Forms of Decision Making: Gatekeeping and Dialogic Coordination in CISV Organizational Meetings

Abstract

The present article deals with decision making as a communicative process taking place in organizations as social systems. We will investigate the process whereby decisions are produced, before being announced, by looking at turn design and sequence organization in the interaction, and by considering cultural presuppositions, which are specific patterns of expectations about interlocutors’ expectations. In so doing, we will try to combine theories and methodologies deriving from Conversation Analysis and Social Systems Theory. The article deals with interactionally achieved patterns of expectations concerning participants’ positioning in decision making and analyzes two different forms of decision making, namely, gatekeeping and coordination of participative decision making. These are analyzed within the framework of organizational meetings in which educational activities for children’s camps are planned. The analysis of videotaped and transcribed interactions taking place during these meetings highlights the ways in which different forms of decision making are socially constructed.

Intercultural Communication Systems and Discourses of Cultural Identity

“…In other words, it is important to understand if and under what conditions, coding of active participation and equity, sensitivity for personal expressions and expectations of empowerment, can become structural presuppositions of the chains of actions which make communication visible, guiding the autopoiesis of communication systems (e.g. Baraldi 2009Baraldi , 2012Baraldi , 2013. In particular, three problems which characterise the structural presuppositions of dialogic communication deserve empirical research to be better understood and explained.…”

Getting to Right: How Do Managers Make Good Decisions about Customers?

“…In that regard, recent studies from a variety of related disciplines have shed light on managerial decision making as a communicative process (Baraldi, 2013): as a way to evaluate entrepreneurial opportunities (Wood & Williams, 2013), as a tool for determining which technology to adopt (Spencer, Buhalis, & Moital, 2013), and as a mechanism for evaluating the impact of social ties and human capital on the choices made by small business owners (Jansen, Curseu, Vermeulen, Geurts, & Gibcus, 2013).…”

The multimodal interactional work of having wonderful ideas

“…When Sally asks, "would that be called friction" (Fig. 2c), she projects silent alignment [12] with the substance of Steve's acted-out explanation but questions "friction" as the appropriate name for it. Once Steve concludes his demonstration with the ball, Sally asks again, "yeah, but like would-is friction the correct term?"…”