Human-human-computer triads in institutional encounters

Abstract

This paper presents an analysis of human-human-computer triads (HHC triads) in institutional settings, more specifically of the way in which advisor, customer and computer cooperatively generate the maximum loan amount in mortgage orientation consultations (MOCs). HHC triads involve a participation framework in which three actors collaborate in order to fulfill a specific consultation goal. We argue that the computer, despite its restricted interactional repertoire, is a full participant in this framework, considered in terms of the turn-taking system. First, we will focus on the global organization of HHC triads, on how these triads emerge in the course of institutional interactions and how they are closed. Second, we analyze the interactional dynamics of HHC triads in the MOC. We demonstrate how turn-taking rules apply, how turn-taking is managed by the participants and how the participants, including the computer, collaborate to perform a task. In the final section we will describe the local sequential structure of HHC triads and identify the actions of the participants, including the computer. The use of HHC-triads not only facilitates easy transitions for the advisors between activities in the consultation, it also cleverly combines the advisor's computer use and customer-centeredness. As the computer becomes an actual “participant” in this institutional goal-oriented participation framework, both advisors and customers show that they make use of the interactional affordances the framework creates.