Committee talk: negotiating 'personnel development' at a training college

An analysis is made of the interactional styles of a personnel development committee and its chairman. Beneath what is manifestly the negotiation of the meaning of ‘personnel development’ and how it might best be facilitated, transcribed extracts display members engineering a latent shift in the identity of the committee. A psycho‐social explanation is offered for the observed patterns. This draws on both the actors’ definitions of the situation implicit in the talk and in their retrospective self‐reports, as well as the dynamics of leader‐follower relations evidenced in this small group. the case study is significant for the insights provided into the handling of transitional shifts in the developmental career or life‐cycle of committees and the tensions inherent in participatory management.