Managing disagreement in problem solving meeting talk

Problem solving (PbS) talk has been associated with disagreement and conflict as interactants oppose each other's views and express diverse opinions. Although disagreement and conflict have been regarded in earlier work as potentially negative acts more recent work points to the importance of context and local practices instead of a priori categorizations of what the interactants perceive as un/acceptable linguistic behaviour. The paper draws on data from two projects on workplace discourse, one focusing on multinational companies situated in Europe and one on small/medium firms (SMEs). The dataset consists of recordings of meetings, ethnographic observations and interviews. The analysis of the data shows that ‘deviating opinions’ are not only ‘acceptable’ but also unmarked and they form an inherent part of the PbS process. At the same time linguistic behaviour perceived as face threatening or intentionally impolite is typically rare. The paper closes by drawing a theoretical distinction between marked and unmarked disagreement. The latter is perceived as task bound and does not pose a threat to the management of the meeting participants’ complex identities and relationships.