Full Description
Power and Politeness in the Workplace provides insights into the way we all talk at work. The book contains a wealth of material illustrating the way people communicate with each other in their ordinary everyday encounters in their workplaces. The analysis focuses, in particular, on how and why people "do" power and politeness in the workplace, and examines the discourse strategies involved in balancing the competing demands of meeting workplace objectives and getting things done on time with maintaining good collegial workplace relationships. Drawing on a large and very varied corpus of data collected in a wide range of workplaces, the authors explore specific types of workplace talk, such as giving advice and instructions, solving problems, running meetings and making decisions. Attention is also paid to the important contribution of less obviously relevant types of workplace talk such as humour and small talk, to the construction of effective workplace relationships. In the final chapter some of the practical implications of the analyses are identified.This book aims to provide useful information to those interested in the many functions of talk at work. It should be useful to those teaching business or interpersonal communication courses, language in the workplace courses, courses on discourse analysis, communication studies, pragmatics and sociolinguistics. It should also be of interest to workplace practitioners, and especially those involved in Human Resources training, communication skill development, and professional development and education.
Contents
1. POWER, POLITENESS AND THE WORKPLACE CONTEXT Power, politeness and contextPowerPolitenessContextThe Wellington Language in the Workplace ProjectBrief Outline of content of the bookNotesDesigning a Method of Collecting Workplace DataCollecting the DataConclusionNotesBeing Direct DownwardsMitigation and Management Between EqualsGetting the Boss to Cooperate - requests and indirectivesHintsConclusionNotes4. WORKPLACE MEETINGSIntroductionTypes of MeetingsHow are Meetings Structured?Managing Interaction in MeetingsDoing Power and Politeness in Meetings: 2 case studiesConclusionNotesThe Distribution of Social Talk in the WorkplaceSocial Functions of non-task orientated talk at WorkConclusionNotesFunctions of Humour in the WorkplaceHumour and Workplace CultureConclusionNotes7. MISCOMMUNICATION AND PROBLEMATIC TALK AT WORKMiscommunicationNegotiating with the BossNegotiating 'downwards'Problems, Power and PartnershipConclusionNotes8. CONCLUSION: SOME IMPLICATIONS AND APPLICATIONSIntroductionGetting integrated at workReflection as a Learning Strategy for the WorkplaceConclusionNotes
