Examining the Impact of Perceived Cultural Distance on the Pragmatic Choices of Saudi Customers in Service Encounters

This study examines service encounters in Saudi Arabia from a pragmatic perspective. Its aim is to investigate the possible impact of perceived cultural distance between customers and service providers on pragmatic choices. It specifically examines how Saudi customers construct their service encounters when talking to service providers of the same (versus different) cultural/ethnic background in terms of discourse structure; strategies of request and internal modifications, and stylistic strategies. Three cafés with service providers of three different ethnic/cultural backgrounds are chosen. One has Saudi service providers, the second café has Arab (non-Saudi) service providers, and the third café has non-Arab service providers. Forty socially minimal service encounter interactions that take place in each café are observed and manually recorded. The study uses the framework of ‘rapport management’ by Spencer-Oatey (2002) as its approach for data analysis. The findings indicate that there are differences among the three sets of data in terms of discourse structure, the realization of the speech act of request, and the stylistic aspect of interactions. According to the special nature of service encounters, customers’ pragmatic choices are explained in terms of expressing certain degrees of social distance rather than politeness. More specifically, the closer cultural distance between customers and service providers, the more pragmatic strategies functioning to achieve more closeness and solidarity are employed.

Examining the Impact of Perceived Cultural Distance on the Pragmatic Choices of Saudi Customers in Service Encounters

This study examines service encounters in Saudi Arabia from a pragmatic perspective. Its aim is to investigate the possible impact of perceived cultural distance between customers and service providers on pragmatic choices. It specifically examines how Saudi customers construct their service encounters when talking to service providers of the same (versus different) cultural/ethnic background in terms of discourse structure; strategies of request and internal modifications, and stylistic strategies. Three cafés with service providers of three different ethnic/cultural backgrounds are chosen. One has Saudi service providers, the second café has Arab (non-Saudi) service providers, and the third café has non-Arab service providers. Forty socially minimal service encounter interactions that take place in each café are observed and manually recorded. The study uses the framework of ‘rapport management’ by Spencer-Oatey (2002) as its approach for data analysis. The findings indicate that there are differences among the three sets of data in terms of discourse structure, the realization of the speech act of request, and the stylistic aspect of interactions. According to the special nature of service encounters, customers’ pragmatic choices are explained in terms of expressing certain degrees of social distance rather than politeness. More specifically, the closer cultural distance between customers and service providers, the more pragmatic strategies functioning to achieve more closeness and solidarity are employed.

The role of discourse in establishing an enabling context for organizational knowledge creation: An ethnographic study

<p>The field of knowledge creation within organizational studies has pointed to the importance of an organization establishing an enabling context for fostering innovation and knowledge production. Factors identified as critical for enabling include the existence of structures and practices that foster solid collegial relations and enact a climate of care. Based on ethnographic research, this thesis adopts a broadly sociolinguistic approach to an exploration of interpersonal relations within a New Zealand IT company, in order to identify the ways in which a knowledge enabling context is instantiated. Using, in particular, the rapport management framework developed by Helen Spencer-Oatey (2000, 2008) and highlighting the variable of participant relations, the study analyses the discourse of the organization as both language and action, to provide a more extensive account than has so far been achieved in the knowledge enabling literature, as well as extending the sociolinguistic work on language in the workplace into new domains of discourse. The study shows that facilitation of and support for collegial relations occurs at all levels of the selected organization, from the spatial configuration and connectivity of the organization as a whole, through its component social structures, to the management of relations across levels of hierarchy. At the level of the organization as a whole, one organizational activity - the weekly company meeting - through its frequency, regularity, inclusiveness and management, facilitates and sustains collegial relations in multiple and distinctive ways. Two distinct kinds of organizational community are identified: the widely recognized community of practice (CofP); and a different kind of community, referred to in knowledge creation literature as a micro-community of knowledge. As well as identifying distinctive characteristics of these two communities, the analyses show that rapport is managed differently in each, while shedding new light on the productive interdependence of these two types of community. An interactional ethos characterized by care is reflected in the communication style at all levels of the organization. Despite substantial differences in power and status, the study finds that associative expressiveness, low distance and generally positive affect dominate interaction throughout. In closing, this thesis discusses the implications for future research into knowledge creation. It suggests, in particular, that including considerations of spatiality in the analytical framework has potential to contribute further to the field of language in the workplace through its influence as a vector of interaction.</p>

The role of discourse in establishing an enabling context for organizational knowledge creation: An ethnographic study

