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'So what problems bother you and you are not speeding up your work?' Problem solving talk at work
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Angouri, Jo and Bargiela-Chiappini, Francesca (2011) 'So what problems bother you and you are not speeding up your work?' Problem solving talk at work. Discourse & Communication, Vol.5 (No.3). pp. 209-229. doi:10.1177/1750481311405589 ISSN 1750-4813.
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1750481311405589
Abstract
Problem solving (PbS) can be readily described as one of the key activities regularly performed by professionals in any workplace setting. Despite its importance, however, there is relatively little (socio) linguistic research which looks at the complex ways in which problems are constructed in discourse. This article sees the enactment of a 'problem' as a discursive phenomenon with fluid boundaries. It draws on business meeting data recorded in multinational companies in Europe and focuses on excerpts identified by the participants as having a PbS function. The data show that problem solving processes and practice are anchored to the structure of the organizations, the local history and employees' shared perceptions of professional practices and hierarchies in their workplace. The analysis also shows two focal points in the PbS talk of the participants in this study, namely identification of a problem (what the problem is) and its ownership (whose problem it is). These, however, are not predetermined starting points but rather locally constructed in relation to the status, expertise and shared/past history of the interactants.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||
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Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD28 Management. Industrial Management P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics |
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Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Centre for Applied Linguistics | ||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Problem solving, Discourse analysis, Sociolinguistics, Communication in organizations | ||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Discourse & Communication | ||||
Publisher: | Sage Publications Ltd. | ||||
ISSN: | 1750-4813 | ||||
Official Date: | August 2011 | ||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | Vol.5 | ||||
Number: | No.3 | ||||
Page Range: | pp. 209-229 | ||||
DOI: | 10.1177/1750481311405589 | ||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access |
Data sourced from Thomson Reuters' Web of Knowledge
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