Sociolinguistics and Business Talk: A Role-Playing Approach 9811900507, 9789811900501

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Sociolinguistics and Business Talk A Role-Playing Approach

Sociolinguistics and Business Talk

Yeonkwon Jung

Sociolinguistics and Business Talk A Role-Playing Approach

Yeonkwon Jung Kansai Gaidai University Osaka, Japan

ISBN 978-981-19-0050-1 ISBN 978-981-19-0051-8 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-0051-8 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover credit: © Melisa Hasan This Palgrave Pivot imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. The registered company address is: 152 Beach Road, #21-01/04 Gateway East, Singapore 189721, Singapore

Acknowledgements

The idea of this project was originated during my one-year research leave at Korea University. I owe many thanks to Kansai Gaidai University for granting permission for my research leave. I also express my heartfelt gratitude to Prof. Youngmin Yoon who generously helped me conduct research at Korea University. Special thanks go to past presidents of Korean Association of English for Specific Purposes (Prof. SeungRyul Lee & Prof. Hakmoon Lee) for their warm encouragement for my research. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my parents and twin sisters, Yeonhee & Yeonhoe, for their profound support in many ways during my research leave in Seoul and two loves in Japan, Ryoko & Suzuka, for their moral support and endless love.

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Contents

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Introduction 1.1 Aim of the Book 1.2 Approach 1.2.1 Grammatical Competence 1.2.2 Discourse Competence 1.2.3 Sociolinguistic Competence 1.2.4 Strategic Competence 1.3 Role-Playing Data 1.4 Organization of the Book References

1 1 4 5 5 6 8 9 13 14

2

Rapport Talk in Random Business Encounters 2.1 Relational vs. Transactional Talk 2.2 Paragraph Convention in Random Business Encounters 2.2.1 Opening 2.2.2 Body Asking Questions Don’t Be Overeager 2.2.3 Ending 2.3 Exercise References

19 20 21 21 23 24 25 28 28 28

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Call Center Talk 3.1 Call Center Genre Move Structure 3.2 Organizational Apologia 3.2.1 Avoidance Statement 3.2.2 Accommodative Statement 3.3 Empathic Communication 3.3.1 Some Features of Empathy Talk in Call Center 3.3.2 Type of Empathy Attentive Empathy Affective Empathy Cognitive Empathy 3.4 Exercise References

31 33 37 38 41 43 45 46 46 48 50 54 54

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Business Meeting 4.1 Meetings at the Overall Structural Level 4.2 Meetings at the Individual Phase Level 4.2.1 Power in Business Meeting Autocratic Business Meeting Democratic Business Meeting 4.2.2 Disagreement Some Characteristics of Disagreement Taxonomy of Disagreement 4.3 Exercise References

57 59 66 66 67 72 76 76 77 83 83

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Sales Talk 5.1 Paragraph Convention in Sales Talk 5.2 Grounds for Trust in Sales 5.2.1 Be Ethical 5.2.2 Be Professional 5.3 Some Factors Influencing the Buying Decision 5.3.1 Listening Attentively 5.3.2 Meeting the prospect’s Needs 5.3.3 Managing Rhetorical Barriers 5.4 Exercise References

87 89 94 94 98 100 100 105 109 113 114

CONTENTS

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Job Recruitment Talk 6.1 Paragraph Convention of Job Recruitment Talk 6.2 Keyword-Based Management Language 6.2.1 Corporate Social Responsibility 6.2.2 Sustainability 6.2.3 Corporate Values 6.3 The Notion of Identification 6.4 The Function of Benefits in Job Recruitment Talk 6.5 Using You in Job Recruitment Talk 6.6 Exercise References

115 116 119 120 121 122 124 126 127 129 129

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Job Application Talk 7.1 General Paragraph Structure of Job Application Talk 7.1.1 Introduction 7.1.2 Body 7.1.3 Ending 7.2 Applied Paragraph Structure of Job Application Talk 7.3 Exercise Reference

131 132 132 136 137 138 141 141

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Concluding Remarks 8.1 Authentic Data Created by Professionals and/or L1 Speakers 8.2 Simulated Data Created by Professionals and/or L1 Speakers 8.3 Simulated Data Created by Non-Professionals and/or L2 Speakers 8.4 Future Implications References

143 143 144 145 146 148

References

151

Index

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About the Author

Dr. Yeonkwon Jung is teaching Business Communication at Kansai Gaidai University (KGU). Prior to joining KGU, he held numerous teaching and research appointments, including Helsinki School of Economics, University of Michigan—Ann Arbor, Chuo University, and Korea University. He received a Ph.D. from The University of Edinburgh and an M.A. from University of Hawaii at Manoa. His major research interests include the various genres of business communication, the role of English as the business lingua franca, corporate communication in international contexts, and pedagogical aspect of business communication. He was the winner of the 2021 Kitty O. Locker Outstanding Researcher Award.

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CHAPTER 1

Introduction

Abstract Chapter 1 introduces outline of the book. It explains aim of the book, type of data, and methodological tools for data analysis. Keywords Sociolinguistics · Role-playing data · Stakeholder communication

1.1

Aim of the Book

This book is about talk at work. It presents theoretical and applied frameworks for business speech using business English as a lingua franca. It focuses on how members of a specific discourse community use language (or genre) in order to “communicate with one another in their pursuit of common professional or work-related goals” (Tarone, 2005: 157). It attempts to assess the strength and the well-reasoned argument, logical links that convince the audience of the coherence of the speaker’s argument (e.g. logical consistency, tone, organization, and a number of other important sounding terms). It tries to work out which methods are feasible and simulate the kinds of compromises that communities and industries in the real world must make to make outcome correct. It suggests the important aspect of familiarities with form, function, and context of stakeholder communications in order © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 Y. Jung, Sociolinguistics and Business Talk, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-0051-8_1

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for second language (L2) learners to communicate successfully. Critical approaches to organizational communication examine the ways in which power is constructed through communicative/rhetorical practices, or talk (messages) (Hoffman & Ford, 2010). This book is named under the label of “sociolinguistics”, as it describes and explains the relationship between language and the social contexts in which it is used. It explains which patterns are used and describes how people use language in different social contexts built on some components of a speech event (participants, social context, topic, and purpose of an interaction). Some selective scales or dimensions are used for data analysis such as social distance/solidarity, status/power, formality/informality, and communicative function (Holmes & Wilson, 2017). The two dimensions of analysis of power and solidarity in workplace interaction provide a framework for discussing research on how people perform leadership at work, as well as for considering the role of narrative in workplace interaction. Research on speech functions such as directives involves consideration of the power dimension in workplace discourse analysis. This book explores how power plays a role in a variety of business communication practices (e.g. the function of chairperson and a decision-making procedure in a business meeting). Turing to solidarity dimension, relational talk has attracted a good deal of attention from workplace discourse analysts (Schnurr, 2009). One distinction which has proved valuable is the distinction between the transactional dimension and the relational dimension of meaning in talk. This book illustrates that the distinction is simply a useful heuristic tool, since every interaction has elements of both dimensions of meaning (see Chapter 2, rapport talk, for detail). There are a handful of researchers who have profoundly influenced the study of spoken business discourse. The work of Charles (1995) uncovers the connections between language and its context in negotiations (e.g. the different types of business relationship). Boden (1994) and Bargiela-Chiappini and Harris (1997) produce early ground-breaking interdisciplinary work on management meetings. Holmes and Stubbe (2003) produce powerful findings on modality, turn-taking, humor, narrative, conflict, and intercultural communication by contributing to the multi-faceted LWP (Language in the Workplace) corpus in New Zealand. Koester (2004, 2006, 2010) clarifies language features in workplace communication, through the combination of corpus linguistics, conversation analysis, discourse analysis, and genre analysis approaches. These major studies on business speech exemplify that a considerable

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amount of the working day is made up of standard routines. One of the most common business routines might be communications between or among stakeholders. This book illustrates examples of key strategies by which organizations create a meaning system that favors their interests over those of the other stakeholders (Conrad, 1983; Mumby, 2001, 2004). Data of the book include a variant of communication routines between stakeholders (e.g. chats between new workers having great distance in a company; talk between customer and operator in call center; debate between colleagues in business meeting; sales talk between sale person and (potential) customer; job recruitment talk to potential employees; job application talk to employer(s). Although the prevailing data collection methodology in workplace discourse research involves recording naturally occurring talk in authentic situations, this book uses role-play data. It is inherent because the workplace is “a restricted research site” (Mullany, 2007). That is, it is because of difficulties associated with gaining access to companies and confidentiality agreements necessary to work on the data and publish the data. This goes side by side with Planken’s (2005: 51) claim that simulation serves as the best alternative, in terms of “data collection […], because participants are protective of potentially sensitive corporate information, or because they are reluctant about being observed and recorded on the job”. This claim seems to some extent justified with the fact that role plays were used in 83 of the 217 pragmatic production studies and are thus one of the most common research instruments in the area (Nguyen, 2019). In this respect, this book will be a valuable reference exclusively for novice researchers who are interested in critical discourse analysis, pragmatics, business discourse, and communication studies. Simulated data are collected based on a set of instructions for the speakers (i.e. undergraduate students) involving where they are asked to play a certain role intended to elicit the particular aspect of language the researcher (i.e. instructor) is interested in. The role play represents students’ most common speaking practice in response to the case in core business courses and it helps students perform as “problem-solvers, managers who can act in business situations, and disciplinary thinkers who can apply academic knowledge to the real world” (Forman & Rymer, 1999: 103). Performing scenarios in real-time stimulates an intuitive reaction to strategic reaction. Students engage in the scenario by describing the setting and the problem. This book investigates a variety of speech acts such as requesting, refusing, apologizing, and complaining, which have often employed role plays as a

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means of collecting data (Cohen & Olshtain, 1981, 1993; Eisenstein & Bodman, 1993; Gass & Houck, 1999; Houck & Gass, 1996; Hudson, 2001; Liddicoat & Crozet, 2001; Rintell & Mitchell, 1989; Trosborg, 1987). Organization of this book using the role-playing approach originates from the function of creativity and its link to critical thinking in business. This book aims to help students foster creativity in business. Students engage in the scenario by describing setting, problem, and solution. They try to make a setting for the characters that is realistic, but not necessarily real in order to meet a course objective. Before embarking on an outline of role-playing data, the description of data analysis method is introduced in the following section.

