Collaborative decision-making in return-to-work negotiations

Abstract

This study addresses the ways in which shared decision-making in multi-party return-to-work (RTW) negotiations is constructed as a collaborative practice. The research data are video-recorded Finnish RTW negotiations (n = 14), in which the physician, employer and employee make highly sensitive decisions concerning the employee's return to work after a long sick leave. We show how the participants used turn design, gazes and gestures as resources in both treating their co-participants as eligible to participate in decision-making and claiming the deontic rights for themselves. We also present a deviant case in which a negotiator included only one participant in the decision-making in their initial proposal, which was treated as accountable by the co-participants.