Institutional interaction

Aino Koivisto & Jarkko Niemi
University of Helsinki | Haaga-Helia University of Applied Sciences
Table of contents

When the participants in an interaction discuss matters connected to at least one of the participants’ work-related tasks, the interaction can be described as institutional. In contrast to everyday sociable conversations, there is in institutional interaction a purpose that participants try to achieve, for example when a person with a cold books an appointment with a medical doctor. However, the difference between everyday conversation and institutional talk is not straightforward or self-evident but rather a result of the participants’ orientations to the situation, manifested in the design of their talk (e.g. Drew & Heritage 1992: 22). Consider the following two examples, which both demonstrate a ‘how are you doing’ sequence in an opening phase of a doctor’s appointment in Finland.

Full-text access is restricted to subscribers. Log in to obtain additional credentials. For subscription information see Subscription & Price. Direct PDF access to this article can be purchased through our e-platform.

References

Arminen, Ilkka
2005 Institutional Interaction: Studies of Talk at Work. Aldershot: Ashgate.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Atkinson, J. Maxwell and Paul Drew
1979 Order in Court: The Organization of Verbal Interaction in Judicial Settings. London: Macmillan. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Clark, Colin, Paul Drew and Trevor Pinch
2003 “Managing prospect affiliation and rapport in real-life sales encounters.” Discourse Studies 5: 5–31. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Clayman, Steven E.
2013 “Conversation analysis in the news interview.” In The Handbook of Conversation Analysis, ed. by Jack Sidnell and Tanya Stivers, 630–656. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Clift, Rebecca
2016 Conversation Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Clift, Rebecca, Paul Drew and Ian Hutchby
2006 “Conversation analysis.” In Handbook of Pragmatics 10, 1–17. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Couper-Kuhlen, Elizabeth and Margret Selting
2018 Interactional Linguistics. Studying Language in Social Interaction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
De Stefani, Elwys
2018 “Institutional invitations to a meeting: Cold calls to bank clients.” Journal of Pragmatics 125: 180–199. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Drew, Paul and John Heritage
1992 “Analyzing talk at work: An introduction.” In Talk at Work. Interaction in Institutional Settings, ed. by Paul Drew and John Heritage, 3–65. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Drew, Paul and Marja-Leena Sorjonen
2011 “Dialogue in institutional interactions.” In Discourse Studies: A Multidisciplinary Introduction, ed. by Teun A. van Dijk, 191–216. London: Sage. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Dubinsky, Alan J.
1981 “A factor analytic study of the personal selling process.” Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management 1: 26–33.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gardner, Rod
2013 “Conversation analysis in the classroom.” In The Handbook of Conversation Analysis, ed. by Jack Sidnell and Tanya Stivers, 593–611. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grönroos, Christian
2011 “Value co-creation in service logic: A critical analysis.” Marketing Theory 11 (3): 279–301. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Haakana, Markku and Marja-Leena Sorjonen
2011 “Invoking another context: Playfulness in buying lottery tickets at convenience stores.” Journal of Pragmatics 43: 1288–1302. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Halonen, Mia and Aino Koivisto
forthcoming. “Moving money. Money as an interactional resource in kiosk encounters in Finland.” In Encounters at the Counter: Language, Embodiment and Material Objects in Shops ed. by Barbara Fox, Lorenza Mondada and Marja-Leena Sorjonen Cambridge Cambridge University Press
2009 “Neljä viiskyt. Miten ilmoittaa asiakkaalle ostosten hinta? [Four fifty. How to announce the price of purchases?].” In Kieli kioskilla. Tutkimuksia kioskiasioinnin rutiineista [The language use in convenience stores. Studies on the routines in service encounters in convenience stores], ed. by Hanna Lappalainen and Liisa Raevaara, 153–173. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heritage, John
1984 Harold Garfinkel and Ethnometodology. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1985 “Analyzing news interviews: Aspects of the production of talk for an “overhearing” audience.” In Handbook of Discourse Analysis, vol. III: Discourse and Dialogue, ed. by Teun A. van Dijk, 95–119. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1997 “Conversation analysis and institutional talk. Analyzing data.” In Qualitative Research: Theory, Method and Practice, ed. by David Silverman, 222–245. London: Sage.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Heritage, John and Steven Clayman
2010 Talk in Action. Interaction, Identities and Institutions. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Humă, Bogdana, Elizabeth Stokoe and Rein Ove Sikveland
2019 “Persuasive conduct: Alignment and resistance in prospecting “cold” calls.” Journal of Language and Social Psychology 38 (1): 33–60. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kaski, Timo, Jarkko Niemi and Ellen Pullins
2018 “Rapport building in authentic B2B sales interaction.” Industrial Marketing Management 69: 235–252. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Koivisto, Aino and Mia Halonen
2009 “Tuleeko muuta? Maksun aika [Anything else? Time for payment].” In Kieli kioskilla. Tutkimuksia kioskiasioinnin rutiineista [The language use in convenience stores. Studies on the routines in service encounters in convenience stores], ed. by Hanna Lappalainen and Liisa Raevaara, 120–152. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Komter, Martha
