Authors: Gina Poncini
This paper reports on a study exploring discourse and the business relationship at an Italian company’s meetings of its international distributors, attended by approximately 25 distributors from 12-15 different countries in Europe, Asia and North America and by some of the company’s Italian staff and management. Data for the study come from audio recordings of the twice-annual meetings, held in Italy and normally lasting two to three days, while supplementary data were obtained through semi-structured interviews and field notes taken during observations of the meetings. The study used a series of analytical approaches, both qualitative and quantitative, which were drawn together into a discussion of frames (Goffman 1974, 1981), providing indications of how particular interactional strategies work together to position meeting participants. After briefly describing the rationale for using certain categories of linguistic and interactional features, the article uses data extracts to illustrate the analysis and to show how common ground is built up at the meetings and how language use by participants reflects and construes the business relationship. This relates to roles at the meeting as well as ?outside? of the meeting, in the business relationship during the rest of the year. A number of recurring themes emerged from the study’s examination of the multicultural meetings. One is that the meetings seem to have their own culture, or at least their own character and sense of ?groupness?, not necessarily linked to national cultures. Another theme concerns conflict, as evidenced, for example, by the use of negative evaluation in interchanges between the main company speaker and distributors: if conflict is observed, it involves factors not necessarily related to the different national cultures of participants. A final theme concerns how this culture or groupness comes about. The analysis highlights how the main company speaker in particular does a lot of work to construct common ground, involving people who are present and others who are not. Other speakers do so as well.
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Publish Year: 2003
Conference: Lugano, Switzerland (2003)