Workplace Discourse Research Articles

Adult migrants’ voices about learning and using Swedish at work placements in basic language education

The aim of the present study was to contribute knowledge about how adult L2 learners perceived their possibilities to use and develop the target language (Swedish) when formal language teaching was combined with placements. Situated in the context of Swedish for Immigrants (SFI), the study drew inspiration from action research and ethnographic methodology. A thematic analysis was conducted underpinned by the systemic-functional linguistic concepts of field, tenor and mode. The findings showed that the students highly valued interaction with L1 Swedish speakers outside of the classroom. Several of the students described rich opportunities to interact socially, which, however, also entailed anxiety about their status as L2 speakers. A few of the students reported accessing field-specific language and literacy practices that aligned with their current career goals. However, students with placements relating to kitchen, garage and warehouse work voiced feeling isolated and having little opportunity for social interaction. While students in the first of two course instances found it difficult to discuss and exemplify language they had learnt, a vocabulary assignment developed for the second course instance facilitated discussions about placement-related words and expressions. Implications for teaching are discussed, including using authentic examples of workplace discourse as preparation for placement visits.

Empowerment narratives and sticky affects: the workings of affective capitalism in Philippine call centers

Abstract In contemporary work arrangements that are premised on the exchange of information, communication, and services, one dominant instrumentality of affective capitalism is the practice of emotional labor. In this paper, I turn my attention to the promise of empowerment in the workplace and propose that it is another instrumentality of affective capitalism. Specifically, I examine the ways through which positive feelings are evoked and maintained in the Philippine call center industry through the circulation of empowerment narratives that are of particular significance to its Filipino workers. Using Wetherell’s notion of affective practice and Ahmed’s notion of the stickiness of emotion, I examine the affective-discursive dimensions of the empowerment narratives, trace their repeated telling, and surface the other narratives upon which they draw to show how particular affects become sticky, that is, how they gain recognition and resonance, and are felt and taken up by the same bodies that circulate them. In making explicit the relationship between the empowerment narratives and their sticky affects, I demonstrate that the promise of empowerment in the call centers is as much a discursive practice as it is an affective one. Thus, to make sense of the workings of affective capitalism in the new work order, it is crucial to interrogate not only the affective dispositions that workers are made to occupy in the workplace, but also dominant workplace discourses that are, in fact, designed to evoke, circulate, and maintain the desired affects.

Emails in workplace discourse: current communication tendencies

Emails in workplace discourse: current communication tendencies

‘I’m not a tech person’

AbstractThis study contributes to existing research on polymedia by probing into what we callacademic polymedia, investigating the constant availability of interpersonal, professional, and social media for constructing scholarly personas. Drawing on the technobiographical narratives of a group of Hong Kong bilingual academics, we analyze academics’ perceptions of their media choices as situated in their professional polymedia environments. In particular, we examine how choices between public and private media shape academic persona development, and the way polymedia engagement impacts the participants’ language choice for academic purposes. This study sheds light on existing research on workplace discourse and identity in sociolinguistics by offering a polymedia dimension that draws on people’s media ideology in developing their professional identities.

Helping university students discover their workplace communication needs: An eclectic and interdisciplinary approach to facilitating on-the-job learning of workplace communication

Although work-integrated learning (WIL) programmes such as internships and placements can provide valuable opportunities for students from different disciplines to learn much about workplace communication, ESP research has not investigated how on-the-job learning of workplace communication during WIL can be facilitated. To address this gap, the present paper first illustrates how an eclectic and interdisciplinary approach was taken in designing a WIL module for some students at a university in Hong Kong, with a view to facilitating their experiential learning and informal workplace learning during their WIL and helping them to discover their workplace communication needs. The paper then evaluates the impact of the module, using data from the students’ reflections on their WIL experience and a questionnaire survey that solicited their perceptions of the WIL module. It was found that the module, with its specially designed components, helped the students to learn proactively and enabled them to identify four aspects of their workplace communication needs, namely, 1) their target situation, 2) workplace discourse, 3) their current language skills and lacks, and 4) effective ways of learning workplace communication. Overall, the present paper argues that on-the-job learning of workplace communication is an area that warrants more pedagogical innovation and research attention in ESP.