2013 “Conversation analysis in the courtroom.” In The Handbook of Conversation Analysis, ed. by Jack Sidnell and Tanya Stivers, 612–629. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lindfors, Pirjo and Liisa Raevaara
2005 “Discussing patients’ eating and drinking habits in medical and homeopathic consultations.” Communication & Medicine 2 (2): 137–149. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lindström Jan, Catrin Norrby, Camilla Wide and Jenny Nilsson
2017 “Intersubjectivity at the counter: Artefacts and multimodal interaction in theatre box office encounters.” Journal of Pragmatics 108: 81–97. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Llewellyn, Nick
2015 “Microstructures of economic action: Talk, interaction, and the bottom line.” The British Journal of Sociology 66 (3): 486–511. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mazeland, Harrie
2004 “Responding to the double implication of telemarketers’ opinion queries.” Discourse Studies 6 (1): 95–115. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mehan, Hugh
1985 “The structure of classroom discourse.” In Handbook of Discourse Analysis vol. III: Discourse and Dialogue, ed. by Teun A. van Dijk, 120–132. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1979 Learning Lessons: Social Organization in the Classroom. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mondada, Lorenza and Marja-Leena Sorjonen
2016 “Making multiple requests in French and Finnish convenience stores.” Language in Society 45: 733–765. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Niemi, Jarkko and Linda Hirvonen
2019 “Money talks: Customer-initiated price negotiation in business-to-business sales interaction.” Discourse & Communication 13 (1): 95–118. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Peräkylä, Anssi
2013 “Conversation analysis in psychotherapy.” In The Handbook of Conversation Analysis, ed. by Jack Sidnell and Tanya Stivers, 533–550. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Raevaara, Liisa
2006 “Kysymykset virkailijan työkaluna [Questions as a clerk’s tool].” In Arjen asiointia: Keskusteluja Kelan tiskin äärellä [Everyday errands: Conversations in the Finnish social insurance office], ed. by Marja-Leena Sorjonen and Liisa Raevaara, 86–116. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2011 “Accounts at convenience stores: Doing dispreference and small talk.” Journal of Pragmatics 43: 556–571. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Raevaara, Liisa, Johanna Ruusuvuori and Markku Haakana
2001 “Institutionaalinen vuorovaikutus ja sen tutkiminen [Research on institutional interaction].” In Institutionaalinen vuorovaikutus. Keskustelunanalyyttisia tutkimuksia [Institutional interaction. Conversation analytic studies], ed. by Johanna Ruusuvuori, Markku Haakana and Liisa Raevaara, 11–38. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society,Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Raevaara, Liisa and Marja-Leena Sorjonen
2006 “Vuorovaikutuksen osanottajien toiminta ja genre. Keskustelunanalyyttinen näkökulma [Participant activity and genre. A conversation analytic perspective].” In Genre – tekstilaji [Genre – text type], ed. by Anne Mäntynen, Susanna Shore and Anna Solin, 122–150. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sacks, Harvey
1967 “The search for help. No one to turn to.” In Essays in Self Destruction, ed. by E. S. Schneidman, 203–223. New York: Science House.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Schegloff, Emmanuel A.
2007 Sequence Organization in Interaction. A Primer in Conversation Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sorjonen, Marja-Leena
2001 Responding in Conversation: A Study of Response Particles in Finnish. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sorjonen, Marja-Leena and Liisa Raevaara
2014 “On the grammatical form of requests at the convenience store: Requesting as embodied action.” In Requesting in Social Interaction, ed. by Paul Drew and Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen, 243–268. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stokoe, Elizabeth, Bogdana Humă, Rein Ove Sikveland and Heidi Kevoe-Feldman
2020 “When delayed responses are productive: Being persuaded following resistance in conversation.” Journal of Pragmatics 155: 70–82. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stommel, Wyke and Hedwig te Molder
2015 “Counselling online and over the phone: When pre-closing questions fail as a closing device.” Research on Language and Social Interaction 48 (3): 281–300. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Stommel, Wyke, Harry van Goor and Martijn Stommel
2019 “Other-attentiveness in video consultation openings: A conversation analysis of video-mediated versus face-to-face consultations”. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 24 (6): 275–292. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Teas Gill, Virginia and Felicia Roberts
2013 “Conversation analysis in medicine.” In The Handbook of Conversation Analysis, ed. by Jack Sidnell and Tanya Stivers, 575–592. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Thompson, Sandra, Barbara Fox and Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen
2015 Grammar in Everyday Talk: Building Responsive Actions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Vázquez Carranza, Ariel
2017 “If vegetables could talk…: A structural and sequential analysis of buying and selling interactions in a Mexican fruit and vegetable shop.” Discourse Studies 19 (6): 711–731. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Weiste, Elina
2015  Relational work in therapeutic interaction: A comparative conversation analytic study on psychoanalysis, cognitive psychotherapy and resource-centred counselling . Ph.D. thesis, University of Helsinki. Available at http://​urn​.fi​/URN:ISBN:978​-951​-51​-1042​-8
 
Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue