Abstract
This article explores the increasing digitalization of workplace communication. Drawing on the material environment in a complex, technology-mediated workplace environment, the article investigates how remote sales interaction is constructed and managed by its participants. The data consist of web conferences conducted in Finland between a salesperson (SP) and a prospective customer (C). During the meeting, SP delivers a software solution demonstration on a shared computer screen on which only SP is able to take actions. Deploying the method of multimodal conversation analysis, the research focuses on how the shared computer screen is used as an interactional resource to achieve joint attention and to direct participants’ focus during the sales meeting. First, the shared screen view is SP’s resource; for instance, when SP describes the functionalities of the software, he/she recurrently uses deictic expressions and other linguistic means in combination with coordinated keyboard activity. Later, the shared screen view evolves into a medium for both participants’ actions. The findings suggest that, as the negotiation gets closer to the context of the customer organization’s business, C may use the screen as a vehicle for his/her own interactional purposes. Through a gradual growth in understanding of the software, C begins commenting on the screen view or guides SP’s actions on the shared screen, enabling both a collaborative sales interaction and knowledge construction in a complex technological environment. Unlike previous studies on technology-supported institutional telephone interactions, SP’s screen view in the present study is a resource shared by both the professional and the client. The study contributes both to the field of technology-mediated workplace studies as well as to the field of sales and marketing research.
Appendix: Transcription conventions
- .
-
Falling intonation
- ,
-
Level or slightly rising intonation
- ?
-
Rising intonation
- ↑
-
Upward intonation pattern
- ↓
-
Downward intonation pattern
- :
-
Sound stretch
- really
-
Stressed syllable
- (.)
-
Pause, less than 0.3 s
- (0.5)
-
Length of pause
- [ ]
-
Overlap
- ((laughs))
-
Transcriber’s descriptions or comments, contextual information
- (--)
-
Indecipherable
References
Aarikka-Stenroos, Leena & Elina Jaakkola. 2012. Value co-creation in knowledge intensive business services: A dyadic perspective on the joint problem solving process. Industrial Marketing Management 41(1). 15–26.10.1016/j.indmarman.2011.11.008Search in Google Scholar
Atkinson, J. Maxwell, John Heritage & Keith Oatley (eds.). 1984. Structures of social action. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Baumann, Jasmin, Kenneth Le Meunier-FitzHugh & Hugh N. Wilson. 2017. The challenge of communicating reciprocal value promises: Buyer–seller value proposition disparity in professional services. Industrial Marketing Management 64. 107–121.10.1016/j.indmarman.2017.02.002Search in Google Scholar
Bowers, John & David Martin. 2000. Machinery in the new factories: Interaction and technology in a bank’s telephone call centre. In Proceedings of the 2000 ACM conference on computer supported cooperative work, 49–58.10.1145/358916.358952Search in Google Scholar
Ballantyne, David & Richard J. Varey. 2006. Creating value-in-use through marketing interaction: The exchange logic of relating, communicating and knowing. Marketing Theory 6(3). 335–348.10.1177/1470593106066795Search in Google Scholar
Couper-Kuhlen, Elizabeth. 2014. What does grammar tell us about action? Pragmatics 24(3). 623–647.10.1075/prag.24.3.08couSearch in Google Scholar
Carlile, Paul R. 2004. Transferring, translating, and transforming: An integrative framework for managing knowledge across boundaries. Organization Science 15(5). 555–568.10.1287/orsc.1040.0094Search in Google Scholar
Clift, Rebecca. 2016. Conversation analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Deppermann, Arnulf. 2014. Multimodal participation in simultaneous joint projects. In Pentti Haddington, Tiina Keisanen, Lorenza Mondada & Maurice Nevile (eds.), Multiactivity in social interaction: Beyond multitasking, 247–281. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/z.187.09depSearch in Google Scholar
Dixon, Andrea L. & John, Jeff) F. Tanner, Jr. 2012. Transforming selling: Why it is time to think differently about sales research. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management 32(1). 9–13.10.2753/PSS0885-3134320102Search in Google Scholar
Etelämäki, Marja. 2009. The Finnish demonstrative pronouns in light of interaction. Journal of Pragmatics 41(1). 25–46.10.1016/j.pragma.2008.09.005Search in Google Scholar
