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USING THE MICRO-LEVEL PERSPECTIVE OF
CONVERSATION ANALYSIS TO IMPROVE
COMMUNICATION IN SUPERVISION
——o—
YASMIN AKSU
ABSTRACT
This paper outlines the self-concept and functions of one-on-one supervision
in Germany — which is called for by traditional clientele like therapists and
social workers as well as by managerial staff — and describes how conversation
analysis can help clarify vital communication strategies such as supporting the
supervisee’s problem description and then steering the conversation from free
self-expression to a ‘supervisable’ concern. It presents two exemplary excerpts
from audio-taped authentic one-on-one supervision sessions which are part of a
larger corpus compiled and investigated using conversation analytical methods
and concludes with an overview of the most wide-spread strategies employed
by supervisors and supervisees.
ONE-ON-ONE SUPERVISION IN GERMANY
As with many other countries, supervision looks back on a long history
in Germany. In recent years, however, there have been certain changes:
Supervisors have been increasingly successful in winning supervisees from
fields outside of their traditional target groups in psychotherapy, medicine,
counselling, social work etc., targeting for instance business management
staff. In Germany supervision is being showcased as an attractive alternative
or addition to ‘coaching’ (loosely defined as a specific type of conversation
between a professional coach and a coachee held “to enhance performance,
professional or personal development, psychological and subjective well¬
being, and general life experience”') for everybody in the professional world.
1
Anthony M. Grant, Workplace, Executive and Life Coaching: An Annotated Bibliography
from the Behavioural Science and Business Literature, Coaching Psychology Unit, University
of Sydney, Australia, 2009, 1, www.coachfederation.org/files/includes/docs/110-Coaching¬
Biographies-%28GRANT %29.pdf, accessed 24 April 2016.