1.2

Approach

Conversation analysis is not used as a methodological tool as it has been criticized as too closely tied to Western interactional patterns and insensitive to cultural diversity (Duranti, 1988; Gumperz, 1982). Since the roleplay performances are not video-taped, the paralinguistic aspects of the participants’ communicative strategies are not considered. Since this book does not consider the paralinguistic aspects of the participants’ communication strategies, the transcribed data will not like those in conversation analysis. There may be inevitable exceptions like capital letters in empathy talk data, though. Instead, this book takes (verbal) linguistic competencies into consideration. A wide range of knowledge and experience is of necessity to communicate successfully (Hyland, 2003). From the perspective of communication as a knowledge-demanding practice, communicators need at least four linguistic competencies for communication success (Canale & Swain, 1980). Role-play data will be analyzed with the main sources of these four competences: • Grammatical competence: a knowledge of grammar, vocabulary, and the language system. • Discourse competence: a knowledge of genre and the rhetorical patterns that create them • Sociolinguistic competence: the ability to use language appropriately in different contexts, understanding readers, and adopting appropriate authorial attitudes. • Strategic competence: the ability to use a variety of communicative strategies.

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1.2.1

INTRODUCTION

5

Grammatical Competence

This book is considered related to rhetorical grammar (Kollin 2007), in that it correlates choices of certain grammatical and sentential structures and vocabularies in contexts. It discusses registers, proper signposts (exclusively used by a chairperson of the meeting), in different steps of a single business meeting. It also explicates business organization’s image management languages articulated in the different codes of conduct highlighted in the situation of career fairs (job recruitment talk, which is an adjacency pair of job application talk). It explores organizations’ efforts to manage and boost their reputation in communication in public (e.g. corporate social responsibility; sustainability index, and so on). It develops the notion of identity as an essential groundwork for an organizational PR talk. It suggests linguistic code of conducts that senior managers highlight when formulating off-line messages for stakeholders. It looks at types and frequencies of languages senior managers use in the ways they do in contemporary business world (for seeking job applicants, in particular). It accommodates both “rhetoric as (nominalized) action” in order to identify language components senior managers may use to communicate stakeholders and “rhetoric as identity” in order to see how an organization determinates its identity (e.g. sentence subjects) (Eccles & Nohria, 1992). 1.2.2

Discourse Competence

Seminal genre analysts work (i.e. Bhatia, 1993; Swales, 1990) has a tendency to explicate language use through formal and functional aspects of discourse (e.g. move structure and intertextuality) in a conventionalized communicative setting. Swales (1990, 2002) defines genre based on communicative purposes. He describes genre as “a class of communicative event” characterized by a set of communicative purposes. According to him, communicative purposes are highlighted as a fundamental feature that sets constraints for the stylistic and linguistic choices of genre. Communicative purposes as a fundamental feature in defining genres are relevant to first step when planning communication (e.g. Is the writer’s message mainly to deliver objective information?; Is it mainly persuasive?; Or is it to create solidarity?). All messages have an underlying purpose. For example, the purpose of a credit refusal letter is to refuse the request while encouraging the customer’s continued business. Creating goodwill

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is especially important when communicating unwelcome news with business partners. According to major genre analysts (Bhatia, 1993; Swales, 1990), the arrangement of text constitutes the rhetorical moves. Swales (1990) introduces rhetorical moves as an essential part of the valid rhetorical structure for socio-cognitive genre analysis because they remarkably orient to the task and purpose of the text. Moves are functional units of texts and describe their communicative purposes. Therefore, moves can be basic elements of a certain genre. The order in which the writer presents his/her ideas is as important as the ideas themselves realized as atomic paragraphs. Given this claim, data of the book are analyzed in a wider context. This book examines if there is a major rhetorical pattern in professional speaking across genres. Additionally, it explores whether there are distinct moves. For example, it investigates how to organize conversation for random connections. Firstly, random connectors need to describe self-identity, share commonality of experience, and make surface assessments of how the other looks (how he or she dresses or what he or she has) in order to initiate conversation with strangers. Secondly, their skills to show interest (e.g. attentive listening; asking questions) and pitfall of showing interest in random connection. Finally, effective follow-up at the end of rapport talk (e.g. walking away from an encounter with contract information). Genre theory also provides a foundation for examining call center move structure. Furthermore, this book proposes a three-stage meeting structure (opening the meeting-the discussion of the agenda-the closing of the meeting). In business meeting, linear patterns follow a more traditional on-topic, incremental structure. Spiral patterns of turns have speakers returning to an unfinished topic after several turns, and shifting topics very frequently. This book exemplifies if meeting data contain a mixture of both spiral and linear patterns, as Holmes and Stubbe (2003) point out. It also supports Holmes and Stubbe’s (2003) claim that there may be differing degrees of topic management and self-appointed turn-taking, depending on the specific topic under discussion and the changing goals and also roles of the speakers. 1.2.3

Sociolinguistic Competence

The reference of genre analysis is not necessarily taking context into consideration. Until recently, genre studies in professional contexts have been on the use of “text-internal linguistic resources” without in-depth analysis of “text-external sources”, which are context (Bhatia, 2012).

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Context should be incorporated exclusively in order to explain certain language use in goal-oriented professional contexts. In other words, “discourse as genre” is far beyond “discourse as text”, as its main concern lies in genre use in professional practice. Although generalizations are useful as they help us to see patterns, this perspective does not look into how moves represent staged strategies for realizing the communicative purposes. This book analyzes role-play data in terms of using context to make inferences about meaning. The same is true for approaches in pragmatics. Approaches in pragmatics go beyond conventional discourse analysis in that they draw on the context-sensitive position (Blum-Kulka, 1997). Pragmatics adopting the context-sensitive position offers insights into cross-cultural communication (Blum-Kulka et al., 1989; Wierzbicka, 1991). The value of this approach “mediates the connection between language and social context and facilitates more satisfactory bridging of the gap between texts and contexts” (Fairclough, 1995: 189), so that it allows us to reflect on “who uses language, how, why and when” (Van Dijk, 2011: 2). Words can mean more—or something other—than what they say. Their interpretation depends on a multiplicity of factors including familiarity with the context and cultural assumptions. The same phrase may have different meanings on different occasions and the same intention may be expressed by different linguistic means. The function or intention of each clause is contextually decided (Connor et al., 1995; Upton & Connor, 2001). Because utterances can simultaneously carry multiple meanings when they are taken out of context, the function of each unit is contextually determined. In this respect, pragmatic processes such as speech acts and face theory are adopted in the book to analyze how speakers seek to encode their messages for a particular audience, and how speakers make inferences when seeking to locate a speaker’s intended meaning. For example, this book explores the quality of attention to communication with people having great distance for rapport management. It also suggests how the job applicant establishes trust with the notion of Crichton’s (2013) grounds for trust, such as calculus-based trust, knowledge-based trust, and relationally based trust. It discusses how business organizations offer credibility, the audience’s response to the speaker as the source of the message, in a promotional genre (e.g. speaking structure; offering the hearer knowledge about the speaker’s expertise). Special attention is paid to the proper understanding of job description and job requirements for good job application talk practices.

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It contends that one of the most influential factors that take place in determining organizational attraction in job application is person-organization fit (POF) (Backhaus & Tikoo, 2004). 1.2.4

Strategic Competence

The terms “strategy” and “strategic” are used to imply an intentional choice of how to proceed. Emphasis is given on communication strategies for politeness purposes. Politeness is of crucial importance to perform a goal-oriented activity, such as business. In addition, it may serve the important function of handling negotiation-processes and managing conflicts successfully. Therefore, politeness seems of vital importance in business settings to achieve a goal successfully. Major politeness scholars (Brown & Levinson, 1987; Lakoff, 1973; Leech, 1983) have carried out research on the realization of politeness strategies in making facethreatening messages more implicit or less explicit. In this respect, over the last few decades, (in)directness has been one of the most popular cognitive values across cultures in studies on politeness. In particular, it becomes a crucial (non-)linguistic feature or convention for politeness. Since directness is characterized as intrinsically face-threatening or impoliteness, it is necessary to be indirect for politeness purposes (Brown & Levinson, 1987). In other words, indirectness has been defined as a set of politeness strategies used to avoid or minimize imposition on the hearer and to create solidarity between interactants. The primary theoretical basis of the book is Brown and Levinson’s (1987) theory of politeness, one of the most well-known research studies on strategic politeness. Since facethreats are inherent properties of illocutionary acts, Brown & Levinson believe that it is necessary to study the threats to face wants in the context of speech acts. Therefore, more than others, Brown & Levinson’s model explicitly provides how facework is reflected in politeness strategies used in the performance of speech acts. This book explores a variety of politeness strategies between participants having different opinions in business meetings. It argues how politeness specifically in disagreement affects decision-making, as “[d]eferring disagreement or debate is not a casual or random matter, it is central … to the smooth and practical everyday enactment of the organisation” (Boden, 1994: 155). Sales talk is also explored from the strategic perspective, as many organizational situations call for well-thought-out persuasive speech. This book pays particular attention to the concept of you-attitude (communication perspective taking things

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from the other’s perspective) in business and professional communication theory. Namely, it attempts to emphasize that the customer’s expectations about persuasion need to be met for communicative success. It investigates the hearer’s perspective of the communicative behavior, with an emphasis on the customer’s benefit (type and placement of benefit) and on the provision of sufficient information to the customer, in terms of notions such as information deficit and information surplus. To sum it up, this book discusses how the salesperson might be able to justify his or her business activities exclusively for direct marketing such as cold call situations. Though Brown & Levinson’s work provides the main theory basis for data analysis, I shall where necessary draw in other approaches (e.g. Benoit’s theory of image restoration strategy (1995, 1997)). Other approaches may to some extent explain the cases that Brown & Levinson’s patterns of politeness strategy distribution are not consistent with the data of the book. For example, this book investigates a variety of image restoration strategies for proper complaint management in call center. It shows how the dichotomized image restoration strategies (i.e. Benoit’s (1997) categorization of accommodation and avoidance strategies) are realized in call center talk. It is also for building the foundation for empathy as emotional intelligence in call center talk for complaint management effectively and efficiently. It adopts Hogan’s (1975) definition and classification of empathy communication, such as listening closely to customers (attentive empathy), offering emotional support (affective empathy), and anticipating needs (cognitive empathy). Lineup of individual topics is described in the following section.