Delivering relevance: The emergence of ESP as a discipline

Since its emergence in the 1960s, ESP has become a key aspect of language teaching and research. This paper traces the last 30 years of this journey to show its emergence from the periphery of applied linguistics to a serious force on the world stage. To do this we use bibliometric techniques to track changes in ESP research through an analysis of all 3,500 papers on the Social Science Citation Index since 1990 dealing with ESP topics. We identify which topics have been most prevalent and which authors, publications, journals and countries most influential over time. The results indicate that classroom practices remain central to the discipline and that there has been a consistent interest in specialised texts, particularly written texts, and in higher education and business English, with a massive increase in attention devoted to identity and academic and workplace discourses. The global interest in these questions is shown by the range of authors, diversity of geographical sources and the uptake of papers in a range of fields. We believe our findings may interest both ESP professionals in identifying crucial publishing areas and academics fascinated by the emergence of a new discipline.

Contesting “Authenticity” in Authentic Leadership through a Mad Studies Lens

A Mad Studies/social model of mental distress lens was used to critique authentic leadership. We deconstructed the dilemma of authenticity and leadership by exploring how authentic leadership (dis)allows the inclusion of people with mental illness. We found that their minds are treated as disruptive and rarely ever read as authentic. For followers to view “mentally ill” leaders as authentic requires candidness, disability disclosure, and emulating norms typical to their ingroup membership. We conclude this paper by challenging HRD to rethink its stance on disruptive leadership as symptomatic of mental illness. Employees with mental health marginality can develop an authentic identity in the workplace through authenticity building experiences such as connecting mad leaders to peer-support training, offering specialized leadership development, and co-producing a mental health awareness curriculum that challenges unhealthy workplace discourses that stigmatize mad leaders and workers.

Legal Effects of Language Issues in Workplace Discourse: Evidence from Australia’s Fairwork Commission

Abstract The aim of this paper is to investigate the relationship between law and language in workplace discourse. To this end, a number of pronouncements issued by Australia’s Fair Work Commission – which mostly deals with employment litigation – are examined to see to what extent language-related problems affect both the employment relationship and the decision handed down by lawmakers when evaluating the cases submitted.

Using Authentic Chinese Doctor-Patient Consultations to Develop Patient-Centered Communication Skills

Researchers in Languages for Specific Purposes (LSP) have suggested the importance and benefits of using authentic spoken workplace discourses as teaching materials to develop students’ communication skills in professional settings. However, LSP course designers are still facing the challenges of selecting and collecting authentic workplace conversations, as well as designing instruction to teach the occupational spoken discourses effectively. To address these challenges, this paper presents an innovative module for Chinese for Medical Purposes for pre-med college students at the intermediate-high level. The module uses authentic doctor-patient consultations and adopts the Patient-Centered Clinical Method (PCCM) of Stewart et al. (2014), a clinically validated model in healthcare communication research. The current module demonstrates the approach to determine the student learning objectives based on the PCCM model and the instruction design aiming at guiding students to notice and analyze the discourse features and communication strategies employed by physicians to achieve patient-centered care. The paper also examines learners’ pre- and post-instruction roleplay performances. The qualitative findings show that the learners improved in using patient-centered communication strategies after instruction.

An Analysis of Mood and Modality in Workplace Discourse and the Impact of Power Differentials: Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares

This qualitative study examines the interpersonal meaning of Mood and modality, specifically within the context of workplace discourse, and the influence of power on communication strategies. Its focus is to investigate the Mood structures used by interlocuters and to understand how a speaker’s choice of Mood demonstrates various interpersonal meanings. In addition, the paper explores the concept of modality, assessing the different ways in which speakers communicate to express their attitudes and judgments by employing the grammatical resources of modalization (probability) and modulation (inclination and obligation). Data were collected from an episode of Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, a popular television series filmed in the U.S., in which Gordon Ramsay, a well-known professional chef, visits failing restaurant establishments. The data were transcribed verbatim before being analyzed to identify the use of Mood structures and modality, as well as whether the speakers’ power levels and social roles influenced their use of language. The results showed that interlocutors with a higher level of power, i.e., superiors in the work setting, typically used different Mood structures of the clause and different types of modality compared to those with less power, i.e., subordinates. These findings indicate that those in power play the role of instruction-givers, while those with less power are instruction-receivers. Interlocutors who are in power appear to have more opportunities to express their attitudes and judgments than their subordinates. As a result, they can influence workplace and business communication by making it more or less formal.

