Getting Things Done at Work
The discourse of power in workplace interaction
1st Edition
Published on 24. June 2004
X, 278 pages
978-90-272-9538-5 (ISBN)
Description
The linguistic study of workplace language is a new and exciting area of research. This book explores the expression of power in a New Zealand workplace through examination of 52 everyday interactions between four women and their colleagues. The main focus of this research is the expression of three types of "control acts", i.e., directives, requests and advice. The women include two managers who demonstrate an interactive participative style of management. They tend to minimise rather than exert power, although their status is still evident in their speech. The study is original in its combination of a quantitative and a qualitative approach, as well as in its combination of a detailed categorisation of head acts and an analysis of context and role relationships. Through the design of the study and the methodology used, the results which are brought forward challenge earlier research both on power and control acts. The data analyzed is drawn from the Wellington Language in the Workplace Project.
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Content
- Getting Things Done atWork
- Editorial page
- Title page
- LCC page
- Table of contents
- Acknowledgments
- 1. Introduction
- 1.1. Exploring power in a New Zealand workplace
- 1.2. Methodology
- 1.2.1. Data collection
- 1.2.2. Dataset
- 1.2.3. Data processing procedure
- References
- 2. Directives, requests and advice
- 2.1. Previous research on directives, requests and advice
- 2.1.1. Directives
- 2.1.2. Requests
- 2.1.3. Advice
- 2.1.4. Compliance-gaining
- 2.1.5. Summary of previous research
- 2.2. Definitions from previous research
- 2.2.1. Directive
- 2.2.2. Request
- 2.2.3. Advice
- 2.3. Terminology
- 2.4. Distinguishing factors
- 2.4.1. Role-relationships and obligation
- 2.4.2. Expectation of compliance and right of refusal
- 2.4.3. Benefit from the action
- 2.4.4. Summary of distinguishing factors
- 2.5. Different sub-types of directives, requests and advice
- 2.5.1. now or later
- 2.5.2. Elicited or spontaneous
- 2.5.3. Specific or general
- 2.5.4. Condition or no condition
- 2.5.5. Prohibitives
- 2.5.6. Summary of sub-types
- 2.6. Politeness as a distinguishing criteria
- 2.7. Conclusion
- References
- 3. Identifying control acts
- 3.1. Forms
- 3.1.1. Imperatives
- 3.1.2. Interrogatives and declaratives
- 3.1.3. Summary
- 3.2. Identifying control acts where the action is not stated
- 3.3. Context
- 3.3.1. Social context
- 3.3.2. Discourse context
- 3.4. Intention and perception
- 3.5. Conclusion
- References
- 4. Analysis of control act head acts
- 4.1. Overall results
- 4.2. Basic categorisation of head acts
- 4.2.1. Introduction
- 4.2.2. Directness and explicitness
- 4.3. Categorisation of explicit head acts
- 4.3.1. Imperatives
- 4.3.2. Interrogatives
- 4.3.3. Declaratives
- 4.3.4. Summary of explicit head act categorisation
- 4.4. Categorisation of implicit head acts
- 4.4.1. Partial/incomplete/abbreviated action
- 4.4.2. Focus on others
- 4.4.3. Summary of implicit head act categorisation
- 4.5. Conclusion
- 5. Modification of control act head acts
- 5.1. Internal modification
- 5.1.1. Syntactic modification
- 5.1.2. Lexical/phrasal modification
- 5.1.3. Modal verbs
- 5.1.4. Semantics of modal verbs and marginal auxiliaries
- 5.1.5. Summary of internal modification devices
- 5.2. External modification
- 5.2.1. Alerters
- 5.2.2. Supportive moves
- 5.2.3. Summary of external modification devices
- 5.3. Conclusion
- 6. Exploring control acts in context
- 6.1. Introduction to the interaction
- 6.2. Analysis of the interaction
- 6.2.1. Status report
- 6.2.2. Genevieve seeks advice on use of the passive
- 6.2.3. Donna's writing
- 6.2.4. Conferences
- 6.2.5. Marcie's problem
- 6.2.6. Work priorities
- 6.2.7. Policy unit one report