1.3

Role-Playing Data

Role playing refers to taking a role of an existing character or person and acting it out alone or with one or more partners taking someone else’s role, involving different scenarios of practice. Role plays permit participants to make an open, multi-turn response to a given situation, allowing “full operation of the turn-taking mechanism, impromptu planning decisions contingent on interlocutor input, and hence, negotiation of global and local goals” (Kasper & Dahl, 1991: 228). Role-play scenarios present a rather simplified, simplistic scenario which invariably fails to explore context fully (Bardovi-Harlig & Hartford, 2005). Nevertheless, participants who act out their responses will provide a closer approximation of natural language data than written responses

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(e.g. questionnaires) will (Lee-Wong, 2000). It is because in role plays, it is possible to simulate conversational actual speech behavior. Since this may have had the unintentional side-effect of causing participants to consciously over-focus on the P and D variables of a given situation, a class instructor let students less mindful of these variables not much integrated in each scenario. Role playing is the changing of one’s behavior to assume a role “consciously” to act out an adopted role. In this respect, the terms “strategy” and “strategic” are used in this book to imply an intentional choice of how to proceed in each role-playing practice. Effective scenarios require students to integrate learning from various classes. The discussions demonstrate that there are various solutions to a particular problem incorporated into each particular case. Exercises tie the communicative event to the wider social context (Bhatia, 2004; Fairclough, 1989, 2003), and therefore allow for greater understanding of the reflexive relationship between language and context. Role-playing exercises show the world as a complex place with complicated problems that can rarely be solved by a simple answer that the student has previously memorized. Lessons can use role playing to emphasize the value of feelings and creativity and of logical, scientific knowledge. Role-playing exercises teach skills that are often assumed to be learned outside of the classroom, and how to use those skills to complement scientific knowledge. These exercises require the students to use imagination, background knowledge appropriate to the character being role-played, and communication skills. For a controversial issue, several characters are assigned and the students research and write about each of them, before being assigned presentations. Educational role-playing exercises focus more on how and why than on what is happening. It is because the primary purpose of role-playing exercises is to get students to look at the material they are learning in a new light, as in the case of critical reading practices. In this respect, this approach is to see how writing can be pedagogically applicable to speech with the discussion of my latest books (Jung, 2014, 2017). Data of the book are composed of L2 undergraduate students’ role plays practiced in a business presentation class for a semester. An hourlong lecture on an individual topic and its relevant issues is given to the participating students before they work on these simulated activities. The instructor introduces various cases to help students create interesting cases. General strategies are also suggested by the course instructor for making the setting sound plausible and realistic. However, the detailed

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contents within the simulated cases are created solely by the students. All the participants major in humanities and social sciences and have no business experience or knowledge in the business field. Subjects are all non-native speakers of English (their English level well above intermediate) and they are from various cultural backgrounds (e.g. Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Singaporean, Russian, and Malaysian). Each role-play exercise is performed with different partner(s) to prevent a particular participant from exhibiting the same personality. Data of the book are composed of numerous role-playing practices in business settings. This book centers on a variety of situations that commonly take place in business organizations (e.g. relational talk; call center talk; talk in business meeting; sales talk; PR talk; job application talk) for role-playing presentation practices. Besides presentation practices in business context, it also collects institutional “spoken” discourse data, which non-business major students are likely to feel relatively more familiar with. Institutional discourse exemplifies “how people use language to manage their practical tasks, and to perform the particular activities associated with their participation in institutional contexts” (Drew & Sorjonen, 2011: 192). Since institutional data mostly occur within “designated” physical settings, this book collects data from a popular setting for institutional or work-related interactions such as university (i.e. individual speech set for applying for M.A program for communication major in a university). Relatively speaking, three topics (call center talk; business meeting talk; sales talk) demand creativity, as the other three are either less interactive role play (e.g. one-way communication for both job recruitment and job application purposes) or less professional (i.e. rapport talk in random business encounters). Or the latter is firmly based on some sort of genre-specific conventions, such as registers and rhetorical structure. There are two types of roles plays: closed and open (Nguyen, 2019). A closed role play involves participants acting out a scenario alone without an interlocutor and producing one-turn responses, whereas an open role play involves an interaction played out by two or more participants. Role-playing data are mostly in the form of group story creation or collaborative fiction in speech. Although data include individual role-playing exercises (i.e. job application talk), emphasis is given on interactive role-playing exercises that range from brainstorming exercises or debates in business meeting or collaborative problem-solving exercises dealing with complaint management in call center or rhetoric in promotional genres (e.g. cold call).

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Accordingly, data also include a challenge or conflict element between or among interactants. Many of the debates lead to interesting discussions about upcoming role-playing practices. Productive debate requires the participants to build a consensus by a certain deadline and arguments can build within originally collaborative scenarios. Elsbach et al. (1998) argued that two sets of variables can be used to describe situations that need to be addressed by organizations. They explained that all events can be described on a continuum between anticipated and unanticipated, and on a continuum between potentially positive and potentially negative. All exigencies facing organizations can be described as somewhere between fully anticipated and fully unanticipated. All exigencies facing organizations can also be described as having the potential to enhance or threaten perceptions of the organization. Together, these two sets of variables can help describe almost any rhetorical situation presented to an organization. Topics in the book cover rapport talk, conflict resolution, and promotional genres and they are summarized with Elsbach et al.’s two sets of variables as follows (see Sect. 1.3.4. strategic competence and Sect. 4.2.2.2. taxonomy of disagreement for pragmatic criteria between positive and negative speech acts) (Table 1.1): Besides face-to-face communication data, this book includes role plays for talk on the phone, call center talk, in order to explore a various spectrums of communication channel. In classical rhetoric, the canon of Table 1.1 Topics with two sets of variables

Positive

Negative

Anticipated

Unanticipated

Showing empathy in call center talk Agreement in business meeting Promotion in cold call Reputation management in job recruitment talk Showing motivation for job application Request in cold call

Rapport management in random business encounters

Overeagerness in random business encounters Complaint in call center talk Disagreement in business meeting Rejection in cold call Request in job application talk

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delivery was concerned with how a speaker used his voice and body to present and support the ideas of the speech. In those times, face-to-face speeches were the only outlet available for sharing ideas with public audiences. People who create rhetoric for contemporary organizations can choose to deliver their messages through a wide range of print, broadcast, and internet outlet. It is important for a critic to consider how organizational rhetors disseminate their messages. Critics should ask if the choice of outlet reinforces or contradicts the messages being sent (Hoffman & Ford, 2010).

1.4

Organization of the Book

Chapter 2 investigates rapport talk. It makes a distinction between four types of talk in analysis of service encounter (phatic exchange; relational talk; transactional-plus-relational talk, and transactional talk) in order to define the notion of rapport talk in the book. It also investigates steps interactants can take to increase the likelihood of making rapport interactions successful. After exploring a standard move structure for call center genre, Chapter 3 introduces a variety of image restoration strategies for complaint management and builds the foundation for empathy as emotional intelligence in call center talk. In Chapter 4, business meetings are analyzed at the overall structural level. This chapter exemplifies how the function of meeting affects business meeting patterns. Meetings are also analyzed at the individual phase level (e.g. the role of power in business meeting, such as autocratic business meeting and democratic business meeting, and the taxonomy of disagreement). Chapter 5 pays particular attention to sales presentation. It addresses what the salesperson does need to understand is the various factors that can influence the buying decision. It illustrates and exemplifies elements of why people do (not) buy. It discusses grounds for trust in sales (e.g. be ethical; be promotional). Some factors influencing the buying decision (listening attentively; meeting the prospect’s needs; managing rhetorical barrier) are also discussed. Chapter 6 sheds light on the use of language features as tools for managing job recruitment. It deals with nature of public relations communication articulated in the different codes of conduct for job recruitment talk. After embarking investigation of paragraph convention of job recruitment talk, it discusses how senior managers justify their recruitment using which languages (e.g. corporate social responsibility;

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sustainability; corporate values). Miscellaneously, the notion of identification, the function of benefits, and the use of you, are also discussed to see how they play a role in job recruitment success. Chapter 7 explores the paragraph convention of job application talk and its orientation among individual unit of the paragraph convention. Chapter 8 concludes with implications for pedagogy and future research.

References Backhaus, K., & Tikoo, S. (2004). Conceptualizing and researching employer branding. Career Development International, 9, 501–517. Bargiela-Chiappini, F., & Harris, S. (1997). Managing language: The discourse of corporate meetings. John Benjamins Publishing. Benoit, W. L. (1995). Accounts, excuses, and apologies: A theory of image restoration strategies. State University of New York Press. Benoit, W. L. (1997). Image repair discourse and crisis communication. Public Relations Review, 23(2), 177–186. Bhatia, V. (1993). Analysing genre: Language use in professional settings. Longman. Bhatia, V. (2004). Worlds of written discourse: A genre-based view. Continuum. Bhatia, V. (2012). Professional written genres. In J. P. Gee & M. Handford (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of discourse analysis (pp. 239–251). Routledge. Blum-Kulka, S. (1997). Discourse pragmatics. In T. Van Dijk (Ed.), Discourse as structure and process: discourse studies vol. 2—A multidisciplinary introduction (pp. 38–63). Sage. Blum-Kulka, S., House, J., & Kasper, G. (1989). Cross-cultural pragmatics: Requests and apologies. Ablex. Boden, D. (1994). The business of talk. Organizations in action. Polity Press. Bardovi-Harlig, K., & Hartford, B. (2005). Interlanguage pragmatics: Exploring institutional talk. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum Brown, P., & Levinson, S. (1987). Politeness: Some universals in language usage. Cambridge University Press. Canale, M., & Swain, M. (1980). Theoretical bases of communicative approaches to second language teaching and testing. Applied Linguistics, 1(1), 1–47. Charles. M. (1995). Organizational power in business negotiations. In K. Ehlich & J. Wagner (Eds.), The discourse of international negotiations. Mouton de Gruyter. Cohen, A. D., & Olshtain, E. (1981). Developing a measure of sociocultural competence: The case of apology. Language Learning, 31, 113–134.