Geiger, Susi & John Finch. 2009. Industrial sales people as market actors. Industrial Marketing Management 38(6). 608–617.10.1016/j.indmarman.2009.04.003Search in Google Scholar
Goodwin, Charles. 2000. Action and embodiment within situated human interaction. Journal of Pragmatics 32. 1489–1522.10.1016/S0378-2166(99)00096-XSearch in Google Scholar
Goodwin, Charles. 2007. Participation, stance and affect in the organization of activities. Discourse & Society 18(1). 53–73.10.1177/0957926507069457Search in Google Scholar
Haas, Alexander, Ivan Snehota & Daniela Corsaro. 2012. Creating value in business relationships: The role of sales. Industrial Marketing Management 41(1). 94–105.10.1016/j.indmarman.2011.11.004Search in Google Scholar
Haddington, Pentti, Tiina Keisanen, Lorenza Mondada & Maurice Nevile (eds.). 2014. Multiactivity in social interaction: Beyond multitasking. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/z.187Search in Google Scholar
Heath, Christian & Paul Luff. 1993. Disembodied conduct: Interactional asymmetries in video- mediated communication. In Graham Button (ed.), Technology in working order: Studies of work, interaction, and technology, 35–54. London: Routledge.Search in Google Scholar
Heath, Christian & Paul Luff. 2000. Technology in action. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511489839Search in Google Scholar
Heath, Christian & Paul Luff. 2012. Embodied action and organizational activity. In Jack Sidnell & Tanya Stivers (eds.), The handbook of conversation analysis, 283–307. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.10.1002/9781118325001.ch14Search in Google Scholar
Heritage, John. 2013. Epistemics in conversation. The handbook of conversation analysis, 370–394. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.10.1002/9781118325001.ch18Search in Google Scholar
Heritage, John. 1984. A change-of-state token and aspects of its sequential placement. In J. Maxwell Atkinson & John Heritage (eds.), Structures of social action: Studies in conversation analysis, 299–345. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511665868.020Search in Google Scholar
Hindmarsh, John & Christian Heath. 2000. Embodied reference: A study of deixis in workplace interaction. Journal of Pragmatics 32(12). 1855–1878.10.1016/S0378-2166(99)00122-8Search in Google Scholar
Kaski, Timo, Jarkko Niemi & Ellen B. Pullins. 2018. Rapport building in authentic B2B sales interaction. Industrial Marketing Management 69. 235–252.10.1016/j.indmarman.2017.08.019Search in Google Scholar
Kaski, Timo, Ari Alamäki & Ellen B. Pullins. 2019. Fostering collaborative mind-sets among customers: A transformative learning approach. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management 39(1). 42–59.10.1080/08853134.2018.1489727Search in Google Scholar
Koole, Tom. 2010. Displays of epistemic access: Student responses to teacher explanations. Research on Language and Social Interaction 43(2). 183–209.10.1080/08351811003737846Search in Google Scholar
Koivisto, Aino. 2015. Displaying now-understanding: The Finnish change-of-state token aa. Discourse Processes 52(2). 111–148.10.1080/0163853X.2014.914357Search in Google Scholar
Laury, Ritva. 1997. Demonstratives in interaction: The emergence of a definite article in Finnish. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/sidag.7Search in Google Scholar
Levinson, Stephen C. 1992 [1979]. Activity types and language. In Paul Drew & John Heritage (eds.), Talk at work: Interaction in institutional setting, 66–100. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Levy, Mike & Rod Gardner. 2012. Liminality in multitasking: Where talk and task collide in computer collaborations. Language in Society. 557–587.10.1017/S0047404512000656Search in Google Scholar
Luff, Paul, Jon Hindmarsh & Christian Heath (eds.). 2000. Workplace studies: Recovering work practice and informing system design. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511628122Search in Google Scholar
Luff, Paul & Christian Heath. 2000. The collaborative production of computer commands in command and control. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 52(4). 669–699.10.1006/ijhc.1999.0354Search in Google Scholar
Makkonen-Craig, Henna. 2005. Toimittajan läsnäolo sanomalehtitekstissä: Näkökulmia suomen kielen dialogisiin passiivilauseisiin [The journalist’s presence/involvement in newspaper discourse: Perspectives to the Finnish dialogical passive]. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society.Search in Google Scholar
