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Human Relations
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A Dialogical Approach to Skill and Skilled Activity

David Holman

The ESRC Centre for Organization and Innovation, d.holman{at}shiffield.ac.uk

The focus of this paper is on the nature of the linguistically based skills that are generally thought to be significant at an intra-personal, interpersonal and organizational level of analysis (e.g. communication, teamwork, decision making, critical thinking). The aim is to develop a dialogical account of skill and skilled activity by drawing on ethnomethodology, activity theory and social constructionism. The paper starts by outlining mainstream cognitive and social psychological accounts of skill and skilled activity, and discussing the main problems associated with these accounts. Following this, the dialogical approach is described and put forward as an alternative to mainstream accounts. In the dialogical approach, there is a particular emphasis on the narrative and non-narrative aspects of skill and skilled activity. Implications for organizational practice and teaching practice are then drawn, and these are followed by concluding comments on possible future avenues of research.

Key Words: activity theory • argument • ethnomethodology • narrative • skill

Human Relations, Vol. 53, No. 7, 957-980 (2000)
DOI: 10.1177/0018726700537003
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