MANAGING LANGUAGE THE DISCOURSE OF CORPORATE MEETINGS -- Editorial page -- Title page -- Copyright page -- Table of contents -- Acknowledgements -- PART ONE -- Chapter 1. The Business of Language -- 1. Communication, language and meetings -- 2. Language and communication studies -- 3. Language and management studies -- 4. Language and organisational communication -- 5. Language and the professions -- 6. Language in business negotiation -- 7. The meeting and its language -- Chapter 2. Research as Experience, Research as Method -- 1. Framing the issue -- 2. 'Qualitative' vs. 'quantitative': A false opposition -- 3. Context: Some reflections -- 4. Research as interpretative stages -- 4.1. Genesis of an idea -- 4.2. Developmental stages -- 4.3. Fieldwork: Negotiating relations -- 5. Organisations: Past and present -- 5.1. "Italica was the sun" -- 5.2. "Who will feed the ducks?'' -- 6. Materials collection and presentation -- 7. Synopsis of materials: Meetings -- 7.1. Italian meetings: Quality Assurance Internal Meeting (QAIM) -- 7.2. Italian meetings: Quality reviews -- 7.3. British meetings : Business Action Team (BAT) meetings -- 7.4. Business Improvement Programme (BIP) meetings -- 7.5. Interviews -- Chapter 3. Sense-Making and Coherence in Organisations -- 1. A multi-layered framework for the interpretation of meetings -- 2. Introducing coherence as a focal concept -- 3. The pragmatics of coherence -- Chapter 4. Interpreting Italian Meetings -- 1. Applying the framework: Preliminary observations -- 2. Quality Assurance Internal Meeting (QAIM) : Background and structure -- 3. The indicators of coherence: Theme -- 4. Power, roles and powerful roles in meetings -- 5. The indicators of coherence: Pronominalisation -- 6. The indicators of coherence: Metaphors -- 7. The indicators of coherence: Discourse markers -- 8. The pragmatics of chairmanship.

Chapter 5. Interpreting British Meetings -- 1. Applying the framework to the English data: Introduction -- 2. Business Action Team (BAT) meetings: The background -- 3. The indicators of coherence: Theme -- 4. Longitudinal Thematic Development (LTD) as a pragmatic coherence device -- 5. Further progression of the twofold theme: Meeting 3 -- 6. Thematic anti-climax: Meeting 4 -- 7. A case of thematic breakdown?: Meeting 5 -- 8. The indicators of coherence: Pronominalisation -- 9. The indicators of coherence: Symbolic referencing -- 10. Text and context interaction: An illustration -- PART TWO -- Chapter 6. Comparing and Contrasting: Cross-Linguistic and Cross-Cultural -- 1. Introduction -- 2. In search of culture -- 3. Bias in culture research -- 4. Culture in organisations -- 5. Cross-cultural research in organisations -- 6. Cross-linguistic or cross-cultural pragmatics? -- 7. Nouns, pronouns and shifting identities -- 7.1. Introduction -- 7.2. The British meetings -- 7.3. The Italian meetings -- 7.4. Pronominal and referential choices in the Italian meetings -- 7.4.1. From 'I' to 'we' through 'one': Steps towards a negotiated compromise -- 7.4.2. Multi-referentiality in Italian meeting: The case of 'I' -- 7.4.3. Personal reference -- 7.4.4. Collective reference -- 7.5. Pronominal and referential choices in British meetings -- 7.5.1. Types and distribution of 'we' usages -- 7.5.2. Types and distribution of 'I' usages -- 7.5.3. First name, last name -- 8. Overlaps or interruptions? Towards a discourse-based notion of inter-ruptive behaviour -- 8.1. Introduction -- 8.2. Criteria for the identification of interruptions -- 8.3. Analysis of British meetings -- 8.4. Analysis of the Italian meetings -- Chapter 7. Meetings as Genre -- 1. Introduction -- 2. The meetings -- 3. The model -- 4. Findings and discussion -- 4.1. The formal British meeting.

4.2. The informal British meeting -- 5. Cross-linguistic and cross-cultural comparison -- Chapter 8. Cross-Culturally SpeakingOn the Edge of Communication (Dedicated to our Managers) -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Management international: Some reflections -- 3. Inside the nation: A corporate profile of Britain and Italy -- 4. 'Us' and 'them': A glimpse across the cultural fence -- 4.1. Being a manager, working in a team and relating to other managers in an international joint venture: Reflections and perceptions -- 5. Managing the cultural -- 6. Concluding remarks -- APPENDIX: Questionnaire -- Notes -- References -- Index.