infonet-economy

This chapter analyzes the discursive unfolding of interactions between a professional coach and a middle manager during a management coaching conversation, a specific form of talk-at-work. The theoretical framework aims to advance discursive theorizing by differentiating between discourses and discursive practices as well as between relational and temporal processes. We argue that this framework allows studying how discourses are constituted through discursive practices such as reformulating, assessing, or orienting between the two speakers and the extent to which the use of specific discourses develops over the course of the session. Concretely, the empirical analysis illustrates how the coach is able to enroll the manager into a set of predefined discourses about the management of emotions through a mode of interaction we call empathetic persuasion. In doing so we also make an empirical contribution by tracing how employees are adopting emotional management discourses by means of Human Resource Management interventions like management coaching.