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Cohen, A. D., & Olshtain, E. (1993). The production of speech acts by ESL learners. TESOL Quarterly, 27 , 33–56. Connor, U., Davis, K., & De Rycker, T. (1995). Correctness and clarity in applying for overseas jobs: a cross-cultural analysis of U.S. and Flemish applications. Text, 15(4), 457–476. Conrad, C. (1983). Organizational power: Faces and symbolic forms. In L. L. Putnam and M. E. Pacanowsky (Eds.), Communication and organizations: An interpretive approach (pp. 173–194). Sage. Crichton, J. (2013). ‘Will there be flowers shoved at me?’ A study in organizational trust, moral order and professional integrity. In C. Candlin & J. Crichton (Eds.), Discourse of trust (pp. 119–132). Palgrave Macmillan. Drew, P., & Sorjonen, M.-L. (2011). Dialogue in institutional interactions. In T. van Dijk (Ed.), Discourse studies: A multidisciplinary introduction (pp. 191– 216). Sage. Duranti, A. (1988). Intentions, language, and social action in a Samoan context. Journal of Pragmatics, 12, 13–33. Eccles, R. G., & Nohria, N. (1992). Beyond the hype: Rediscovering the essence of management. MA, Harvard Business School Press. Eisenstein, M., & Bodman, J. (1993). Expressing gratitude in American English. In G. Kasper & S. Blum-Kulka (Eds.), Interlanguage pragmatics (pp. 64–81). Oxford University Press. Elsbach, K. D., Sutton, R. M., & Principe, K. E. (1998). Averting expected challenge through anticipatory impression management: A study of hospital billing. Organization Science, 9, 68–86. Fairclough, N. (1989). Language and power. Longman. Fairclough, N. (1995). Critical discourse analysis: The critical study of language. Longman. Fairclough, N. (2003). Analysing discourse: Textual analysis for social research. London: Routledge. Forman, J., & Rymer, J. (1999). The genre system of the Harvard case method. Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 13(4), 373–400. Gass, S., & Houck, N. (1999). Interlanguage refusals: A cross-cultural Study of Japanese-English. Mouton de Gruyter. Gumperz, J. (1982). Discourse strategies. Cambridge University Press. Hoffman, M. F., & Ford, D. J. (2010). Organizational rhetoric: Situations and strategies. Sage. Hogan, R. (1975). Empathy: A conceptual and psychometric analysis. The Counselling Psychologist, 5(2), 14–18. Holmes, J., & Stubbe, M. (2003). Power and politeness in the workplace: A sociolinguistic analysis of talk at work. Longman. Holmes, J., & Wilson, N. (2017). An introduction to sociolinguistics. Routledge.

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Houck, N., & Gass, S. (1996). Non-native refusals: A methodological perspective. In S. Gass & J. Neu (Eds.), Speech acts across cultures (pp. 45–64). Mouton de Gruyter. Hudson, T. (2001). Self-assessment methods in cross-cultural pragmatics. In T. Hudson & J. D. Brown (Eds.), A focus on language test development (pp. 57– 74). University of Hawaii Press. Hyland, K. (2003). Second language writing. Cambridge University Press. Jung, Y. (2014). Basics of organizational writing: A critical reading approach. Peter Lang. Jung, Y. (2017). Professional writing: A discourse analysis approach. Cengage Leaning. Kasper, G., & Dahl, M. (1991). Research methods in interlanguage pragmatics. University of Hawai‘i at Manoa: Second Language Teaching & Curriculum Center. Koester, A. (2004). The language of work. Routledge. Koester, A. (2006). Investigating workplace discourse. Routledge. Koester, A. (2010). Workplace discourse. Continuum. Kollin, M. (2007). Rhetorical grammar: Grammatical choices, rhetorical effects (5th edn.). London: Longman. Lakoff, R. (1973). The logic of politeness: Or minding your p’s and q’s. In Proceedings of the ninth regional meeting of the Chicago linguistic society (pp. 292–305). Leech, G. (1983). Principles of pragmatics. Longman. Lee-Wong, S. M. (2000). Cross-cultural communication: Politeness and face in Chinese culture. Peter Lang. Liddicoat, A. J., & Crozet, C. (2001). Acquiring French interactional norms through instruction. In K. R. Rose & G. Kasper (Eds.), Pragmatic development in instructional contexts (pp. 125–144). Cambridge University Press. Mullany, L. (2007). Gendered discourse in the professional workplace. Palgrave Macmillan. Mumby, D. (2001). Power and politics. In F. M. Jablin & L. L. Putnam (Eds.), The new handbook of organizational communication: Advances in theory, research, and methods (pp. 585–623). Sage. Mumby, D. (2004). Discourse, power and ideology: Unpicking the critical approach. In D. Grant, C. Hardy, C. Oswick, & L. Putnam (Eds.), Handbook of organizational discourse (pp. 237–258). Sage. Nguyen, T. T. M. (2019). Data collection methods in L2 pragmatics research: An overview. In N. Taguchi (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of second language acquisition and pragmatics (pp. 195–211). Routledge. Planken, B. (2005). Managing rapport in lingua franca sales negotiations: A comparison of professional and aspiring negotiators. English for Specific Purposes, 24, 381–400.

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Rintell, E., & Mitchell, C. (1989). Studying requests and apologies: An inquiry into method. In S. Blum-Kulka, J. House & G. Kasper (Eds.), Cross-cultural pragmatics: Requests and apologies (pp. 248–272). Ablex. Schnurr, S. (2009). Leadership discourse at work: Interaction of humour, gender and workplace culture. Palgrave Macmillan. Swales, J. M. (1990). Genre analysis: English in academic and research settings. Cambridge University Press. Swales, J. M. (2002). On models of applied discourse analysis. In C. Candlin (Ed.), Research and practice in professional discourse (pp. 61–77). City University of Hong Kong Press. Tarone, E. (2005). English for specific purposes and interlanguage pragmatics. In K. Bardovi-Harlig & B. S. Hartford (Eds.), Interlanguage pragmatics: Exploring institutional talk (pp. 157–175). Lawrence Erlbaum. Trosborg, A. (1987). Apology strategies in natives/non-natives. Journal of Pragmatics, 11(2), 147–167. Upton, T., & Connor, U. (2001). Using computerized corpus analysis to investigate the textlinguistic discourse moves of a genre. English for Specific Purposes, 20(4), 313–329. Van Dijk, T. (2011). Discourse studies: A multi disciplinary introduction (2nd ed.). Sage. Wierzbicka, A. (1991). Cross-cultural pragmatics The semantics of human interaction. Mouton de Gruyter.

CHAPTER 2

Rapport Talk in Random Business Encounters

Abstract People have goals during communicative interaction, and the goals can affect rapport management judgments (Spencer-Oatey 2008). Interactional goals are goals in interaction that participants may have (i.e., transactional and/or relational). Although a distinction can generally be made between transactional (i.e., task-oriented) and relational goals (Brown and Yule 1983), this chapter exemplifies that these two types of goals are interconnected and transactional goals can be achieved based on the proper management of relational goals. It also introduces general steps random connectors may adopt in order to make random business encounters proceed smoothly, so that they manage rapport. Despite the case of following the general paragraph convention, it illustrates that some micro-level of talk in random business encounters should properly be took into consideration to achieve overall goal of random business encounters, which is enthusiastic follow-up. Keywords Rapport talk · Relational talk · Transactional talk · Random business encounters

In workplace discourse, transactional or work-related talk is highly valued because it is obviously relevant to workplace objectives. While

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most of the earlier studies on professional discourse focuses on taskorientation, research on relational dimensions only emerge over the past two decades (Koester, 2006). Studies on pragmatic phenomena in professional discourse have begun to emerge recently as relational talk became increasingly viewed as a crucial feature of workplace interaction. Relational language (for example, talking about professional baseball) can be used to achieve transactional goals such as encouraging the client to remain as such and to buy more from company (Iacobucci, 1990). Before initiating discussion about transactional talk, this chapter starts conducting the research on relational talk in business. First, it explores the relational dimension of language use in workplace settings. After defining rapport talk based on distinction between four types of talks, this chapter studies steps that random connectors can take to increase the likelihood of making solid interactions successful in random business encounters.

2.1

Relational vs. Transactional Talk

A useful distinction in discussions of workplace discourse is that of transactional and interpersonal (or relational) language and goals (Coupland, 2000; Halliday, 1978, 1985; Holmes, 2000; Koester, 2004, 2006; McCarthy, 1998; Mirivel & Tracy, 2005). People have goals during communicative interaction, and the goals can affect rapport management judgments. According to Spencer-Oatey (2008), interactional goals are goals in interaction that participants may have (i.e. transactional and relational). McCarthy’s (2000) distinction between four types of talks in his analysis of service encounters seems useful: 1. Phatic exchanges (greetings, partings) 2. Relational talk (small talk, anecdotes, wider topics of mutual interest) 3. Transactional-plus-relational talk (non-obligatory task evaluations and other comments) 4. Transactional talk (requests, enquiries, instructions) McCarthy’s noteworthy claim in his classification is that although a distinction can be made between transactional (i.e. task-oriented) and relational goals (Brown & Yule, 1983), types of communicative goals

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are interconnected. This is because transactional goals can be achieved based on the proper management of relational goals. McCarthy notes that, even in transactional talk, participants still “reinforce the relational context” (ibid: 104) through interpersonal choices (Halliday, 1985) such as pronouns (for example, communal we, rather than I or you), and Koester (2006, 2010) methodically explores such features in workplace contexts. Interpersonal, relational elements are visible at the lexicogrammatical level, and at the turn and sequence level. Relational or social talk plays a significant role by enhancing rapport among colleagues and thus contributing to positive workplace relations (Holmes & Stubbe, 2003). It helps to create team spirit by expressing solidarity or a sense of group belonging (Fletcher, 1999). It manages power relationships among team members by de-emphasizing power differences (Brown & Keegan, 1999). This chapter uses the notion of rapport talk on behalf of relational talk because of the overlapping function of relational talk with transactional talk. Although rapport talk is a counterpart of transactional talk like relational talk, it is a bigger unit than relational talk. Rapport talk accommodates the combination of phatic exchange, relational talk, and transactional-plus-relational talk. This claim is discussed with its paragraph structure in the following section.

