Attaining agreement - a rhetorical analysis of an NHS negotiation
- 2000
The paper is centred through an examination of short piece of record talk between managers and shop stwards within a UK National Health Service (NHS) Trust, relating to teh manner in which one of the shop stewards attempted to get the managers to accede to a request he made for changes to the wording of a section of the Trust`s disciplinary procedure. In examining this piece of talk, the paper first contextualises the Trust through the decentralisation process of the early 1990s. The decentralisation process clearly did not introduce formal negotiation into NHS units, but instead increased the scope of formal negotiation encounters. The assent on industrial relations matters at the local level was significantly increased. The paer analyses the dynamics of one particular negotiating encounter between two managers and two shop stwards. In analysing this, the paper focuses through rethoric. In coming through a rhetorical framework, the paper highlights the need for managers, when negotiating, to be alert to the implied elements of the arguments of those across the negotiating table. Concludes by also uderstanding the rhetoric of the encouter in the light of the marketisation of the NHS during the 1990s
Negotiation National Health Service Rhetoric Decentralization Industrial Relations