“Having a business conversation with oneself?”: self-formulations as an interactional strategy

The analysis of the data identified the phenomenon of self-formulations as being an expected and pragmatic outcome of talk in interaction. The ability to systematically lead meeting members to a single understanding of what is occurring is important if work is to be completed correctly. The use of self-formulations as a discursive strategy to maintain the speakers turn is essential if complicated ideas are to be communicated without disruption or debate. Key messages can be stressed and signalled to the listeners who in turn can retain these messages for future talk or communication in future meetings. SOMs were highly effective in using self-formulations as part of a planned and co-ordinated strategy in the delivery of key messages. Discursively, self-formulating obviated the opportunity for second party interaction typically formed by verbal confirmations or disconfirmations; the traditionally expected response of adjacency pairing was fulfilled as part of the self-formulating activity. This enabled managers to prevent disruption or challenge from arising in the initial stages of the turn. Although their monologue created in the extended turn was not in its own right a conversation, by implication it was, however, required to behave as one. In the analysis of the data, self -formulations were signalled in the longer stretches of turn taking, in the case of Marcus’s turn in excess of eight minutes. In ITUG02_T3, Marcus used self-formulations to build and to transform the key messages into a collective action. The key messages were formed and made available to be taken forward into the subsequent talk of the meeting. As a discursive strategy, self-formulations were thus instrumental in maintaining the turn. Future research of self-formulating should therefore be directed at examining extended turns of talk as that is where self-formulations manifest themselves. The application of the understanding of self-formulations as an interactional strategy in business meetings offers the potential to improve meetings effectiveness. Individuals who have the knowledge and skills to use self-formulating as part of their discursive repertoire improve their ability to communicate clearly and – if they are the team managers – to lead their teams effectively. This in turn contributes to the continuous development of their professional practice