Troubles talk as a relational strategy in intercultural teamwork
Building good relationships at work is crucial for individual wellbeing and workplace satisfaction. Yet, managing these relationships is far from easy and concerns over relationship management and getting along well are integral to peopleâs daily lives (Knobloch, 2010). Research indicates that good relationships are particularly scarce in intercultural teams (e.g. Mannix & Neale, 2005; Stahl, Maznevski, Voigt, & Jonsen, 2010), yet little research has been undertaken to investigate just how it is that team members and colleagues get along and how they relate around working together. To address this gap, this thesis draws on 25 hours of interactional data from the meetings of an intercultural team of MBA students recorded over 8 months. Analysis of the transcripts is supplemented by observations and interviews conducted with team members at the start and end of their teamwork. The study investigates one talk activity in depth, troubles talk, that is demonstrated to have played a central role in relating in the team. It explores how rapport management (Spencer-Oatey, 2008) is done in troubles talk across different domains and provides a thick description of troubles talk itself. It also explores the functions
Debray, Carolin
H Social Sciences (General) ; P Philology. Linguistics
Troubles talk as a relational strategy in intercultural teamwork. Building good relationships at work is crucial for individual wellbeing and workplace satisfaction. Yet, managing these relationships is far from easy and concerns over relationship management and getting along well are integral to peopleâs daily lives (Knobloch, 2010). Research indicates that good relationships are particularly scarce in intercultural teams (e.g. Mannix & Neale, 2005; Stahl, Maznevski, Voigt, & Jonsen, 2010), yet little research has been undertaken to investigate just how it is that team members and colleagues get along and how they relate around working together. To address this gap, this thesis draws on 25 hours of interactional data from the meetings of an intercultural team of MBA students recorded over 8 months. Analysis of the transcripts is supplemented by observations and interviews conducted with team members at the start and end of their teamwork. The study investigates one talk activity in depth, troubles talk, that is demonstrated to have played a central role in relating in the team. It explores how rapport management (Spencer-Oatey, 2008) is done in troubles talk across different domains and provides a thick description of troubles talk itself. It also explores the functions
troubles talk relational strategy intercultural building good relationship work crucial individual wellbeing workplace satisfaction yet manage relationship far easy concern_relationship management get along well integral people daily_life indicates good relationship particularly scarce intercultural team and yet_little undertaken investigate team member colleague get along relate around work together address_gap draw hours interactional data meeting intercultural team mba student record analysis transcript supplement observation_interview conduct team member start end study_investigate talk activity depth trouble talk demonstrate played central_role relate team explores rapport management spencer oatey trouble talk across_different domain provide thick description trouble talk itself also_explore function