<p>The field of knowledge creation within organizational studies has pointed to the importance of an organization establishing an enabling context for fostering innovation and knowledge production. Factors identified as critical for enabling include the existence of structures and practices that foster solid collegial relations and enact a climate of care. Based on ethnographic research, this thesis adopts a broadly sociolinguistic approach to an exploration of interpersonal relations within a New Zealand IT company, in order to identify the ways in which a knowledge enabling context is instantiated. Using, in particular, the rapport management framework developed by Helen Spencer-Oatey (2000, 2008) and highlighting the variable of participant relations, the study analyses the discourse of the organization as both language and action, to provide a more extensive account than has so far been achieved in the knowledge enabling literature, as well as extending the sociolinguistic work on language in the workplace into new domains of discourse. The study shows that facilitation of and support for collegial relations occurs at all levels of the selected organization, from the spatial configuration and connectivity of the organization as a whole, through its component social structures, to the management of relations across levels of hierarchy. At the level of the organization as a whole, one organizational activity - the weekly company meeting - through its frequency, regularity, inclusiveness and management, facilitates and sustains collegial relations in multiple and distinctive ways. Two distinct kinds of organizational community are identified: the widely recognized community of practice (CofP); and a different kind of community, referred to in knowledge creation literature as a micro-community of knowledge. As well as identifying distinctive characteristics of these two communities, the analyses show that rapport is managed differently in each, while shedding new light on the productive interdependence of these two types of community. An interactional ethos characterized by care is reflected in the communication style at all levels of the organization. Despite substantial differences in power and status, the study finds that associative expressiveness, low distance and generally positive affect dominate interaction throughout. In closing, this thesis discusses the implications for future research into knowledge creation. It suggests, in particular, that including considerations of spatiality in the analytical framework has potential to contribute further to the field of language in the workplace through its influence as a vector of interaction.</p>

Rapport Management in President Buhari and Governor Sanwo-Olu’s Speeches on #EndSARS Protest in Nigeria

Speech making in politics is an essential tool used to manage relationships between politicians and the electorate. The success of a speech depends on the content and the discourse and linguistic strategies employed to achieve speakers’ communicative goals. Political speeches have been widely studied, but extant studies have given tangential attention to the management of rapport in speeches of political office holders delivered in crisis situation in Nigeria. Two speeches delivered by President Muhammadu Buhari (PMB) and Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu (GBS) on the #EndSARS protests in Nigeria, downloaded from www.guardian.ng and www.premiumtimesng.com respectively, were purposively selected and analysed using Rapport Management theory. This is with the view to accounting for the linguistic elements and discourse strategies and their functions in maintaining harmonious relationship in selected texts. Linguistic elements such as the inclusive “we”, the institutional “I”, collective/possessive “us” “our” “your” and descriptive adjectives and strategies such as claiming common ground, expressing solidarity, showing empathy were employed to manage rapport and achieve communicative goals by PMB and GBS. While GBS tactically avoids utterances that are rapport threatening, some utterances of PMB have the tendency to impair rapport. He however mitigates them through hedging, personalisation, institutionalisation and testimonial argument.

Rapport Management in Online Racial Humor

The present paper aims to investigate how racial humor, posted on Twitter affects rapport between interlocutors at both the interpersonal and intercommoned levels. Thus, the main problem this thesis attempt to address is English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) users' potential lack of awareness of the racially sensitive issues and how to deal with them in (online) intercultural communication. The paper aims to advance the understanding as to how the social and technological affordances of the medium (Herring, 2007) can shape the contexts in which racial humor is morally perceived and attitudinally assessed (in terms of politeness and impoliteness) by the audience on Twitter. After in-depth reading and a systematic coding process, a dataset totaling (312) racial jokes and (956) responses from various users, racial jokes circulated online were found to orient rapport either towards challenge or enhancement. These two rapport orientations were found to be (im)politeness-implicative on two different levels; the interpersonal level between the account administrator and his/her followers, and the societal level between social groups targeted by racial humor and the dominant social group in the society.

The Role of /Overlaps\ in Intercultural Workplace Interaction

<p>The field of workplace communication continues to grow, and globalisation has encouraged researchers to focus on the phenomenon of intercultural interaction in multi-cultural workplaces. Usually, but not exclusively, framed within the constructs of Brown and Levinson's Politeness Theory, intercultural studies have typically concentrated on instances of miscommunication taking a partial, one-sided account of intercultural workplace interaction. Differing social norms for what constitutes politeness have been a major focus of debate into the merits of politeness theory. Overlapping speech, in particular, is one aspect of workplace interaction that has been long neglected in the field of intercultural workplace interaction research. Moving away from the traditional views in the field, the present study takes a positive stance on the study of the interplay of interactional norms of politeness in intercultural face-to-face workplace interaction and investigates how people from different ethnic backgrounds undertake relational work in naturally-occurring workplace exchanges. As the analytic framework, rapport management (developed by Spencer-Oatey) provides a useful reconceptualisation of linguistic politeness with a greater focus on negotiated interaction. The analysis focuses on the role of overlapping speech in this context of interaction guided by two research questions: 1) how does overlapping speech function in workplace interactions in New Zealand? and 2) how are these overlaps intended and 'perceived' by culturally different interactants? To this end, the data for the present study were drawn from two meetings in a large educational institution in New Zealand. In the first phase of data collection, two meetings were video and audio recorded, from which representative extracts containing overlaps were chosen for analysis. In the second phase, individual stimulated recall interviews were held with the participants with the purpose of eliciting participants' intentions and perceptions regarding the use of overlaps. The findings suggest that this group of instructors operate as a Community of Practice (CofP) rather than as ethnic individualities with shared assumptions and expectations regarding the appropriate use of overlaps to cooperatively construct meaning in interaction. This CofP, it was noted, is also strongly oriented towards the maintenance and enhancement of social harmony in their workplace interaction, which influences the use of overlapping speech as a communicative strategy employed to this end. Overall, the study demonstrates that considering intercultural communication from the perspective of rapport management can provide positive insights into how people from different ethnic backgrounds do relational work as they construct meaning in interaction.</p>

