A study of discourse of professionals in a medical laboratory

Abstract

Many workplace activities are achieved through talk. It is not surprising that there is a growing body ofliterature on interaction through talk at workplace in various settings (e.g. business, clinical, educational, etc.). However, research on interaction between professionals in laboratory settings in the context of Hong Kong is limited. Drawing on more than 20 hours of audio-recorded interaction between a supervisor and his subordinates, supplemented with interviews and workplace observation, the paper explores interaction patterns between professionals in a medical laboratory in Hong Kong from a conversation analytic perspective. We particularly focus on the sequential structures and linguistic strategies in directive sequences issued from/to the laboratory supervisor to/from his subordinates. We broadly define a directive as an act to get someone to do something. While a directive may be delivered in one single utterance, it is not uncommon to see a directive being sequentially constructed. A directive sequence may include a pre-sequence, the directive turn (which may not be explicitly uttered), information and clarification requests, explanations, and detailed instructions. Moreover, while our data supports what has been reported in the literature that people of high status tend to give a directive in more direct and less polite forms, it seems that at the workplace under investigation, it is also acceptable for the subordinates to use direct and not mitigated forms when requesting the supervisor to do something for them. Participants’ choice of linguistic strategies in giving directives is closed related to the context embedded in the interaction and is the result of negotiation between the interlocutors. The paper has implication for applying conversation analysis to the study of workplace interaction and brings insights into the norms of interaction between laboratory professions in Hong Kong.