2.2 Paragraph Convention in Random Business Encounters Although random business encounters are unplanned by definition, there are general steps we can take to increase the likelihood of making these interactions successful (i.e. typical three-part pattern such as openingbody-ending). Successful random business encounters begin with an ideal and appropriate opening statement. 2.2.1

Opening

The entire random business encounter process begins with our ability to initiate conversation with a complete stranger. The first thing to do when we approach a complete stranger with whom we want to connect is to simply assess the situation and person. We break the ice with a comment or question that creates a pathway to conversation. From time to time, a highly personal comment proves most effective, because it shows we’re

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willing to reveal something. This in turn gives the other person permission to reveal something as well. It also shows our transparency, which identifies us as safe and credible to the other party. Topus (2012) claims that there is a commonality of experience that just about everyone can relate to. Common threads of human existence that give us connecting points with other people and turn strangers into associates, colleagues, partners, and friends. Besides talking about university major as in Example 1 (and unit 2 of the following example), talking about origin can also be a common thread to initiate random networking (e.g. unit 1 of Example 1). Example 1 Unit

Talk

1

Talking about origin H: Where are you from? M: I’m from Osaka H: Welcome to Tokyo! Is it your first time to come here? M: Yes. Everything is so different from Osaka. There are so many people and transportation system is really complicated. I almost got lost to come here. Have you got lost in Tokyo? H: No. I’ve lived here since I was born, so I’m used to it M: Oh, I see. Then have you ever been to Osaka before? H: Never. I really want go there to see the famous neon sign on the bridge. Oh, I forgot the name of it. Do you know what it is called? M: Oh, are you talking about xx? It’s a sign for xx company H: Oh yeah, that one, that one! Talking about major M: By the way, what do you study in your university? H: I study English at Tokyo xx University and I went to xx State University in the U.S. to study mass communication M: Wow that’s really cool! How long have you been in the U.S.? H: I was there for two years as an exchange student. What about you? M: I study English at xx University in Osaka and I went to xx University in Canada to study marketing

2

Function

It is also human nature to make up stories about people based on what truly amounts to superficial data (Topus, 2012). We tend to evaluate others based on surface assessments of how they look, how they’re dressed, or what they have. People often provide information about themselves in other subtle way—through the clothes they wear and the things

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they carry. In these items, we can find little pieces of information that people give out about themselves, either directly or indirectly. These little gems are the golden keys for random connectors, because they unlock content we can use for initiating conversation (e.g. watch in Example 2). Effective random connectors observe those signals and monitor their approach accordingly. These are ways people reveal information about themselves that we use to initiate and direct our conversation. Example 2 R: Thank you. I like your watch by the way. Where did you get that? Y: My friends gave me before I left Australia. And every time I see this watch, it reminds me of my friends and life there. R: Sweet, you’ve got such wonderful friends around you. Y: Yes, I have.

2.2.2

Body

Body is a discovery process where we guide the interaction toward finding out about whether there is more than a basis for further communication. It is a process from surface to deep to share information beyond or more detailed information than each one’s CV or resume (e.g. origin, education, work experience, skill, etc.) and to share “cover letter” information (e.g. motivation). In this respect, topic change or development from opening seems of essential and unavoidable in body. Body “is” the major section that relational talk is incorporated into transactional talk. Example 3 illustrates that a topic beyond CV/resume is introduced in body. Random connectors, M&H, are new employees working at xx burger Japan and they talk about the topic far beyond common threads for initiating conversation with strangers, such as burger menu across cultures (i.e. samurai burger in Malaysia; red hot spicy burger in Mexico) and a motivation (i.e. wish for creating new xx burger’s menu, such as 47 local burgers, including takoyaki burger in Osaka).

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Example 3 M: Yeah, hopefully. I want to create new xx burger’s menus in the future! Oh, ➀do you know that some other countries have their original menus? H: ➁What do you mean by original menus? M: When I travelled to Malaysia, I found a hamburger called Samurai Burger. We don’t have a Samurai Burger here in Japan, so I thought it was original one. H: Oh okay, I see. ➂But what is a Samurai Burger? M: Honestly, I have no idea… but they just had a Samurai Burger. I know it sounds weird… That’s why I still remember it. H: Samurai Burger… That sounds funny. Oh! I remember that when I went to Mexico, I had a Red Hot Extra Spicy Burger. M: ➃A Red Hot Spicy Burger? That sounds really spicy. ➄Did you try it? ➅How was the taste? H: It tasted just like a jalapeno. Actually it killed my tongue and I even had stomachache. M: Omg. It sounds horrible to me because I can’t take spicy food. H: ➆What kind of menu do you want to create? M: I want to create 47 local burgers in Japan such as a Takoyaki Burger in Osaka. As you know, there are 47 prefectures in Japan, so I want to make a local burger for each.

Asking Questions As will be discussed in Chapter 3 with the notion of attentive empathy, Example 3 illustrates that authentic questions and attentive listening realized by questions are keys to continue conversation in random business encounters. Examples of attentive listening in example 6 include ➁What do you mean by original menus?; ➂what is a Samurai Burger?; ➃A Red Hot Spicy Burger?. M&H tend to ask more questions than they make statements in Example 3 (authentic questions in ➀,➄,➅,➆; attentive empathy in ➁,➂,➃). It is because a popular way they can connect quickly is by asking questions to identify a common interest, hobby, or line of work. Asking questions is a kind of self-abandonment in random connection (Topus, 2012). Our ability to abandon our own sometimes, limited, ideas and belief in deference to the other person is one of the attributes we can possess to find what is interesting about that other person and what is important to him or her. We pay attention to how the other person talks and what that person talks about. Our ability to listen, focus, track, and respond appropriately will build the credibility and mutual respect that paves the way for a meaningful interaction.

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Don’t Be Overeager Although showing interest in another person is perhaps the single most critical ingredient in successful relationship building and certainly in random connecting, we should not be overeager because it will create distance. Coming across as too eager to connect can seem intrusive and inhibit the interaction before it even begins. Nobody likes to feel like the person befriending us is too overeager. We don’t want to come on too strong; rather, we want to ease into the interaction. Negative aspect of showing interest is relevant to Brown and Levinson’s (1987) facethreatening acts. Central to Brown and Levinson’s theory of politeness is the concept of face. They distinguish between positive and negative face wants. Positive face wants refer to the desire of being appreciated and approved by others, whereas negative face wants refer to the want to observe territory or keep freedom of action (see 4.2.2.2. Taxonomy of disagreement in Chapter 4 for Brown and Levinson’s theory of politeness in great detail). Let us exemplify this with Example 4. Random connectors, R&Y, talk about each one’s hometown and living experiences in foreign countries. Example 4

R: And also, in my hometown, there are new Italian and Omu-rice restaurants opened one month ago. I haven’t visited there yet, but it looks so cool. Y: ➀Wow I would like to go there. R: ➁You should. So, How about xx City? Y: Well, there is a big festival called “xx Jazz Street” and around 100,000 of people come to join that festival every year. R: Wow, that is a huge festival. Y: Right? And at that time, whole town around festival area changes into Jazz bar and live house, and you can hear Jazz music everywhere. R: That sounds amazing. I would like to join it next year. Y: ➂I can show you around if you come. R: ➃Thank you. Anyway, you said that you went to study abroad in Australia. Why? Y: I studied there for almost one year. R: That sounds amazing. Which part of Australia did you stay? Y: Sydney. That was a wonderful place to experience multi-culture. I had various food like Korean food, Vietnamese food, Middle Eastern food, and of course Western food. R: I see. Which one is your most favorite one then? Y: Vietnamese food. Because I used to have Australian born Vietnamese friends so they took me to Vietnamese restaurant and that got me into it. Especially Pork Roll was my favorite one. (continued)

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(continued) R: I have never heard of it before. How it is like? Y: Pork Roll is Vietnamese Sandwich and bread texture is like a French bread, and inside of that, there are flavored pork. R: Sounds interesting. ➄Hope I can try it someday. Y: ➅We can go to Vietnamese restaurant in Osaka when we get a chance. Well, have you ever been to Australia? R: Sadly no, but I want to. Do you have any recommendations in terms of anything such as beautiful places to see the nature and animals, or famous places for sightseeing? Y: Well. I would say, you should visit Brisbane that is worth visiting if you like nature. You can visit a lot of beaches which are really beautiful. But I recommend you Melborne more because you will see many pretty cafes and have nice chocolates as well as street arts. R: Wow, I love chocolates! Did you find any café that I can eat tasty chocolates? Y: Mork Chocolate was my favorite. That café mainly sells dark chocolate, so you can enjoy the original taste of Cacao. R: Honestly, I’m not a big fan of dark chocolate though. Y: No worries. They also sell some good sweet chocolates so you still should visit there when you come to Melborne. R: Sounds nice, I will. So definitely you had a great time in Australia, right? Y: Yeah the boys! So, how about you? Have you ever been to overseas before? R: Yes, I have. I was in Minnesota in the states as a study abroad too. Y: Sweet. I have never heard of the state so what is it like? R: Actually there were nothing to do in Minnesota and all I got in there was snow, farms, and grasses. Y: ➆That sounds stupid! R: As basic information, Minnesota is in the very northern part of the States called “Icebox of the Nation.” Y: Wow, that sounds “cool,” I mean, “cold.” R: That’s funny. So, anyways, there are huge differences between rural area like Minnesota and city area like Osaka, and sometimes it was really hard to kill my time on weekends. Y: I can see that. R: But I could enjoy those times even I didn’t have anything special to do. Y: So, what did you do when you have your free time like afterschool? R: I joined dance club and I used to have my own team. Y: Cool, so you dance. Did you have any kind of events? R: Yes, we had. That dance club was the biggest club in my university and we had dance shows at the end of every semester. And all of my friends came to see me, yelled my name, and even they made my name board to cheer me up. Y: Nice. You also had great friends, ➇not as mine though. R: … Y: Just kidding. Did you travel besides Minnesota? R: Yes, I did. I went to Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York during winter break, and also went to Florida during spring break. Y: You sure? You went to all famous places in the US, didn’t you? (continued)

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(continued) R: Yeah totally. Y: So, which city do you prefer? R: That’s a hard question, but I would say New York, because as everyone knows, it is a city that never sleep and there are lots of places to visit and things to do. And I just could feel “American Dream” when I was there. Y: Yeah for sure, so did you find any your favorite places? R: First of all, you must go to watch Broadway when you go to New York. I watched the play of “Lion King” and that was just amazing. Beyond description. Story was amazing, the players’ voice and acting were amazing, song was amazing, just everything was amazing. Y: I feel you. R: Also, I recommend you to visit Brooklyn Bridge. It is one of the oldest suspension bridge and there are many people who are walking, running, and cycling. And you also can see the beautiful views of both Manhattan and Brooklyn. Y: Suspension bridge? That sounds scary. ➈I don’t wanna try it. R: No, not like that. If you finish crossing the bridge, you will get to xx burger, which is very famous hamburger shop. Y: ➉Ooh I wish I could go there. 11 But actually we have xx burger in Tokyo. R:  Y: Then I’ll go there when I go to Tokyo. 12 You should. R: 

Despite Y’s endeavor to get closer to R (e.g. ➀I would like to go there; ➂I can show you around if you come; ➅We can go to Vietnamese restaurant in Osaka when we get a chance; ➉Ooh I wish I could go there), R’s responses to Y mostly seem passive and discouraged (e.g. ➁You should in response to ➀I would like to go there; sudden topic change immediately after thanking ➃Thank you. Anyway, you said that you went to study abroad in Australia 11 But actually we have in response to ➂I can show you around if you come;  xx burger in Tokyo” in response to ➉Ooh I wish I could go there). Y’s wish to create solidarity may increase the threat to R’s face wants to create distance. In a similar vein, it threatens R’s negative face wants, in that it solely plays a role in emphasizing Y’s positive face wants, which might maximize imposition on R’s freedom of action. Or possibly Y’s sarcasms may make R feel some distance from Y (e.g. ➆That sounds stupid!; ➇not as mine though; ➈That sounds scary. I don’t wanna try it.). It might lead the conversation with negative follow-up in the end (actual example in Example 5).