Balancing power and solidarity through indirectness: A case study of Russian and Kazakh meeting chairs

AbstractThe study combines Brown and Levinson’s (1987) work on politeness techniques and Tannen’s (1981, 1993) work on indirectness and power-solidarity dynamics to extend research on workplace discourse. I examine how two female Russian-speaking chairs (one of Russian and another of Kazakh origin) differently perform face-threatening acts (FTAs) of criticisms and directives during teacher meetings at a community college in Kazakhstan. Specifically, the Russian chair employs fewer politeness techniques (e. g., hedging with “please”), issuing criticisms and orders with no mitigation, thereby foregrounding the power asymmetry within the group. The lack of mitigation surfaces through explicit usage of pronouns (“I” vs. “you”); action verbs inflected for the 2nd person plural and imperative mood; words with a negative and moral connotation; and phonological modifications for emphasis. Differently, the Kazakh chair utilizes a larger number of politeness techniques, including hedging (e. g., “please”, “unfortunately”), impersonalizing negative actions (through indefinite pronouns and agentless verbs), and manipulating of tense and space. Thus, she performs indirect FTAs that highlight the solidarity aspect of group relations. I relate these findings to studies of management leadership in post-Soviet states that have revealed the tendency of Kazakh managers to use a nurturing leadership style.

IS WHATSAPP THE FUTURE OF WORKPLACE COMMUNICATION?: INVESTIGATING THE USE OF WHATSAPP IN DECISION- MAKING EPISODES

Background and Purpose: Meetings, emails, phone calls and mobile telephone texts are often quoted as the primary methods of communication in the workplace settings. However, the rise of mobile messaging service has been superseding the use of these modes of communication. Hence, it is not surprising that messaging applications like Whatsapp has slowly replaced the transmission of messages in most workplace interaction. WA, the prominent global mobile messenger application (statistica.com) does not only allow users to send personal messages to others rapidly but also makes it possible for them to communicate in groups where the users can communicate interactively and achieve tasks swiftly.
 
 Methodology: Drawing on WA group messages and audio recordings of meetings of team meetings, this work analyses the impact of WA on internal team communication by focusing on the processes of decision-making displayed by the members of a group of academics at an institution of higher education in Malaysia.
 
 Findings: The analysis shows that the application functions as a useful platform for the team to negotiate solutions, make and revisit decisions that were previously decided in another interactional context.
 
 Contributions: This paper concludes that the use of WA constitutes a daily reality in the investigated workplace, illuminate the intertextuality of DM processes across these contexts, and that it is reflective of its main purposes: to make quick decisions, give confirmation or approval, and provide information regarding the issues raised. The study also addresses the crucial question: is WA the future of workplace communication and will it become the preferred medium for decision- making?
 
 Keywords: Decision-making, higher education, Malaysia, WhatsApp, workplace discourse.
 
 Cite as: Mohd Omar, N. A, Azmi, N. J., & Ahmad Sani, N. (2020). Is Whatsapp the future of workplace communication?: Investigating the use of Whatsapp in decision-making episodes. Journal of Nusantara Studies, 5(1), 414-442. http://dx.doi.org/10.24200/jonus.vol5iss1pp414-442

Harmonization of Communication in Professional Setting

The 21st century has introduced many changes in modern workplaces which have become multilingual and multicultural. The present paper sheds light on selected aspects of workplace discourse, revealing that backstage communication in a professional setting plays a very significant role in establishing and maintaining effective subject-bound transaction and/or interaction between the partners involved in communication. The theoretical framework of the paper is designed to consider recent contributions in professional communication research supported by some seminal theoretical writings on linguistic ecology that explore the role of language in natural interactions that occur among people working for multinational companies. T he linguistic politeness theories are taken into account when cases of communication harmonization in a professional setting are examined. T he empirical part of the paper deals with a qualitative discourse analysis of authentic electronic data collected in a multilingual company in Riga, Latvia. T he study concludes that a present-time multilingual workplace exhibits a direct relationship between the use of language and power equilibrium, which vividly characterises contemporary communication in a professional setting. Pragmatic strategies employed can enhance the harmonization of communication in order to avoid the risk of miscommunication.

