exercise in conversation analysis. Social Psychology Quarterly, 50, 101114. doi: 10.2307/2786745CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schegloff, E. A. (2007). Sequence organization in interaction: A primer in conversation analysis, Vol. 1. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schegloff, E. A., & Sacks, H. (1973). Opening up closings. Semiotica, 8, 289327. doi: 10.1515/semi.1973.8.4.289CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmitt, R. (2006). Interaction in work meetings. Revue Française de Linguistique Appliquée, 11(2), 6984.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sidnell, J. (2005). Talk and practical epistemology: The social life of knowledge in a Caribbean community. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sidnell, J. & Stivers, T., Eds. (2012). The handbook of conversation analysis. New York, NY: Blackwell-Wiley.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stivers, T. (2010). An overview of the question–response system in American English conversation. Journal of Pragmatics, 42, 27722781. doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2010.04.011CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stivers, T. (2012). Sequence organization. In Sidnell, J. & Stivers, T. (Eds.), The handbook of conversation analysis (pp. 191209). New York, NY: Wiley-Blackwell.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stivers, T., Enfield, N. J., Brown, P., Englert, C., Hayashi, M., Heinemann, T.,…Levinson, S. C. (2009). Universals and cultural variation in turn-taking in conversation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106, 1058710492. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0903616106CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Svennevig, J. (2008). Exploring leadership conversations. Management Communication Quarterly, 21, 529536. doi: 10.1177/0893318907313717CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Svennevig, J. (2011). Leadership style in managers' feedback in meetings. In Angouri, J. & Marra, M. (Eds.), Constructing identities at work (pp. 1739). London, UK: Palgrave.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Svennevig, J. (2012a). Interaction in workplace meetings. Discourse Studies, 14, 310. doi: 10.1177/1461445611427203CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Svennevig, J. (2012b). The agenda as resource for topic introduction in workplace meetings. Discourse Studies, 14, 5366. doi: 10.1177/1461445611427204CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vöge, M. (2010). Local identity processes in business meetings displayed through laughter in complaint sequences. Journal of Pragmatics, 42, 15561576. doi: 10.1016/j.pragma.2010.01.016CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×