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2.2.3

Ending

Ending is the step which either random connectors walk away from an encounter with a name, phone number, e-mail, and agreement to speak again or those who walk away empty-handed. Follow-up is designed to build the relationship and provide the basis for staying in touch, with no particular outcome in mind, in case the conversation is unstructured without a specific focus or direction as in the cases of this chapter. Effective follow-up can transform a pleasant exchange into a profitable encounter. There are questions or statements we can make at the end of a first encounter that will set the stage for following up and allow us to keep the connection going. Depending on what we and our new connection discuss and agree to in our initial conversation, we want to follow up appropriately. In case both or either of random connector(s) does not have chemistry in initial conversation, enthusiastic follow-up (e.g. exchanging contact information for a follow-up meeting or talk) is hardly expected as in the following example. Example 5 R: Well, we might have to go now. Y: Apparently, yeah it was actually nice meeting you today. Hope you will enjoy this company. See you later. R: My deepest thanks to you. See you!

2.3

Exercise

1. Exemplify communication cases either for achieving transactional or relational goals. 2. Discuss if the two types of communication goals are independent or interdependent.

References Brown, P., & Levinson, S. (1987). Politeness: Some universals in language usage. Cambridge University Press. Brown, R. B., & Keegan, D. (1999). Humor in the hotel kitchen. Humor, 12(1), 47–70.

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Brown, G., & Yule, G. (1983). Discourse analysis. Cambridge University Press. Coupland, J. (Ed.). (2000). Small talk. Longman. Fletcher, J. K. (1999). Disappearing acts: Gender, power, and relational practice at work. MIT Press. Halliday, M. (1978). Language as social semiotic: The social interpretation of language and meaning. Edward Arnold. Halliday, M. (1985). Spoken and written language. Deakin University. Holmes, J. (2000). Doing collegiality and keeping control at work: Small talk in government department. In J. Coupland (Ed.), Small talk. (pp. 32–61). Pearson Education. Holmes, J., & Stubbe, M. (2003). Power and politeness in the workplace: A sociolinguistic analysis of talk at work. Longman. Iacobucci, C. (1990). Accounts, formulations and goal attainment strategies in service encounters. In K. Tracy & N. Coupland (Eds.), Multiple goals in discourse (pp. 85–99). Multilingual Matters. Koester, A. (2004). The language of work. Routledge. Koester, A. (2006). Investigating workplace discourse. Routledge. Koester, A. (2010). Workplace discourse. Continuum. McCarthy, M. (1998). Spoken language and applied linguistics. Cambridge University Press. McCarthy, M. (2000). Captive audiences: Small talk and close contact service encounters. In J. Coupland (Ed.), Small talk. (pp. 84–109). Pearson Education. Mirivel, J. C., & Tracy, K. (2005). Premeeting talk: An organizationally crucial form of talk. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 38(1), 1–34. Spencer-Oatey, H. (2008). Culturally speaking: Managing rapport through talk across cultures (2nd ed.). Continuum. Topus, D. (2012). Talk to strangers: How everyday, random encounters can expand your business, career, income, and life. Wiley.

CHAPTER 3

Call Center Talk

Abstract This chapter explores some spectrum of call center talk. There is a major claim confronting the positive use of empathy. It is because an important aspect of business transactions in call center is neither showing the agent’s emotions nor assuming the customer’s feelings. In most formal business and/or professional communication, the agent’s feelings should be omitted. The agent is generally not concerned about the customer’s feelings or emotions but the situation from his/her point of view. He or she explains the situation objectively without sharing the customer’s feelings. The transactional communication suggests that the agent should make and support reasonable arguments using claims and evidence to achieve business goals and to a lesser extent build personal credibility, appeal to organizational credibility, or appeal to the emotion of the audience (Jung 2017). The other way around, not all customers may seek or need empathy. Some may want to avoid it completely, preferring an objective answer. However, cases introduced in this chapter illustrate that empathy communication may be necessary or appropriate and play a selective but highly significant role in customer calls. It is because the emotional “audience person” tends to be a untactful and inappreciative listener, becoming passive and discouraged in their performances

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 Y. Jung, Sociolinguistics and Business Talk, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-0051-8_3

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in a response to non-empathic actor (i.e., empathyless agent) exclusively in the position of avoidance of his or her organization’s wrongdoing, thereby not providing an accepting and generally not rewarding context for interaction. Resolution to complaint in call center seems taking time from the macro-issue of speech (i.e., mostly ending position in standard steps of call center talk). Agents consciously or subconsciously save resolution toward the end of conversation (all examples of this chapter). This finding supports the claim that cognitive empathic responses for finding the customer’s future solutions do take time. Keywords Call center · Complaint management · Empathy

Aftermarket customer call is a familiar genre for users of company’s service or product. Customers call to get information, receiving help, or simply to be heard. All the service interactions are conducted via the telephone in the call center. Telephone interaction is the raison d’être of the call center as a business institution (Cameron, 2000: 92). Bodin and Dawson (2002: 92) claim that call centers are places where “[c]alls are places, or received, in high volume for the purpose of sales, marketing, customer service, telemarketing, technical support or other specialized business activity” and call center talk is one of the most effective ways of reaching and being reached by customers. Cameron (2000) describes the call center as a workplace where language and communication are of primary importance, since the standards of service are entirely dependent on the quality of operator’s talk. Sometimes, the system for handling phone calls is set up to meet the aspect of social interaction in that customers may be challenged by their need to maintain emotional control. A customer’s need for service may stem from a wide range of personal insecurities and crises, such as financial loss, life-threatening illness, or the injuries of loved ones. Callers may be desperate, fearful, frustrated, or simply confused about the product or service they purchased. So it is conceivable that they may have difficulty keeping such strong emotions under control. It demands empathy talk in call center. Empathic communication is a complex effort that can help mitigate the tensions. It could be a remedy to be applied in stressful calls, which are mainly pertaining to cases of inbound calls dealing with telephone calls initiated by the customer and is mainly information-oriented (Forey & Lockwood, 2007:

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309). This chapter investigates examples of inbound call, not outbound call usually associated with telemarketing (Cameron, 2000: 92) or with the conducting of telephone surveys (Forey & Lockwood, 2007: 309). Organizations use rhetoric to address positive situations. However, organizations also respond to negative situations through the use of rhetoric. It is because business organizations have face, which is public self-image (Brown & Levinson, 1987), like people. If they lose their face, they have an inclination to restore it. Organizations losing their face organize image repair strategies, the dialog between the organization and its publics after the negative occurrence designed to minimize damage to the image of the organization. To restore image may be an effort to “restoring the confidence of key publics, which means communicating a return to normal business” (Fearn-Banks, 2002: 12). The threat of damaged reputation requires organizations to engage with concept of reputation repair—to restore the face of the organization by presenting a convincing account of organizational actions that persuade and legitimate (Argenti, 2015). This is the fundamental idea for the use of image restoration strategies (Benoit, 1995; Benoit & Czerwinski, 1997). After investigating a standard move structure for call center genre, this chapter introduces the notion of organizational apologia with a variety of image restoration strategies for complaint management and builds the foundation for empathy as emotional intelligence in call center talk, in order to see the link between a certain image restoration strategy and empathy talk.

3.1

Call Center Genre Move Structure

Genre theory provides a foundation for examining call center move structure. Customer calls tend to proceed in six phases (Clark et al., 2013: 128). They are dyadic phone conversations with turn taking, beginning with the call center agent’s opening, then promptly proceeding to the customer’s concern followed by interchanges to address it, and ending with a quick close as follows: 1. Greeting: Agents repeat a standard greeting. 2. Identifying: Customers identify themselves, and agents request an account number or an identity card number.

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3. Defining: Agents then ask callers how they might help them with this account. Caller responses ranged from requests for information, description of problems, or complaints about service. 4. Negotiating: Agents respond with supplementary questions if needed. 5. Resolving: Agents then resolve the call in a number of ways, depending on the nature of the call. 6. Closing: Agents ask if the customer need anything else, and if the customer has no further concerns, they are expected to say goodbye. Let us examine this paragraph convention with Example 6, a case of an airline service. The customer calls the airline’s customer service to complain the inconveniences caused to her during her travel. This situation starts off with a customer trying to book a flight ticket to Russia. Although phases 1, 2, and 6 (greeting, identifying, and closing) each typically happen very quickly, phases 3, 4, and 5 (defining, negotiating, and resolving) constitute the heart of the call, so that they are longer than the other phases in length. Example 6 Unit

Talk

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O: Hello, this is xx from xx Airlines. How may I assist you today? Greetings C: I’m calling to complain about your TERRIBLE airline service. Identifying O: Ok ma’am, may I please get your full name and your flight details? C: My name is xx and my flight number was xx. Defining O: Yes Ms. xx, ➀ please describe to me the problems you faced during your travels with xx Airlines. I will try my best to assist you in any way possible. C: FIRST OF ALL, when I was buying my tickets, there was ZERO information available regarding my luggage allowance. So I assumed that there was no fee for my first luggage. BUT LATER, when I arrived at the airport to check in, they only told me about the fee AFTER they took my luggage!!!! The lady told me I had to pay 50 euros for excessive luggage. WHY WAS THERE NO INFORMATION REGARDING THIS ONLINE?? AND WHY DID THE ASSISTANT ONLY TELL ME ABOUT THE FEE AFTER MY LUGGAGE WAS CHECKED IN???