Doing business and constructing identities through small talk in workplace instant messaging

Abstract This paper describes how bilingual colleagues living in Hong Kong make small talk in instant messaging to achieve various business-oriented goals and construct multiple identities in the discursive process. Guided by James Paul Gee’s revised framework of discourse analysis, the analyses evidenced that, overall, colleagues use small talk in instant messages to maintain minimal ties with distant partners, fill in silence during computer work, affect informal decision-making at work, and to diffuse useful surrounding information into business talk. These instances interplay with different affordances provided by the gadgets in the instant messenger interfaces. Such creative usage, together with the perceived nature of online interaction and instant messaging, results in multiple and turbulent identities circulating in the broader context of workplace discourse. The article concludes by arguing that computer-mediated communication has offered participants an emerging modus of interacting socially, beyond the physical and psychological constraints of time and space.

The construction of conflict talk across workplace contexts: (towards) a theory of conflictual compact

Studies of conflictual workplace discourse are rare, both in language-awareness research and discourse analysis more generally, owing partly to the difficulty in gaining access to such interactions, and arguably to the relative rarity of conflictual discourse occurring at work. The topic is therefore both under-analysed and under-theorised. Drawing on data in the form of meeting transcripts and spoken and written interview data from three separate corpora of workplace communication, this study analyses how conflict is linguistically and discursively constructed across a range of different professional contexts. Our contribution to language awareness, and to discourse analysis, is threefold. Firstly, the close analysis of meeting data pinpoints a range of linguistic features that can constitute conflict at work, which then form the basis for a novel categorisation. Secondly, the combination of interactional data with interview data demonstrates the awareness professionals may bring when considering the issue of communication and conflict, and its ramifications for successful collaborations. Finally, the proposed theory of conflict can provide explanatory depth to awareness of conflictual discourse, explicating why workplace discourse may be more likely to turn conflictual in certain contexts, and not in others.

The sociology of language choice and multilingualism in Zimbabwe: Reflections on language choices by front office personnel in formal workplace discourse

Rural-to-urban migration in Zimbabwe has led to the convergence of different ethnic groups in urban areas. Globalisation has also added to the cultural and linguistic diversity of urban areas. This study investigates the language used by front office personnel in formal workplace discourse. It attempts to identify the language/s that characterise formal workplace discourse, taking into consideration the multilingual nature of the country. Information was collected through observation (both full participant and complete outsider) and semi-structured interview methods. Front office personnel make language choices with the ultimate aim of achieving certain intentions. Thus, language used in a formal workplace context is basically functional in nature. It serves the main purpose of creating, maintaining and attracting new clients to the business. Although the context of the present study is formal workplace discourse, language choice in this context is not only determined by business factors, but also correlates with social norms and values. For the indigenous people of Zimbabwe, the establishment and maintenance of long-lasting relationships is at the very core of cultural existence. It is this need for unity and co-operation that is carried over into the business domain with the ultimate aim of fostering such relationships for commercial benefit.