The Role of /Overlaps\ in Intercultural Workplace Interaction

<p>The field of workplace communication continues to grow, and globalisation has encouraged researchers to focus on the phenomenon of intercultural interaction in multi-cultural workplaces. Usually, but not exclusively, framed within the constructs of Brown and Levinson's Politeness Theory, intercultural studies have typically concentrated on instances of miscommunication taking a partial, one-sided account of intercultural workplace interaction. Differing social norms for what constitutes politeness have been a major focus of debate into the merits of politeness theory. Overlapping speech, in particular, is one aspect of workplace interaction that has been long neglected in the field of intercultural workplace interaction research. Moving away from the traditional views in the field, the present study takes a positive stance on the study of the interplay of interactional norms of politeness in intercultural face-to-face workplace interaction and investigates how people from different ethnic backgrounds undertake relational work in naturally-occurring workplace exchanges. As the analytic framework, rapport management (developed by Spencer-Oatey) provides a useful reconceptualisation of linguistic politeness with a greater focus on negotiated interaction. The analysis focuses on the role of overlapping speech in this context of interaction guided by two research questions: 1) how does overlapping speech function in workplace interactions in New Zealand? and 2) how are these overlaps intended and 'perceived' by culturally different interactants? To this end, the data for the present study were drawn from two meetings in a large educational institution in New Zealand. In the first phase of data collection, two meetings were video and audio recorded, from which representative extracts containing overlaps were chosen for analysis. In the second phase, individual stimulated recall interviews were held with the participants with the purpose of eliciting participants' intentions and perceptions regarding the use of overlaps. The findings suggest that this group of instructors operate as a Community of Practice (CofP) rather than as ethnic individualities with shared assumptions and expectations regarding the appropriate use of overlaps to cooperatively construct meaning in interaction. This CofP, it was noted, is also strongly oriented towards the maintenance and enhancement of social harmony in their workplace interaction, which influences the use of overlapping speech as a communicative strategy employed to this end. Overall, the study demonstrates that considering intercultural communication from the perspective of rapport management can provide positive insights into how people from different ethnic backgrounds do relational work as they construct meaning in interaction.</p>

A Study of Customer Service Agent’s Pragmatic Identity Construction in Complaint Responses

Positioned within rapport management theory proposed by Spencer-Oatey, this article investigates the customer service agent’s pragmatic identity construction in complaint response calls. Drawing on data of 42 complaint handling recordings from the customer care center of a Chinese airline company, this study tries to address these three research questions: 1) What types of pragmatic identities do the customer service agents construct in complaint response calls? 2) How are these pragmatic identities constructed through rapport management strategies? 3) What interpersonal functions do these pragmatic identities perform? By adopting a qualitative research method, this study has found that the agents mainly construct three default identities and one deviational identity in complaint response calls by employing nine rapport management strategies from four rapport management domains. These different pragmatic identities mainly perform three kinds of interpersonal functions: support face needs, support sociality rights and obligations, and support interactional goals. The findings further validates the feasibility of rapport management theory in the study of identity construction, and provides new ideas for future study on pragmatic identity construction in institutional communications.

Kann Interkulturalität die Qualität einer Beziehung fördern? Rapport-Management in chinesisch-deutschen Teams

Zusammenfassung Der Fokus der chinesisch-deutschen Kommunikationsforschung liegt vor allem auf dem Vergleich kulturspezifischer Konventionen und den daraus resultierenden Konflikten und Missverständnissen. Die vorliegende Studie erweitert dieses Bild und betrachtet Interkulturalität als eine synergetische Ressource für erfolgreiches Beziehungsmanagement. Anhand der Methode der ethnographischen Gesprächsanalyse (Deppermann 2000) werden drei kommunikative Praktiken, die sich aus der Interkulturalität ergeben, in realen chinesisch-deutschen Unternehmenskommunikationssituationen identifiziert: die temporäre Verwendung der Sprache des Gegenübers, die Anpassung an dessen Diskursorganisation sowie die Thematisierung kultureller Besonderheiten. Wie diese kommunikativen Praktiken mit der Verbesserung und der Aufrechterhaltung der Beziehung zwischen den Interagierenden zusammenhängen, wird mittels des Rapport-Management-Modells (Spencer-Oatey 2000; 2008) aufgezeigt.