Project

Intervening in trouble at work: Navigating power and social threats in the shadows of interaction ideals (SHADOW)

While intervening in trouble at work prevents risks and streamlines work, it is a socially demanding task in today’s diverse, hybrid working environments and may pose a challenge to interpersonal relationships at the workplace and affect well-being at work. This project explores intervention as a social phenomenon. We use the interaction research approach and other qualitative and quantitative methods to explore cultural ideals related to intervention at work, institutional intervention processes and the concrete interaction practices used in interventions.

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Timetable

9/2025–8/2029

Objectives

The aim of this study is to produce information on which problems are considered to require intervention, who is expected to intervene and when, how the intervention occurs, and what impacts and social consequences it has at work.

The first objective is to identify how cultural interactional ideals shape the relevance and practices of intervention.

The second objective is to examine the prerequisites and consequences of intervention practices.

These objectives will be addressed through four work packages concerning:

the objects and relevance of intervention,
cultural ideals and discourses related to who gets to or should intervene and when this should occur,
the formal and informal intervention practices of organizations and related consequences, and
the local social interaction practices of interventions.

These work packages are used to create an overall view of the prerequisites, consequences and impacts of interventions.

Data and methods

Methodologically, the project employs an innovative approach based on interaction research that integrates qualitative and quantitative methods: conversation analysis, discourse and positioning analysis, content analysis, focus group analysis based on conversation analysis and statistical analysis. The data consists of surveys, focus group interviews, media materials, documents produced by organizations, recordings of workplace meetings and performance appraisals, and experimental data involving the participants assessing various intervention scenarios.

Results and impact

The project will produce new theoretical perspectives and empirical knowledge of the complex dynamics of intervention and lay the foundation for future multidisciplinary research in interaction sociology and social psychology.

From a practical perspective, the results will be used to improve the impacts of intervention situations and to develop measures that promote social sustainability and inclusivity in working life.