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This study aimed to explore the communication in consultations between patients and health care staff from a gender perspective. We used 23 tape-recorded consultations between patients with Atrial Fibrillation and five nurses and five physicians at cardiac outpatient clinics at six different hospitals in southern Sweden during the autumn of 2009 to explore the verbal gendered constructions of patients.Through critical discourse analysis, we revealed that the male patients tended to describe their ailments with performance-oriented statements, whereas the female patients usually used emotional-oriented statements. The staff downplayed the male patients' questions and statements, while they acknowledged concern toward the female patients. Both the patients and the staff made conclusions according to a mutual construction. Male patients were constructed as competent, and female patients as fragile through gender-stereotypical communication. Open-ended statements and questions enabled consultations to be less limited by gender stereotypes. 2This study aimed to explore the communication in consultations between patients and health care staff from a gender perspective. We used 23 tape-recorded consultations between patients with Atrial Fibrillation and nurses and physicians at cardiac outpatient clinics at six different hospitals in southern Sweden during the autumn of 2009 and explored the verbal gendered constructions of patients through interactions between patients and caregivers in clinical settings. Through critical discourse analysis, we revealed that the male patients tended to describe their ailments with performance-oriented statements, whereas the female patients usually used emotional-oriented statements. The staff downplayed the male patients' questions and statements, while they acknowledged concern toward the female patients. Both the patients and the staff made conclusions according to a mutual construction. Male patients were constructed as competent, and female patients as fragile through gender-stereotypical communication. Open-ended statements and questions enabled consultations to be less limited by gender stereotypes.

The findings and methods contribute to the international research on cooperation problems in multi-professional teams and to the empirical research on institutional discourse through text and talk.

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to investigate students' qualitatively different ways of understanding basic economic relationships in three undergraduate courses in the discipline of accounting. Design/methodology/approach -The theoretical frame is variation theory, which is a learning theory about the different ways students understand the learning object (in this study, basic economic relationships). The instructors chose a learning object which was investigated under two different teaching conditions -the traditional lecture model and the adjusted Learning Study model. Two student groups in a Business Programme (one group admitted the year after the first group) were identified as a comparison group and a target group. The two groups were comparable in various relevant parameters. All students took three required accounting courses. In the comparison group, the instructors used the traditional lecture model; in the target group, the instructors used the adjusted Learning Study model. The first year of the study was used for training the instructors and for the preparation of teaching prerequisites. Findings -There were significant differences between the two groups' examination results in the three courses. Students in the adjusted Learning Study model group performed better. The conclusions have scientific implications for students' understanding of the subject and educational implications for teaching in terms of new teaching methods and revised curricula. The findings are valuable to professional instructors/lecturers in higher education. Originality/value -The findings and methods of this study contribute to the international research on empirically based didactic knowledge of subject content in higher education. Even though the subject content is specific in the study, the methodology of variation theory is applicable to other disciplines.

Purpose -The aim of this paper is to investigate actors' ways of sensemaking through the use of rhetorical strategies, frames, and categories, in a management team meeting. Design/methodology/approach -The empirical data were generated from a video recorded and transcribed management meeting, and participant observation. The analysis of institutional discourses and practices builds upon the assumption that language and texts are the main tools for understanding actors' social reality. The managers' ways of sensemaking of institutional discourses and practices is captured through their use of tools like rhetorical strategies, frames, and categories in talk-in-interaction. Findings -The team managers' ways of sensemaking through mobilizing rhetorical strategies, institutional categories, and how they recontextualise frames in negotiation of a disputed issue, adds new aspects to previous studies of the multi voiced complex integration processes in a cross-border acquisition. The significance of the results is the revealing of actors' frequent use of rhetorical strategies, frames, and categories in sensemaking processes. The study calls for further research on structural features of institutional talk as related to the dynamics of talk-in-interaction. Originality/value -The findings and methods of analysis contribute to international business studies and to the empirical-based research on institutional interaction through text and talk.