Sensitivity in topic development and meaning making in a process consultation contract meeting

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the discursive practices used when the agenda for a consultation process was negotiated in a contract meeting. The paper illustrates the role of sensitivity in meaning making practices, that is, how displays of sensitivity were intertwined with topic development. Design/methodology/approach – The paper offers an in‐depth analysis of naturally occurring conversation in a meeting between a consultant and two client managers. The audio‐recorded data is analyzed by utilizing methodology introduced and developed in the traditions of Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis (CA). Findings – The authors show how both the consultant and the clients displayed markers of sensitivity when introducing various meaning potentials relevant to the topics under discussion, and how they eventually ‘negotiated’ meanings through formulations and reformulations of the topics. Practical implications – The findings suggest that indirect and complex discursive practices were functional in that they afforded the participants the possibility to exhibit prospectively threatening meaning potentials of the issues under discussion, while suspending a more thorough topic penetration. The study sheds light on the importance of the details at the early stages of a consulting relationship and the consultant's specific role at the beginning. Originality/value – The paper illustrates real life practices in process consultation. This sort of data is seldom used in research.