Markman, Kris M. 2009. “So what shall we talk about”: Openings and closings in chat-based virtual meetings. The Journal of Business Communication, Vol. 46(1). 150–170.10.1177/0021943608325751Search in Google Scholar
Melander, Helen & Fritjof Sahlström. 2009. In tow of the blue whale: Learning as interactional changes in topical orientation. Journal of Pragmatics 41(8). 1519–1537.10.1016/j.pragma.2007.05.013Search in Google Scholar
Mikkola, Piia & Esa Lehtinen. 2014. Initiating activity shifts through use of appraisal forms as material objects during performance appraisal interviews. In Pentti Haddington, Maurice Nevile, Mirka Rauniomaa & Trine Heinemann (eds.), Interacting with objects: Language, materiality, and social activity, 57–78. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/z.186.03mikSearch in Google Scholar
Mondada, Lorenza. 2016. An interactionist perspective on the ecology of linguistic practices: The situated and embodied production of talk. In Ralph Ludwig, Steve Pagel & Peter Mühlhäusler (eds.), Linguistic ecology and language contact, 77–108. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/9781139649568.004Search in Google Scholar
Mondada, Lorenza. 2014a. The temporal orders of multiactivity: Operating and demonstrating the surgical theatre. In Pentti Haddington, Tiina Keisanen, Lorenza Mondada & Maurice Nevile (eds.), Multiactivity in social interaction: Beyond multitasking, 33–75. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/z.187.02monSearch in Google Scholar
Mondada, Lorenza. 2014b. Pointing, talk, and the bodies. In Mandana Seyfeddinipur & Marianne Gullberg (eds.), From gesture in conversation to visible action as utterance: Essays in honor of Adam Kendon, 95–124. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/z.188.06monSearch in Google Scholar
Mondada, Lorenza. 2008. Using video for a sequential and multimodal analysis of social interaction: Videotaping institutional telephone calls. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung/Forum: Qualitative Social Research 9(3). https://doi.org/10.17169/fqs-9.3.1161.Search in Google Scholar
Nevile, Maurice, Pentti Haddington, Trine Heinemann & Mirka Rauniomaa (eds.). 2014. Interacting with objects: Language, materiality, and social activity. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/z.186Search in Google Scholar
Nielsen, Soren Bo. 2014. “I’ll just see what you had before”: Making computer use relevant while patients present their problems. In Pentti Haddington, Maurice Nevile, Mirka Rauniomaa & Trine Heinemann (eds.), Interacting with objects, 79–98. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/z.186.04becSearch in Google Scholar
Nielsen, Soren Bo. 2016. How doctors manage consulting computer records while interacting with patients. Research on Language and Social Interaction 49(1), 58–74.10.1080/08351813.2016.1126451Search in Google Scholar
Niemi, Jarkko & Ellen B. Pullins. 2021. Tell me more: How salespeople encourage customer disclosure. Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing 36(5), 717–728.10.1108/JBIM-11-2019-0482Search in Google Scholar
Nishizaka, Aug. 2014. The sustained orientation to one activity in the multiactivity situation during prenatal ultrasound examinations. In Pentti Haddington, Tiina Keisanen, Lorenza Mondada & Maurice Nevile (eds.), Multiactivity in social interaction: Beyond multitasking, 79–108. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/z.187.03nisSearch in Google Scholar
Oittinen, Tuire & Arja Piirainen-Marsh. 2015. Openings in technology-mediated business meetings. Journal of Pragmatics 85. 47–66.10.1016/j.pragma.2015.06.001Search in Google Scholar
Raevaara, Liisa. 2006. Kysymykset virkailijan työkaluna [Questions as a tool of a clerk]. In Marja-Leena Sorjonen & Liisa Raevaara (eds.), Arjen asiointia: Keskusteluja Kelan tiskin äärellä [Everyday errands: Conversations in the Finnish Social Insurance Office], 86–116. Helsinki: Finnish Literature Society.Search in Google Scholar
Rapp, Adam, Daniel G. Bachrach, Nikolaos Panagopoulos & Jessica Ogilvie. 2014. Salespeople as knowledge brokers: A review and critique of the challenger sales model. Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management 34(4). 245–259.10.1080/08853134.2014.908126Search in Google Scholar
Schegloff, Emanuel A. 2007. Sequence organization in interaction: A primer in conversation analysis I, Vol. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511791208Search in Google Scholar
Sorjonen, Marja-Leena. 2001. Responding in conversation: A study of response particles in Finnish, Vol. 70. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.10.1075/pbns.70Search in Google Scholar