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(continued) Unit

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O: Ok Ms. xx. I would like to clarify this situation you went through. ➁ Are you sure there was no information regarding luggage allowance online? On our website, there is a page specially dedicated to luggage fees. Was the page working when you tried to look it up? C: I SWEAR there was nothing about luggage fees ANYWHERE on the website. O: Ok Ms. xx, you were saying that the assistant failed to inform you about the luggage fee before checking in your luggage. However, our assistants are trained to inform customers about any fees before handling luggage. ➂ Perhaps you did not hear her warning? C: I DID hear it. IT WAS AFTER she checked in my luggage. She told me to proceed to the airline counter to pay the fee. O: Ok Ms. xx, ➃ did any other problems occur after checking in your luggage? C: Of COURSE. When I went to pay for it, the counter-lady refused to accept my credit card saying that it’s a Korean card and it wasn’t going to work. But I have used this card all around the world and it WORKS!! When I asked if I could pay with dollars, she said no and directed me to the money exchange. Guess what?? It wasn’t open!! There was nobody at the counter!! O: Ok Ms. xx. I’m so sorry to hear about the inconvenience caused to you by xx airlines. C: WAIT I HAVEN’T EVEN FINISHED. Because the money exchange wasn’t open, I had to go allllll the way to the ATM machine, which was located across the entire airport!!! I managed to withdraw the money but I had to pay such a huge commission for withdrawing the money!!! O: I’m sorry for that Ms. xx, but xx airlines is not responsible for any money exchange or ATMs available at the airport. If you have any complaints about this, please proceed to contact the airport service center. ➄ Would you like me to pass you their number? C: Are you even paying attention to what I’m saying right now??? My issue is with YOUR AIRLINE. Negotiation O: Yes Ms. xx I apologize. ➅ Did anything else occur to cause you any inconveniences? C: YES. After paying for the fee, I still had to get to the check in counter to pick up my passport and boarding pass. I was so late because of this!!! When I finally got to the gate, the boarding was almost done!!! I could have missed my damn flight!!! All because of your terrible service!!! O: I’m so sorry Ms. xx. You managed to reach your destination as planned, correct? C: YES BUT THE NIGHTMARE DOES NOT END THERE. I found my suitcase damaged!!! With a giant crack by the side!!! (continued)

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(continued) Unit

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O: Ok Ms. xx, are you sure your suitcase was not cracked before Resolving check in? ➆ I would like to inform you that xx airlines does not take responsibility for any damage caused to checked-in luggage. I kindly suggest you check the strength of your suitcases before traveling again in order to avoid such inconveniences in the future. I would like to apologize yet again for your experience which is not our usual high standard service. I wish we could do something to better this situation, but unfortunately there is no way for me to provide you with any sort of compensation. ➇ The best I can do is to deliver the information about the counter-lady who failed to inform you of the luggage fees. She will be dealt with accordingly. O: Thank you for calling xx airlines. We are happy to be in service Closing to you. Have a nice day.

6

Function

Note O: operator/C: customer

After identifying the customer’s information, the agent tends to define problems the customer experienced by requests for information (i.e. ➀ please describe to me the problems you faced, ➁ Are you sure there was no information regarding luggage allowance online?, ➂ Perhaps you did not hear her warning?, ➃ did any other problems occur after checking in your luggage?, ➄ Would you like me to pass you their number?, in unit 3). A problem is originally caused by no information about luggage allowance available anywhere. The customer finds that there is no information regarding luggage allowance available on their website. As such, she assumes that she can place her luggage in the carry-on section of the plane and that the ticket includes the luggage fees. While checking in for the flight, she finds out that the airline has extra charges for luggage. This information, however, is passed on to her after her luggage has already been moved to airplane storage. This is due to the incompetence of the airline front desk employee, who failed to inform her of the fees before her luggage had been moved to the airplane. She has no choice but to pay the huge luggage fee. When she went to make payment at the cashier, she finds out that they do not accept Korean cards and she is sent to the money exchange to get cash. However, the person in charge of the money exchange is not available at the time. Thus, she cannot get the cash

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required to pay for her luggage fee. She has no choice but to withdraw the cash required at an ATM, which includes an exorbitant withdrawal fee. It is also located on the other side of the airport—making it very inconvenient for her. After getting the cash, when she goes to pay the luggage fee at the check-in counter, the employee is very slow in inputting her information into the system. The customer, at this point, has very little time left before her flight takes off. As such, after making payment, she has to run to gate, get her remaining luggage checked and go through a passport check within 10 minutes. Negotiation move with a supplementary question initiates a new topic such as suitcase damage (➅ Did anything else occur to cause you any inconveniences? in unit 4). When she arrives in Korea, she finds her luggage to be damaged—a huge crack by the side of the suitcase. In resolving unit (unit 5), the agent makes her company’s decision (➆ I would like to inform you that xx airlines does not take responsibility for any damage caused to checked-in luggage.) and suggests a solution (➇ The best I can do is to deliver the information about the counter-lady who failed to inform you of the luggage fees. She will be dealt with accordingly.). The agent says that there is no way the airline can compensate for the inconveniences. The following sections discuss strategic aspect of call center talk for complaint management (apologetic discourse; empathic talk).

3.2

Organizational Apologia

Organizational apologia is the speech of defense in response to public criticism and accusation (Hearit, 1994, 1996, 2006). According to Hearit (2006: vii), apologia is “the act of giving defense”, regardless of whether the accused may (not) admit responsibility for a negative event. Given the claim, apologia does not only limit to accommodation of the accused’s responsibility for the accused behavior. Apologia includes not only the accused’s fault but also avoidance of his or her fault. The role of technology in business communication cannot be overlooked. For instance, artificial intelligence (AI) is revamping the call center, in order to improve customer service in all forms (e.g. cloud services, machine-learning tools). AI-enabled conversational agents are likely to handle customer service requests more than before, as they are expected to create a solution

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that could quickly deliver the specific information that callers needed. Nevertheless, this section pays special attention to the articulation of the strategies that apologists (i.e. human agents, exclusively) draw in call center in order to neutralize the argumentative force of the charges of negative events customers experience. Apologetic discourse for corporate image restoration can generally be made distinction between Avoidance statement (statement to avoid responsibility for a negative event) and Accommodative statement (statement to admit responsibility for a negative event). 3.2.1

Avoidance Statement

Avoidance statement is to avoid the accused’s responsibility or fault. It is composed of its substrategies as follows (Benoit & Czerwinski, 1997). • Denial: the accused simply denies any association with whatever is viewed negatively by the audience (simple denial); the accused shifts the blame to someone else or something else (shift the blame); the accused uses a counterattack against an accuser or opponent (attack accuser). • Evading Responsibility: the accused claims that the offensive action was merely a response to another’s act (provocation); the accused cites a lack of information about or control over important elements of the situation (defeasibility); the accused says that the offensive action occurred by accident (accident); the accused suggests that the offensive behavior was done with good intention (good intention). • Reducing Offensiveness: the accused creates an association with something viewed positively by the audience in order to weaken the negative element (bolstering); the accused attempts to downplay the extent of the damage (minimization); the accused distinguishes the act from other similar but more offensive actions (differentiation); the accused places the act in a more favorable context (transcendence); The accused dissociates between the action of an accused individual in the organization and the organization as a whole (scapegoating).

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Example 7 is an example in which avoidance statements are made. It is a conflict situation between the staff from the international student support center of xx university and a student, in which the student’s request for an English certificate of acceptance is miscommunicated. The avoidance strategy as well as the unprofessional reply of the staff make the situation worsen. In addition, the ignorance of the staff leads to the second conflict, which concerns the visa. The student asks for a refund for a visa fine that was paid due to lack of information from the school. Example 7 Unit

Text

Function

1

S: Yeah so, I recently got accepted to xx University and received a Problems Korean acceptance letter to tell me so. It said that if I wanted an English Version I have to write the administration office an email within a designated time. I did exactly that, several times! But I received no letter and no reply. Now the designated time is over and I still haven’t heard anything yet. O1: I am really sorry to hear that but I have never heard of such a request before. ➀ I wasn’t even aware that there was such an option to get an English version of the acceptance letter. I am so sorry! S: This is a little bit unfair. I did what the school asked me and now they apparently don’t even know about it? I don’t understand. O1: I…I… I really wish I could help but apparently ➁ I know as little about this topic as you. ➂ I can go and ask someone and then get back to you but that’s about the only thing I can do for now. S: Fine. But please don’t let it be like last time where I wrote countless emails and never heard anything of relevance back. I have to admit I am a little annoyed at this. I have been living in Seoul for a couple of months now and the school still has not given me any decent information on my visa. O1: Oh you have problems with your visa as well? S: YES I HAVE PROBLEMS WITH MY VISA AS WELL. I mean…look, I’m sorry but yes the school has given me no pointers as to what I need to do in order to get my visa. (continued)

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(continued) Unit

2

Text

Function

O1: Umh, I believe freshman get an orientation where that is explained, if I’m not mistaken? S: We did have one. But nowhere did they mention that if you are a student actively enrolled at xx University, you need to make your visa within 30 days. I did not know that! I had to pay a 200,000 Won fine! Shouldn’t the school be somewhat held accountable for that?? That’s a LOT of money! O1: 200,000 won?? Are you sure? Oh no, umh…➃ I can ask someone. It’s just that… ➄ I mean, I wasn’t aware of a 30-day deadline either. ➅ Let me just get someone else on the phone please! O2: Hello miss? What seems to be the problem? You seem to have left Mr. xx quite flabbergasted. S: As I just explained to your flabbergasted companion, I did not receive the requested English version of my acceptance letter and I additionally did not receive adequate information concerning my visa, which resulted in me having to pay a 200,000 won fine. O2: ➆ I am so sorry to hear that. I unfortunately am not able to Resolution send you an English version of your acceptance letter because the designated time to do so is over. S: But I ASKED WITHIN THE DESIGNATED TIME SEVERAL TI-O2: ➇ I’m sorry miss but we are unable to help you in that department. Now to your visa. You had to pay 200,000 won? ➈ That is completely on you. You should have made sure to either get a Visa before entering the country or inform yourself about the visa process in Korea. ➉ We will not be refunding the money because it is not our fault.

Note S: student/O1: staff 1/O2: staff 2

Staff 1 from the university administration section uses the defeasibility strategy to avoid responsibility. She tends to avoid responsibility by saying that she has lack of information concerned (i.e. ➀ I wasn’t even aware that there was such an option, ➁ I know as little about this topic as you, ➄ I mean, I wasn’t aware of a 30-day deadline either, in unit 1). There seems to be someone who is actually in charge of this job as specified in both units (➂ I can go and ask someone, ➃ I can ask someone, ➅ Let me just get someone else on the phone). Nevertheless, resolving move done by staff 2 in unit 2 also illustrates that the university tries to avoid responsibility

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by simple denial (➆ I am so sorry to hear that. I unfortunately am not able to send you an English version of your acceptance letter, ➇ I’m sorry miss but we are unable to help you in that department. ➉ We will not be refunding the money because it is not our fault.) and even shift the blame to the student (➈ That is completely on you. You should have made sure to either get a Visa before entering the country or inform yourself about the visa process in Korea.). 3.2.2

Accommodative Statement

Unlike avoidance statement, accommodative statement is to admit the accused’s responsibility or fault. Some of its substrategies are as follows: • Mortification: as a representative apologia, the strategy of mortification is that the accused confesses and begs forgiveness. • Corrective Action: the accused promises to correct/prevent the problem; the accused makes promise not to cause trouble in the future. • Offering compensation: the accused reimburses the victim with goods, services, or money to help mitigate the negative feeling arising from the act (Milkovich & Newman, 2005). Let us examine how accommodation strategies are realized in the following call center talk. The customer purchased a frozen food called “xx Gyoja” and the customer found a big caterpillar in the food.

