Getting things done at work : the discourse of power in workplace interaction / Bernadette Vine.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Vine, Bernadette.

Series:

Pragmatics & beyond ; new ser., v. 124.

Pragmatics & beyond, 0922-842X ; new ser., v. 124

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Communication in management--New Zealand.

Communication in management.

Communication in organizations--New Zealand.

Communication in organizations.

English language--Discourse analysis.

English language.

Oral communication--New Zealand.

Oral communication.

Power (Social sciences).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (288 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Philadelphia, PA : John Benjamins Pub., 2004.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

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.

Contents:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Author Index

Subject Index

The Pragmatics &amp

Beyond New Series.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786612255083

9781423772385

1423772385

9781282255081

1282255088

9789027295385

9027295387

OCLC:

567853767