ABSTRACT
An institutional encounter takes place at the crossroads of the client's and the professional's perspectives. A key dimension of institutional interaction is how they manage this disparity in their perspectives, for it imposes communicative tasks on both the client and the professional. The client needs to present or formulate an appropriate reason for the encounter. For example, in doctor-patient encounters patients must display the "doctorability" of their problems, i.e., patients orients to describing their problems as being appropriate for medical care (Ruusuvuori 2000; Heritage forthcoming). In business negotiations, parties may pay considerable attention to how they present their trustworthiness and reliability to the opposite side.
