‘We don’t need to abide by that!’: Negotiating professional roles in problem-solving talk at work

In this paper we examine the dynamics of problem-solving as emergent and situated in interaction. We focus on the ways in which interactants negotiate their professional roles during the course of the business meeting event. We zoom in on the processes of formulating, negotiating and ratifying an issue as a problem and we argue that individuals negotiate their stances in relation to their perceived/projected professional roles. The processes of problem-solving are, simultaneously, processes of self/other positioning. We take an Interactional Sociolinguistic perspective and draw on audio-recorded meeting talk collected in a multinational corporate workplace. Our analysis shows that interactants draw on issues of accountability, perceived/projected responsibilities and expertise in pursuit of their own interactional agenda in the problem-solving meeting. We close the paper with directions for further research.