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Part of
Identity Struggles: Evidence from workplaces around the world
Edited by Dorien Van De Mieroop and Stephanie Schnurr
[Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture 69] 2017
► pp. 39–56

Chapter 3
Constructing a “competent” meeting chair

A study of the discourse of meeting chairing in a Hong Kong workplace

This chapter investigates how an inexperienced manager struggles to construct or not to construct himself as a (competent) meeting chair in face of his boss’s criticism on his meeting chairing skills. It draws on video-recordings of business meetings collected at a small company in Hong Kong and employs a combination of conversation analysis, social constructionism, and the Community of Practice theory as its analytical tool. The analysis reveals that discrepant views on effective meeting chairing and orientations to meeting conventions can become sources of identity struggles. This study demonstrates that the construction of a meeting chair identity is complex and involves collaboration and negotiation among meeting participants. It also suggests that identity struggles may not necessarily be interpreted negatively.

Keywords: identity construction, meeting chairing, business meetings, Hong Kong, Cantonese
Article outline
  • Introduction
  • Identity construction in Hong Kong workplaces
  • Data
  • Successful construction of a competent meeting chair
  • Negotiating struggles over identity construction
  • Discussion and conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
Published online: 26 April 2017
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/dapsac.69.03cha
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Cited by 3 other publications

Du-Babcock, Bertha & Angela C. K. Chan
2022. A Commentary on the Use of Simulated Settings in Business Communication Research. International Journal of Business Communication 59:4 ► pp. 641 ff. DOI logo
Du-Babcock, Bertha & Angela Chi Kuen Chan
2019. Can Simulated Data be Comparable to Authentic Data?: A Comparative Analysis of Meeting Chairing Activities. Business Communication Research and Practice 2:2 ► pp. 62 ff. DOI logo
Van De Mieroop, Dorien
2020. A deontic perspective on the collaborative, multimodal accomplishment of leadership. Leadership 16:5 ► pp. 592 ff. DOI logo

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