Local identity processes in business meetings displayed through laughter in complaint sequences

This paper investigates how hierarchy and seniority are brought into existence in talk-in-interaction. Using the method of Conversation Analysis (CA), the study reveals that laughter in complaint sequences can indicate organizational hierarchical identities. 15 h of videotaped business meetings form the basis for this study.The combined activity ‘indirect complaint + laughter’ plays a central role in both the interactional co-construction and realization of hierarchy and seniority. In complaint sequences in which complainant and complainee are on the same hierarchical level, laughter enables the complainant to implicitly express potential indignations the complainee's conduct may have caused by presenting those as laughable. In cases of considerable hierarchical disparity between complainant (subordinate) and complainee (superior), laughter serves as one tool in carrying out the actual complaint, so that the complainant need not verbally express any misconduct. Further, laughter is a tool for the complainant on the one hand to seek and for the co-present recipients on the other hand to convey alignment and affiliation.