occuptaion and power

• types of power


  political, personal, social group, instrumental, influential, power in discourse, power behind discourse, ideology
• power asymmetry


  a marked difference in the power status of individuals involved in discourse
• unequal encounter


  an alternative term for asymetric highlighting the power one speaker has over the other
• powerful participant


  a speaker with a higher status in a given context, who is therefore able to impose a degree of power
• less powerful participants


  those with less status in a given context, who is therefore unable to impose a degree of power
• constraints


  ways in which powerful participants may block or control the contributions of less powerful participants
• irving goffman- face theory/face work


  -we present a particular image of ourselves to others.

  -conversatation is co operative- we accept the face that other people present to us.

  -we may reject saying people are being insincere.

  -saying something to reject someones 'face' is a 'face threatening act'

  -purpose of face work is to maintain 'status' either in conversation or society.
• examples of politeness


  • appropriate terms of address
  • appropriate speech according to your social relationship with them
  • degree of formality
  • turn taking
• Browne and Levinson - politeness theory


  -works on the assumption that we have two different types of face: positive and negative face

  -B&L suggest when we are rude to people we commit face threatening acts (directed at the person we are speaking to)

  -when we admit and apologise for our actions we commit face threatening acts (directed at ourselves)
• positive face


  an individuals desire to be liked and appreciated by others. a persons self esteem.
• negative face


  an individuals desire to protect their personal rights. freedom of speech and action
• positive politeness


  appealing to a persons positive face can mean making the individual feel good about themselves
• negative politeness

  appealing to a persons negative face can mean making the other person feel like they havent been imposed on or taken advantage of
• John Swales


  -discourse communities applies to language and occupation as people share a set of common goals

  internal communication- may differ in a discourse community than in social lives

  -use specialist lexis and discourse- specific ways of communication due to occupation

  -discourse communities require a level of knowledge
• Kurt Lewin - gatekeeper


  decides what information should be communicated to a group or individual and which info should not
• hornyak


  -found a pattern that shift in conversation is always initiated by the highest ranking in the room.
• herbert and straight


  -found a link between compliments and authority

  -people of higher authority were more likely to compliment those of lower authority than the other way round. used as a form of praise in workplace

  -if used the other way lower ranking person may be seen as condescending
• drew and heritage - institutional talk


  -members of discourse community share inferential frameworks such as implicit ways of thinking, communicating and behaving.

  -they express significance of connecting with others as an important dimension in workplace communications.
• drew and heritage


  implicit was of thinking, communicating and behaving

  CEO of company- communicate in a formal manner, range of genres- email and meetings

  employees- more likely to converge if communicating with CEO/boss. more likely to respond with emails than send. wont manage topics in meetings, may speak more or less depending on context
• drew and heritage


  differences between everyday conversation and workplace talk:

  goal orientation, turn-taking,allowable contributions, professional lexis, structure, asymmetry
• morreall


  workplace humour benefited employment relationships by increasing job satisfaction, creativity and even productivity
• koester


  phatic talk is communication that helps to build relationships eg talking about the weather, sharing a joke or traffic otw to work - koester said after a study in 2004 that phatic talk is important in the workplace for getting jobs done

  koester suggests being sociable and using banter within an occupational group is key to creating a positive and productive work environment.
• wenger


  wenger defines a community of practice as 'a group of learners who are in the process of learning about the same thing'

  3 main characteristics within a community of practice- domain; topic or subject of interest, community: shared activities, discussions and interactions members may have, practice: shared tools and strategies, ideas and results of the interactions of the community
• eakins & eakins


  in 7 uni faculty meetings the men spoke for longer. mens turns ranged from 10.66s to 17.07s whereas womens ranged from 3-10s
• edelsky


  uni department meetings- men took more and longer turns and did more arguing, joking, directing and soliciting of responses during more structured segments of meetings

  during the 'free for all' parts of the meeting women and men spoke equally
• holmes and stubbe


  'doing power'- coined this term.

  this term recognises the ways in which power is demonstrated by superiors in the workplace when carrying out their occupational role