This article takes the practitioner’s view toward and focuses on participation through talk within multiparty settings of one process consulting case. From the perspective of discursive psychology, the authors ask what happens in interaction when the consultant is working to put into practice the ideal of active client participation in organizational change. They argue that participation is established when psychological ownership of the process is displayed through talk in interaction. This happens when what the authors call “ownership talk” is used: A person is sharing his or her views, interests, and experiences related to the change process.The authors provide detailed observations and interpretations about how local rules of displaying ownership talk are provided by the consultant and how they are negotiated, tested, and followed by the participants. The value of the ownership talk concept in developing theory and practices within the fields of organizational change, organizational development, and process consulting work is discussed.
PurposeConsulting work aims to bring about changes in organizational performance. In OD‐consulting practices, changes are to be sought through conversational settings created for these purposes. The purpose of this paper is to take a discursive approach to change work and ask how interactional change is constructed and managed during multi‐party consulting conversations.Design/methodology/approachA case episode from an authentic consultation event is presented. By combining ideas from discursive psychology and conversational analysis, it is shown that a consulting conversation may be socially sensitive and face‐threatening for all concerned.FindingsThe paper shows how such a “tricky situation” is not to be avoided but to be actively constructed for facilitating change. The use of different discursive strategies for managing criticism and blame is demonstrated.Practical implicationsTricky situations involving criticism and blame can be used in facilitating interactional change. The consultant's role is to invite personal and focused criticism and to utilize a meta‐perspective and to anchor the conversation in the present situational interaction.Originality/valueThe paper takes an interaction perspective on OD‐consulting (process consulting) using naturalistic data and shows in detailed analysis the activity of the consultant and the clients.
Asymmetry is viewed as one characteristic of organizational relationships. Organizations need power structures, hierarchies and other sort of inequalities. However, symmetric relationships are also needed, at least for providing commitment and learning between people. This article focuses on the nature of asymmetry and symmetry in consulting settings. It draws from the social constructionist point of view and examines the variation of asymmetric and symmetric relationship construction within a single multiparty consulting situation. Through data collected from an authentic consulting process and methodology derived from Discourse Analysis, the article argues that asymmetry-symmetry dimension is present for consulting parties and that the parties mutually produce and re-produce the balance between the polarities. The paper discusses the role of a process consultant in the re-construction of organizational relationships.
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