Language and culture at work / Stephanie Schnurr & Olga Zayts.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Schnurr, Stephanie, 1975- author.

Zayts-Spence, Olga, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Intercultural communication.

Language in the workplace.

Multilingualism.

Diversity in the workplace.

Communication in organizations.

Physical Description:

viii, 158 pages ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY : Routledge, an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, 2017.

Summary:

Language and Culture at Work provides an overview of the complex role that culture plays in workplace contexts. Eight chapters cover the core aspects of culture at work, comprising: Face and politeness, Decision making, Leadership, Identity, Gender, Work-life balance, The authors draw on a significant corpus of authentic workplace data collected in numerous professional and medical settings involving participants from a variety of different socio-cultural backgrounds (including Chinese, Filipino, Indian, British, Dutch, Hong Kong, Taiwanese and Australian). Using in depth analyses of authentic interactions and interviews, the book proposes a new integrated framework for researching culture at work from a sociolinguistic perspective. This is key reading for researchers and recommended for those working in the areas of sociolinguistics, communication studies, discourse analysis and applied linguistics. It will be of particular interest to students of professional and workplace communication, intercultural communication and intercultural pragmatics. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Language and culture at work. An introduction 1

Introduction 1

So, what is 'culture'? 2

Researching 'culture' at work 3

Our corpus 11

Brief outline of the book 16

2 Making it work. Negotiating face and politeness at work 22

Introduction 22

Face and politeness and first-order notions of culture 23

Face and politeness at work 24

Face and politeness and second-order culture in action 27

Discussion 38

3 The complexities of decision making. A question or culture₁? 43

Introduction 43

Decision making and 'culture' - a brief took at the literature 45

Decision making in action 47

Discussion 61

4 Leadership. A 'cultural' activity? 66

Introduction 66

Conceptualising leadership 70

Leadership and 'culture' 71

Leadership in action 73

Discussion 82

5 Moving beyond stereotypes. Constructing and negotiating identities at work 87

Introduction 87

Constructing and negotiating identities 88

Mobilising cultural₁ categories when constructing identities 89

Mobilising company membership as an important aspect of professional identity 94

Orienting to the interactional context 97

Discussion 102

6 Gender: The interplay between the 'local' and the 'global' 106

Introduction 106

What is gender and why is it relevant at work? 110

Local practices 112

Discussion 120

7 Work-life balance. Juggling different expectations 124

Introduction 124

Issues of work-life balance in Hong Kong 124

The (perceived) role of culture₁ 129

Interactional evidence of work-life balance issues 133

Actively negotiating work-life balance. A case study 134

Discussion 140

8 Understanding language and 'culture' at work. Taking stock and looking ahead 144

Introduction 144

Taking stock 144

Looking ahead 153.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781138688476

1138688479

9781138688490

1138688495

OCLC:

972735880