Constructing collective agency through narrative positioning in group meetings within a Chinese professional team

Recent research has linguistically explored collective agency through the concept of group speech acts. However, how the “we-perspective” is constructed in narrative discourse has received less empirical attention. Drawing on positioning theory informed by linguistic anthropology, this study explores how a professional team in China constructs collective agency through conversational storytelling in their group meetings. The analysis shows that collective agency is constructed through a we-narrative of positive evaluation and the collaborative narrative of problem solving, vis-à-vis community cultural value of moral responsibility, positive thinking, and agentic beliefs. This study highlights the distributed nature of collective agency and the importance of examining multilayered narrative practices in professional settings.