This analysis, based on a year's observation of social relations in a Work Incentive Program (WIC) office, explores the ways in which staff members organize their interactions with clients, coworkers, and supervisors. Miller focuses on rhetoric (persuasive discourse) as a central aspect of everyday work and as a means of analyzing activities and relationships. He shows, for example, how staff members, clients, and supervisors rhetorically define and justify organizational purposes, or typical and preferred organizational solutions to problems. The book offers an alternative image and orientation to low-level human service professionals and emphasizes how they actively participate in the creation and maintenance of troublesome work relationships.
- ISBN10 0791404234
- ISBN13 9780791404232
- Publish Date 7 February 1991 (first published 22 January 1991)
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 12 July 2000
- Publish Country US
- Imprint State University of New York Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 252
- Language English