This process was extremely difficult to manage, leading to long delays and failure to meet the needs of software users. By providing a computer tool to maintain structure of the requests and commitments, they were able to greatly improve productivity. Other such systems are in development at a number of institutions. We conclude here by pointing out that computer tools themselves are only one part of the picture. The gain from applying conversation theory in organizations has to do with developing the communicative competence, norms and rules for the organization, including the training to develop the appropriate understanding.
People have experience in everyday dealing with others and with situations.
Nevertheless, there are different levels of competence. Competence here does not mean correct grammatical usage or diction, but successful dealing with the world, good managerial abilities, and responsibility and care for others. Communicative competence means the capacity to express one's intentions and take responsibilities in the networks of commitments that utterances and their interpretations bring to the world. They are simply working, speaking, etc., more or less blind to the pervasiveness of the essential dimensions of commitment. Consequently, there exists a domain for education for communicative competence, as a field concerned with certain general relationships between language and successful action.