Power in meetings may be enacted in many ways, ranging from democratic and collaborative through to authoritative and didactic, with the exact positioning on this continuum typically under the control of the chair. By contrast with the focus of most previous research on the behaviour of institutionally ratified chairs of intact teams, this paper examines how volunteer chairs of small focus groups in public meetings use the power associated with that role to manage the discussion and to encourage or discourage (...) explicit expression of disagreement. Our analysis identifies ways in which these arbitrarily assigned chairs influence and facilitate the small group discussions through a range of discourse practices. By separating the chair role from its typical co-occurrence with institutional hierarchy we are able to demonstrate the inherent influence and power of the position in the decision making process. (shrink)

The relevance of social norms for understanding appropriate behaviour in context has taken central stage in politeness research in recent years, and particularly in studies of workplace interaction. As an example of this research, this paper explores the way in which a group of nurses interacting with their colleagues negotiates complaints. The data were collected in a ward of a public healthcare institution in New Zealand and consist of audio and video recordings of four roster meetings involving nurses and nurse (...) managers. Instances of nurses’ complaints are explored from an interactional sociolinguistic point of view, allowing the researcher to investigate emergent facework. The findings suggest that multiple ingroup and outgroup memberships, achieved through the dynamic use of personal pronouns, enact preferred politic behaviour for both, transactional and relational goals. In addition, nurses’ convergence in their display of socio-pragmatic norms governing their complaining practices suggests that this group of nurses belongs to the same workplace community. Finally, strong emphasis is placed on the role that complaining plays in the positive presentation of nurses’ identities. (shrink)

Este artículo explora cómo un grupo de enfermeros/as clínicos construye discursivamente sus posturas de expertos utilizando jerga médica mientras discuten sus prácticas profesionales y los casos de los pacientes en una clínica. Guiado por la tradición analítica discursiva de la sociolingüística interaccional, el análisis se basa en conversaciones naturales que han sido grabadas en audio y video durante cuatro reuniones clínicas en una institución de la salud en Nueva Zelanda. Este artículo muestra que el uso de la jerga médica juega (...) un papel vital en la construcción de posturas de expertos que observan las necesidades interactivas, y especialmente relacionales, de los participantes en estas reuniones clínicas. En particular, el artículo analiza el papel de la jerga médica en la construcción de las posturas expertas de los enfermeros/as clínicos cuando construyen alineaciones dentro del grupo, manejan la crítica profesional y manejan los desacuerdos en las interacciones entre pares. Las observaciones finales ofrecen reflexiones sobre el papel de la jerga médica en la construcción de la postura relacional de los enfermeros/as clínicos y la necesidad de investigar más a fondo el uso de la jerga especializada en otros contextos de comunicación entre pares. (shrink)