Stivers, Tanya, Lorenza Mondada & John Steensig (eds.). 2011. The morality of knowledge in conversation, Vol. 29. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511921674Search in Google Scholar
Storbacka, Kaj, Roderick J. Brodie, Tilo Böhmann, Paul P. Maglio & Suvi Nenonen. 2016. Actor engagement as a microfoundation for value co-creation. Journal of Business Research 69(8). 3008–3017.10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.02.034Search in Google Scholar
Timonen, Hanna, Jarkko Niemi & Johanna Vuori. 2021. Kuka vie ja kuka seuraa? Toiminnallinen vetovastuu myyntineuvotteluissa [Who leads and who follows? Agency in business-to-business sales interaction]. In Jarkko Niemi & Johanna Vuori (eds.), Myyntityö vuorovaikutuksena [Sales work as interaction], 241–276. Tampere: Vastapaino.Search in Google Scholar
Vargo, Stephen L. & Robert F. Lusch. 2008. Service-dominant logic: Continuing the evolution. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 36(1). 1–10.10.1007/s11747-007-0069-6Search in Google Scholar
Zimmerman, Don H. 1992. The interactional organization of calls for emergency assistance. In Paul Drew & John Heritage (eds.), Talk at work: Interaction in institutional setting, 418–469. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Search in Google Scholar
© 2021 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Workplace communication in flux: from discrete languages, text genres and conversations to complex communicative situations
- Orienting to the language learner role in multilingual workplace meetings
- Negotiating belonging in multilingual work environments: church professionals’ engagement with migrants
- Changing participation in web conferencing: the shared computer screen as an online sales interaction resource
- Policing language in the world of new work: the commodification of workplace communication in organizational consulting
- “It’s not the same thing as last time I wrote a report”: Digital text sharing in changing organizations
- Regular Articles
- “It sounds like elves talking” – Polish migrants in Aberystwyth (Wales) and their impressions of the Welsh language
- Exploring lexical bundles in low proficiency level L2 learners’ English writing: an ETS corpus study
- Kingdom of heaven versus nirvana: a comparative study of conceptual metaphors for Christian and Buddhist ideals of life
- Linguistic multi-competence in the community: the case of a Japanese plural suffix -tachi for individuation
- Accent or not? Language attitudes towards regional variation in British Sign Language
- Validating young learners’ plurilingual repertoires as legitimate linguistic and cultural resources in the EFL classroom
- A corpus-based study of LGBT-related news discourse in Thailand’s and international English-language newspapers
- Academic emotions in giving genre-based peer feedback: an emotional intelligence perspective
- Detecting concealed language knowledge via response times
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Workplace communication in flux: from discrete languages, text genres and conversations to complex communicative situations
- Orienting to the language learner role in multilingual workplace meetings
- Negotiating belonging in multilingual work environments: church professionals’ engagement with migrants
- Changing participation in web conferencing: the shared computer screen as an online sales interaction resource
- Policing language in the world of new work: the commodification of workplace communication in organizational consulting
- “It’s not the same thing as last time I wrote a report”: Digital text sharing in changing organizations
- Regular Articles
- “It sounds like elves talking” – Polish migrants in Aberystwyth (Wales) and their impressions of the Welsh language
- Exploring lexical bundles in low proficiency level L2 learners’ English writing: an ETS corpus study
- Kingdom of heaven versus nirvana: a comparative study of conceptual metaphors for Christian and Buddhist ideals of life
- Linguistic multi-competence in the community: the case of a Japanese plural suffix -tachi for individuation
- Accent or not? Language attitudes towards regional variation in British Sign Language
- Validating young learners’ plurilingual repertoires as legitimate linguistic and cultural resources in the EFL classroom
- A corpus-based study of LGBT-related news discourse in Thailand’s and international English-language newspapers
- Academic emotions in giving genre-based peer feedback: an emotional intelligence perspective
- Detecting concealed language knowledge via response times