Investigating Workplace Discourse

by Almut Koester

Overview

Exploring the characteristics of different types of workplace conversations, including decision-making, training, briefing or making arrangements, this enthralling account pays particular attention to interactions with a more social focus, such as small talk or office gossip.

Presenting a range of approaches to analyzing such workplace discourse, Almut Koester argues for a combination of quantitative corpus-based methods, to compare specific linguistic features in different genres and qualitative methods involving a close analysis of individual conversations, to explore such issues as politeness, power, conflict and consensus-building. A corpus of conversations recorded in a variety of office environments both in the UK and the USA is used throughout to demonstrate the interplay between speakers accomplishing tasks and maintaining relationships in the workplace.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415364713
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	07/11/2013
Series:	Domains of Discourse
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	200
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

Table of Contents

Notes on data and transcription, Acknowledgements, 1 Workplace discourse: an overview, 2 Approaches to analysing workplace discourse, 4 Relational goals: a framework for analysing interpersonal dimensions of workplace talk, 5 A corpus- based comparison of workplace genres, 6 Negotiating consensus and confl ict in workplace talk, 7 Relational talk in workplace interactions, 8 Conclusion, Notes, Bibliography, Index