Professional action games

The paper starts by circumscribing the issue and clarifying basic concepts. The object ‘professional action games’ is defined as institutional action games which have specific purposes and interests and are organized on some legal basis. Focusing on the example of business games, the crucial structure and essential points of business in our social market economy are elaborated. What emerges are highly complex games which cannot adequately be described by the addition of separate parts, such as context, language, culture, but need to be addressed from the very outset in a holistic approach. In the ‘mixed game’ human beings act and react as cultural beings. Culture is integrated in the game. The concept ‘theory’ is conceived of as a description and explanation of human beings’ competence-in-performance. An authentic example of a complex business meeting is analysed in order to illustrate what dialogic interaction in business means.