Requests at work: Negotiating the Conditions for Conversation

This article is based on a longitudinal study of communication in a business environment. The majority of interactions in this business environment are conversation for action, that is, conversations through which participants get things done. Typically, these conversations begin with a bid for action (usually realized by a request) by one party. The requestee can accept the bid or negotiate to change the conditions of the initiating bid for action. Four validity conditions are negotiable: comprehensibility, truth, sincerity, and rightness. This article presents a model for the opening of such conversations for action. The opening moves are represented by a transition network with the options available at each node represented by system networks. This model demonstrates the two-tier nature of interaction: participants respond to both the request and its conditions.