A Conversation Analytical Approach to Business Communication

The use of conversation analysis (CA) as an applied research methodology that can be of interest to business communication is sometimes overlooked. Taking the case of leadership as an example, this article demonstrates how CA can provide a fine-grained analysis of talk-in-interaction during a business meeting, which reveals an emic perspective on “what is going on.” By linking such an analysis to wider social theorizing, notably a social constructivist approach to leadership and the construction of reality, CA is able to make explicit the normally “seen but unnoticed” machinery of talk with which leadership is enacted. Moreover, the results of such an analysis can give researchers a clearer insight into the phenomenon and help practitioners improve leadership and communication skills.

[1]  Emanuel A. Schegloff,et al.  Confirming Allusions: Toward an Empirical Account of Action , 1996, American Journal of Sociology.

[2]  N. Britten,et al.  Formulation in general practice consultations , 2004 .

[3]  J. Conger.  Qualitative research as the cornerstone methodology for understanding leadership , 1998 .

[4]  Paul ten Have,et al.  Doing Conversation Analysis: A Practical Guide , 1999 .

[5]  D. Boden.  The Business of Talk: Organizations in Action , 1995 .

[6]  D. Samra-Fredericks,et al.  An Analysis of the Behavioural Dynamics of Corporate Governance – a talk‐based ethnography of a UK manufacturing ‘board‐in‐action’ , 2000 .

[7]  Wayne A. Beach,et al.  Transitional regularities for ‘casual’ “Okay” usages , 1993 .

[8]  Gene H. Lerner.  Conversation analysis. Studies from the first generation. , 2004 .

[9]  Mats Alvesson,et al.  The great disappearing act: difficulties in doing “leadership” , 2003 .

[10]  François Cooren,et al.  The Communicative Achievement of Collective Minding , 2004 .

[11]  E. Schegloff,et al.  A simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking for conversation , 1974 .

[12]  Peter Auer,et al.  The contextualization of language , 1992 .

[13]  G. Jefferson.  Glossary of transcript symbols with an introduction , 2004 .

[14]  J. Mandelbaum.  Studies in Language and Social Interaction: In Honor of Robert Hopper , 2003 .

[15]  J. M. Atkinson.  Understanding formality: The categorization and production of “formal” interaction , 1982 .

[16]  Alec McHoul,et al.  How to Analyse Talk in Institutional Settings: A Casebook of Methods , 2002 .

[17]  L. Smircich,et al.  Leadership: The Management of Meaning , 1982, The Journal of applied behavioral science.

[18]  P. Berger,et al.  Social Construction of Reality , 1991, The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Mass Media and Society.

[19]  P. Drew,et al.  Talk at Work: Interaction in Institutional Settings. , 1994 .

[20]  M. Huisman,et al.  Decision-Making in Meetings as Talk-in-Interaction , 2001 .

[21]  C. Heath,et al.  Gesture’s Discreet Tasks: Multiple Relevancies in Visual Conduct and in the Contextualisation of Language , 1992 .

[22]  D. Zimmerman,et al.  Talk and Social Structure: Studies in Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis , 1991 .

[23]  L. Yeung.  The paradox of control in participative decision-making: Facilitative discourse in banks , 2004 .

[24]  Harold Garfinkel,et al.  On Formal Structures of Practical Actions , 2005 .

[25]  Janet Holmes,et al.  Leadership talk: How do leaders ‘do mentoring’, and is gender relevant? , 2005 .

[26]  Harvey Sacks,et al.  Lectures on Conversation , 1995 .

[27]  Mats Alvesson,et al.  Leadership as Social Integrative Action. A Study of a Computer Consultancy Company , 1992 .

[28]  E. Schegloff.  Whose Text? Whose Context? , 1997 .

[29]  Charles Goodwin,et al.  Context, Activity and Participation , 1992 .

[30]  E. Tiryakian,et al.  Theoretical Sociology: Perspectives and Developments. , 1970 .

[31]  J. Shotter.  Conversational Realities: Constructing Life through Language , 1993 .

[32]  Michael Moerman.  Talking Culture: Ethnography and Conversation Analysis , 1987 .

[33]  Stewart L. Tubbs,et al.  Handbook of Organizational Communication. , 1988 .

[34]  François Cooren.  Arguments for the In-Depth Study of Organizational Interactions , 2006 .

[35]  Robert Cheng Huat Chia.  Discourse Analysis Organizational Analysis , 2000 .

[36]  G. Psathas.  Everyday language : studies in ethnomethodology , 1981 .

[37]  G. Yukl.  Managerial Leadership: A Review of Theory and Research , 1989 .

[38]  Ann L. Cunliffe,et al.  Managers as Practical Authors: Reconstructing our Understanding of Management Practice , 2001 .

[39]  K. Weick.  FROM SENSEMAKING IN ORGANIZATIONS , 2021, The New Economic Sociology.

[40]  J. M. Atkinson.  Structures of Social Action: Contents , 1985 .

[41]  Eleni Leontaridi,et al.  The study of language in its social context , 1996 .

[42]  Jack Whalen,et al.  Sociology as a Natural Observational Science@@@Structures of Social Action: Studies in Conversation Analysis. , 1987 .

[43]  M. Alvesson.  Leadership studies : From procedure and abstraction to reflexivity and situation , 1996 .

[44]  K. Grint.  Leadership: Classical, Contemporary, and Critical Approaches , 1997 .

[45]  D. Samra-Fredericks.  Strategizing as Lived Experience and Strategists' Everyday Efforts to Shape Strategic Direction , 2003 .

[46]  Christina Wasson,et al.  Caution And Consensus In American Business Meetings , 2000 .