The Use of a Client Feedback System in Activation Encounters

Abstract

This article builds on 13 audio-recorded and transcribed encounters between counsellors and users in the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration, where a client-feedback system plays a mediating role in interactions. We study how counsellors and users establish and maintain common ground in interactions and the role the feedback system plays in this regard. We analyse their interactions in light of Goffman’s concept of a working consensus, as it illuminates how interaction tends to steer towards intersubjective consensus. The findings show that the feedback system is both a ‘facilitator’ and ‘troublemaker’ in this process. The feedback system both functions as an interactional resource that helps counsellors and service users define and manoeuvre the situation and sometimes causes interactional problems that must be dealt with without damaging the relationship. Possible consequences are discussed, including implications of using a feedback system in activation encounters where the overall goal is employment.