Työmotivaation rakentuminen työterveysneuvottelun vuorovaikutuksessa: tasapainottelua halukkuuden ja haasteiden välillä

Abstract

A wide range of modifications is needed to enable people with different work ability to participate and engage in working life. In this study, we focus on return-to-work (RTW) negotiation, which is one way to support an employee’s ability to work and return-to-work after a long sick leave. In the negotiation the employee, the supervisor representing the employer, and the occupational health care representatives decide on potential work modifications. We examine language use related to work motivation and its interactional consequences during the RTW negotiations (14 cases). As methods we are using conversation analysis (CA), membership categorisation analysis (MCA) and discursive psychology (DP). Our qualitative analysis shows three main results. First, we show how employees are balancing between two perspectives when describing their motivation to return to work: their willingness to return and the limitations with their work ability. By doing so, they construct the category of a ‘person returning to work’. Constructing the category during the RTW negotiation the employees can strengthen their agency in a delicate situation. Second, we show how all participants during the ongoing discussion treat high motivation as a shared underlying assumption. Thus, the negotiatiors jointly build a moral discourse. Third, we show that by describing their own motivation, the employees can either: 1) accept a statement concerning the return-to-work solutions but resist the description of themselves portrayed by the physicians, or 2) accept a previously stated description concerning their work ability by the physician, but passively resist the direction of interaction based on that statement. Our results shed light on the cultural and moral expectations of Finnish working life that would need to be taken into consideration in both occupational health care and working life practices.