Forms of decision-making: gatekeeping and dialogic coordination in CISV organizational meetings

The present article deals with decision making as a communicative process taking place in organizations as social systems. We will investigate the process whereby decisions are produced, before being announced, by looking at turn design and sequence organization in the interaction, and by considering cultural presuppositions, which are specific patterns of expectations about interlocutors’ expectations. In so doing, we will try to combine theories and methodologies deriving from Conversation Analysis and Social Systems Theory. The article deals with interactionally achieved patterns of expectations concerning participants’ positioning in decision making and analyzes two different forms of decision making, namely, gatekeeping and coordination of participative decision making. These are analyzed within the framework of organizational meetings in which educational activities for children’s camps are planned. The analysis of videotaped and transcribed interactions taking place during these meetings highlights the ways in which different forms of decision making are socially constructed.