Workplace Discourse: Constructing Social Identity of Lecturers Through WhatsApp Group

This paper discusses how WhatsApp (WA) group can be used to maintain social and workplace relationship. In the presence of positive mediation of WA, people may have a sense of belonging as WA is a written discourse community. A WhatsApp group of lecturers was used as the source of data. Based on the results of analysis, it was revealed that the lecturers who join this WA group generally attempt to assert their individuality. Yet, they put their efforts to join others by maintaining their sense of status or self-esteem as they are members of the group by doing some imposition. It was also found that rich communication can be realized through WA group. The members’ use of greetings and the use of directives are reported. The syntactic and lexical choices made by the lecturers are consciously or subconsciously interpreted by the members of the group. The messages in WA group also revealed that the lecturers in the group show they are able to contribute freely, avoid conflict and create harmonious working relationships via the WA chat forum. The study described here is a case study of a written workplace discourse in an educational institution. Hence no statistical tests have been carried out since it is regarded as exploratory. Further study based on different workplaces and in different contexts needs to be conducted to see how these findings hold for other workplaces.

Managing transitions through discourse at work

Workplace transitions provide rich material for understanding intercultural interaction. Research on transitions has typically focussed on the sociocultural effects of moving between nations and/or on examples of career change. Boundary crossing at this macro level has provided insight into how newcomers negotiate novel cultural expectations. As workplace discourse analysts our particular interest is the interactional negotiation that occurs as these newcomers move from one environment to the next. In this paper, using the reflections of those who have experienced such transitions, along with an analysis of recordings of professional migrants in new workplace contexts, we demonstrate how micro-level instantiations of these transitions offer a lens on the contrasting and sometimes conflicting societal norms and sociocultural practices which must be managed in these contexts. The analysis makes use of our social realist model for understanding workplace talk (Holmes, Marra and Vine 2011) and our interpretations are supported by ethnographic observations and discussion with those who have observed or experienced these transitions. We conclude by outlining ways in which this approach to understanding interaction can be used to help prepare newcomers to navigate new workplace contexts.

Constructing positions of support: acknowledging workplace discourses in the midst of early childhood reform

ABSTRACTEarly childhood education has undergone immense change over the years. In Australia, this has included the introduction of curriculum and quality frameworks [ACECQA. 2012. National Quality Framework. http://acecqa.gov.au/national-quality-framework/the-national-quality-standard; DEEWR. 2009. Belonging, Being and Becoming: The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia. Barton: ACT: Commonwealth of Australia. ISBN:9780642778727; DET. 2016. Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework: For All Children From Birth to Eight Years. East Melbourne, VIC: Department of Education and Training. ISBN:978-0-7594-0800-5], and changes to early childhood pre-service and in-service teacher education [ASQA. 2015. Training for early childhood education and care: Report. https://www.asqa.gov.au/sites/g/files/net3521/f/Strategic_Review_2015_Early_Childhood_Education_Report.pdf?v=1508135481]. This article is based on a broader qualitative study, which was conducted in 2015-2016. It investigated how workplace discourses supported or hindered the ability for early childhood professionals in Victorian long day care settings to engage in education reform. Using a poststructuralist lens and Foucauldian Discourse Analysis [FDA] [Arribas-Ayllon, M., and V. Walkerdine. 2017. “Foucauldian Discourse Analysis.” In The SAGE Handbook of Qualitative Research in Psychology, 2nd ed., edited by C. Willig, and W. Stainton-Rogers, 110–123. London: SAGE Publications Ltd. ISBN:9781526405555; Willig, C. 2008. “Discourse Analysis.” In Qualitative Psychology: A Practical Guide to Research Methods, 2nd ed., edited by J. A. Smith, 160–185. Los Angeles: SAGE Publications. ISBN:9781412930833], specific workplace discourses were identified. These discourses framed the available subject positions which were afforded by directors, centre-coordinators and educators relating to reform engagement. Some of these positions were supportive of reform engagement, while others hindered this process. The findings presented throughout this paper offer some insight into how workplace discourses impact reform engagement in early childhood education.

‘The Snowball of Emails We Deal With’: CCing in Multinational Companies

The ability to copy in relevant stakeholders has rendered the business email a useful tool for managing interpersonal relations and operational matters. However, CCing in business email has remained vastly underresearched in workplace discourse literature, a gap this article seeks to address. We explore the functions of CCing in workplace emails and the way formality is negotiated by writers in one organization. We draw on the analysis of email chains and discourse-based interviews and show that employees strategically project professional achievements and assume and deny responsibility for company decisions as they shift between the sender/receiver positions in the chain.