- 6.3. Control acts in context
- References
- 7. Control acts between Managers and their staff
- 7.1. Types of control act
- 7.1.1. Between Managers and Senior Staff
- 7.1.2. Between Managers and Administration Staff
- 7.1.3. Comparing Managers and staff at different levels
- 7.2. Forms used
- 7.2.1. Between Managers and Senior Staff
- 7.2.2. Between Managers and Administration Staff
- 7.2.3. Comparing Managers and staff at different levels
- 7.3. External mitigation of Managers' directives to Executive Assistants
- 7.4. Conclusion
- References
- 8. Managers and power in the workplace
- 8.1. Other ways the Managers may minimise or mark status differences
- 8.1.1. Acknowledgement of staff's skills and expertise
- 8.1.2. Turn-taking
- 8.1.3. Amount of talk
- 8.1.4. Topic choice
- 8.1.5. Other types of speech act
- 8.2. Sonia and Ruth's interactive style of management
- 8.2.1. General style of management
- 8.2.2. Dealing with potentially problematic situations
- 8.3. Power in the interactions between Managers and their staff
- References
- 9. Language and power between equals
- 9.1. Control acts
- 9.1.1. Types of control act
- 9.1.2. Forms used
- 9.1.3. Mitigation
- 9.1.4. Summary
- 9.2. Other aspects of interaction between equals
- 9.2.1. Amount of talk
- 9.2.2. Turn-taking
- 9.2.3. Topic choice and flow
- 9.2.4. Acknowledgement of expertise power
- 9.2.5. Acknowledgement of face
- 9.3. Effective communication between equals
- References
- Appendix A.Transcription conventions
- Basic Conventions
- Non-standard speech and noises
- Numbering in transcript excerpts cited
- Appendix B. Main interaction purpose and word counts
- Appendix C. Directive head acts
- Sonia's directives
- Sonia to Anna (26 with 29 head acts)
- Sonia to Beth (50 with 54 head acts)
- Sonia to Clare (3 with 5 head acts)
- Sonia to Donna (5 with 5 head acts)
- Sonia to Eloise (16 with 22 head acts)
- Sonia to Francine (8 with 11 head acts)
- Sonia to Genevieve (29 with 34 head acts)
- Sonia to Hilary (20 with 24 head acts)
- Sonia to Irene (2 with 4 head acts)
- Ruth's directives
- Ruth to Irene (35 with 40 head acts)
- Jo (35 with 42 head acts)
- Katie (7 with 9 head acts)
- Leigh (8 with 14 head acts)
- Mary (9 with 12 head acts)
- Nell (7 with 7 head acts)
- Ondine (4 with 5 head acts)
- Quinta (1 with 2 head acts)
- Appendix D. Request head acts
- Requests to Sonia
- Ruth to Sonia (1 with 1 head act)
- Therese to Sonia (3 with 4 head acts)
- Clare to Sonia (3 with 6 head acts)
- Genevieve to Sonia (7 with 8 head acts)
- Requests to Ruth
- Sonia to Ruth (4 with 6 head acts)
- Irene to Ruth (4 with 4 head acts)
- Katie to Ruth (1 with 1 head act)
- Leigh to Ruth (1 with 1 head act)
- Mary to Ruth (1 with 1 head act)
- Quinta to Ruth (1 with 1 head act)
- Requests to Therese
- Sonia to Therese (5 with 5 head acts)
- Requests to Katie
- Mary to Katie (2 with 2 head acts)
- Ondine to Katie (2 with 2 head acts)
- Requests to Jo
- Vera to Jo (6 with 7 head acts)
- Requests to Vera
- Jo to Vera (1 with 1 head act)
- Requests to Francine
- Jo to Francine (4 with 4 head acts)
- Requests to Ursula
- Katie to Ursula (6 with 7 head acts)
- Appendix E. Advice head acts
- Advice from Sonia
- Sonia to Anna (1 with 1 head act)
- Sonia to Genevieve (5 with 8 head acts)
- Advice to Sonia
- Francine to Sonia (1 with 1 head act)
- Genevieve (1 with 1 head act)
- Advice from Ruth
- Ruth to Jo (2 with 2 head acts)
- Ruth to Katie (1 with 1 head act)
- Ruth to Phoebe (1 with 1 head act)
- Ruth to Sonia (1 with 2 head acts)
- Advice from and to Katie
- Katie to Jo (6 with 7 head acts)
- Katie to Mary (15 with 19 head acts)
- Katie to Ondine (2 with 2 head acts)
- Ondine to Katie (2 with 4 head acts)
- Advice to Jo by Non-Informant Participants
- Vera to Jo (1 with 2 head acts)
- Francine to Jo (8 with 8 head acts)
- Notes
- References
- Author Index
- Subject Index
- The Pragmatics & Beyond New Series