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Example 8 C: Today, I gave my child your company’s product called xx Gyoja as a snack. And you know what? My kid found something like a big caterpillar in the dumpling while eating it. Are you kidding me? O: A bug in the dumpling? Sorry for the inconvenience, sir. Can you remember when and where you bought the product? C: I purchased it at xx mart yesterday. O: Can you check its expiration date? C: It says until September 14th. O: Have you spotted any other things inside the dumpling? C: No just one big white colored bug. It was very big and also very disgusting. O: We surely understand your situation and are sorry about the inconvenience. Can you send the receipt and the picture of the bug and send it to us by e-mail? C: Wait, wait. Are you asking me to show evidence because you cannot believe my words? O: No, sir. Please understand it’s just for the fast and accurate dealing. C: Okay. Wait a second. What is your email address? O: It’s [email protected] C: Okay, wait a second. (…) I sent it now. O: Yes, I just received it. Can you wait for a moment while I check about the problem? C: Okay. O: Thank you for waiting sir. ➀ A worm was found in the production line dated September 14. Is your child feeling any problems after eating? C: I’m not very sure right now but I am afraid my child might have eaten it. He is only my child and he is only 5 years old. What would you do if my child goes wrong? I think your company is not taking proper care of hygiene. O: ➁ We are very sorry about it. If anything happens to the child afterwards, please don’t hesitate to contact us. C: Why did this kind of problem happen? O: ➂ We found out that there was a mechanical defect which caused a small hole during packaging. It seems the worm got into it by the hole while distribution. C: What kind of bug was it? O: ➃ We checked it was a worm called tent caterpillar. C: Tent caterpillar? Oh my god. Am I the first person who complained about this problem? O: No, sir. ➄ We received several complaint calls before yours. ➅ We checked a total of 52 packs of xx Gyoja dated until September 14, and ➆ are planning to collect them back. ➇ The factory fixed the machine that caused the problem. ➈ We are deeply sorry about the inconvenience that shouldn’t have happened. C: So, how are you going to compensate? O: ➉ We will have a 100% refund for you and are willing to send our product set worth 50 dollars. Note C: customer/O: operator

The food company in Example 8 seems fully admitting its fault. The operator tries not to make size of the company’s wrongdoing (hygienic

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problem) small, and the company admits its responsibility as it is (e.g. ➀ A worm was found in the production line dated September 14., ➂ We found out that there was a mechanical defect which caused a small hole during packaging. It seems the worm got into it by the hole while distribution., ➃ We checked it was a worm called tent caterpillar., ➄ We received several complaint calls before yours., ➅ We checked a total of 52 packs of xx Gyoja dated until September 14). The operator sincerely apologizes for the inconvenience to the customer (➁ We are very sorry about it., ➈ We are deeply sorry about the inconvenience that shouldn’t have happened.) and reports that the machine causing a trouble has been fixed (➇ The factory fixed the machine that caused the problem.) and the company will recall all the problematic products (➆ are planning to collect them back.). The operator tries to compensate customer for this problem. She suggests the company will make a 100 percent refund for the product and give further compensation that meets the customer’s expectation (➉ We will have a 100% refund for you and are willing to send our product set worth 50 dollars.).

3.3

Empathic Communication

An important aspect of business transactions in call center is neither showing the agent’s emotions nor assuming the customer’s feelings. In most formal professional communication, the agent’s feelings should be omitted. The agent is generally not concerned about the customer’s feelings or emotions but the situation from his/her point of view. It is fair enough to explain the situation objectively without sharing the customer’s feelings. The transactional communication suggests that the agent should not only build personal credibility, appeal to organizational credibility or appeal to the emotion of the audience, but also make and support reasonable arguments using claims and evidence to achieve business goals (Jung, 2017). Example 9 is the one the call center agent does not mix task with an emotion. It is the case that the customer complains about an allergic reaction that she had experienced after applying a facial cream. The company had previously advertised the product as having only natural substances and the customer, not looking carefully at the ingredients labeling, bought the product without second thought. After applying the product overnight, the customer found her face immensely swollen and very irritated in the morning. In Example 9, a clear distinction is made between interactants on the tone of speech. Customer who currently has

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a skin trouble seems quite upset due to her problem and operator’ reaction to it, as shown in her talks, ➀ This has never happened before; ➁ This is my first time experiencing any sort of allergic reaction; ➂ You mean that there wasn’t anyone complaining about …?; ➃ Are you saying that it’s my fault…?; ➄ You’re saying that I have to go to the hospital and receive a prescription?; ➅ I couldn’t even go to work…; ➆ This is absolutely absurd; ➇ What? A voucher?; ➈ But I do not want to buy …! Example 9 C: Yes. I received the product yesterday and applied it overnight. This morning I woke up with redness all over my face and swelling in my eyes. I think I am having some sort of an allergic reaction. O: We are really sorry for the inconvenience. Has this ever happened to you before? C: ➀ This has never happened before. O: Do you have any previous records on allergic reactions? C: As I said before, ➁ this is my first time experiencing any sort of allergic reaction. I do have sensitive skin and that’s why I bought your product. I saw the commercials and I remember it said something about 100% organic ingredients. O: Yes, yes we do use 100% organic ingredients extracted from natural resources. We assure you. And this is the first complaint filed towards any sort of allergic reactions due to this specific product. C: ➂ You mean that there wasn’t anyone complaining about allergic reactions concerning this product? O: Yes, we try to choose the best ingredients for our customers. C: ➃ Are you saying that it’s my fault I’m having allergic reactions? I am pretty sure that my allergic reaction was solely due to this particular lotion. I haven’t applied anything else other than your product and I haven’t eaten anything yesterday! O: No, definitely not. In order for us to help you sort out this situation, we need a prescription that notifies us of your sudden outbreak. C: ➄ You’re saying that I have to go to the hospital and receive a prescription? O: Yes, according to the regulations that is so. C: ➅ I couldn’t even go to work! How am I supposed to go to the hospital? ➆ This is absolutely absurd. And would I be paying for the prescription? O: We would like to inform you that if the allergic reaction was due to our product we will be responsible for all the expense. However, we are sorry to inform you that if it was not caused by our product the expenses will not be covered. C: How exactly will you be compensating for my allergic reaction? You know, I couldn’t even go to work because of my swollen face. O: You will be given a voucher according to the price of the product as well as the medical charges needed. C: ➇ What? A voucher? O: Yes, the voucher can be used like cash at our stores. C: ➈ But I do not want to buy anymore products at your store! O: The company’s regulation follows on a strict voucher-giving form of compensation.

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Note C: customer/O: operator

Customer’s highly emotional talks might show her expectation to invite the operator’s (affective) empathy. Without meeting the customer’s expectation, however, the operator’s reaction to her sounds like solely rely on call center’s manual (e.g. asking few times if the customer had allergic reactions before; giving a reason why the product should not cause a skin trouble (namely, using 100% organic ingredients); explaining corporate regulations). Next section tries to exemplify if empathy talk plays a role in achieving transactional goals (i.e. proper complaint management) in call center. 3.3.1

Some Features of Empathy Talk in Call Center

Empathy has multiple meanings that have been conceptualized variously (Clark, 2007: xii). Hogan (1975) captured the essence of call center interactions in his description of the empathic speaker and listener: an empathic “actor” will typically tailor his or her performances to the needs and requirement of his or her audience; the actor will also tend to be an effective speaker as a result of an ability to anticipate the informational requirements of his or her listener…. (p. 15: emphasis is given). Simply learning and repeating formulaic expressions of empathy may undercut its contribution. The fact that empathic needs are differed from customer to customer leads us to propose that just learning ways to express empathy is not sufficient for success; rather, agents should be taught to do empathy work. Empathy’s full potential for contributing to customer service at call centers requires not only knowing expressions of empathy but also making decisions about their use based on customer needs. Empathy work involves discerning the appropriateness of empathy for each customer in order to determine whether and how to use it. Agents should tailor responses to meet needs expeditiously. They must analyze customers’ responses to determine if empathic communication is needed and, if so, selecting attentive, affective, and cognitive responses that best meet that need, which are standard types of empathy (Clark et al., 2013). Two roles of calls between business transactions and social interactions might address two research questions: which empathic communication might make the customer call more effectual for customers and agents? or does empathy distract from the fulfillment of organizational support, service,

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and efficiency needs? These questions lead this section to explore what empathy is and how it is communicated in customer calls. 3.3.2

Type of Empathy

Empathy work is defined as listening attentively to assess the need for empathy and providing the necessary communicative responses to meet that need expeditiously (Clark et al., 2013). Agents enact empathic communication by listening closely to customers (attentive empathy), offering emotional support (affective empathy), and anticipating needs (cognitive empathy). By diagnosing customers’ need for empathy and providing appropriate empathic responses, agents affect the tone of a call and the efficiency of call resolution. Let us discuss each type of empathy in detail. Attentive Empathy Call center agent needs to inhibit surface listening and impatience, as empathy work requires paying close attention to determine customers’ need for empathy. Agents demonstrate attentiveness in customer calls by behaviors associated with active listening, such as acknowledging, repeating, paraphrasing, elaborating the customers’ ideas, summarizing, and asking questions. Agents use attentive responses to comprehend customers’ needs, thereby providing timely service. Clark (2007) observes that “empathy involves a commitment to grasp the internal state of an individual as accurately as possible”. This “commitment to grasp” the customer’s need for empathy requires actively listening for clues. The agent signal that he is listening attentively by acknowledging what he hears, asking a clarifying question, and repeating information for the customer throughout the call. The cumulative effect of these attentive responses is to let the customer know that he has the agent’s full attention. Example 10 is the one which is lack of attentive empathy in complaint encounters. The accuser didn’t go to the work after he lies that he is sick. Instead, he wanted to date with his girlfriend to celebrate their memorial day. They went to a park and happened to see some people filming entertaining program . As they had no interest in the program, they just ignored those people. However, they found that they were shown on for about 3 seconds. The problem is that the accuser’s boss is a big fan of that program. So he called the broadcasting station to ask them to erase his part on the program.

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Example 10 A: 2 weeks ago, I was walking through the street between xx and xx with my girlfriend, and we saw that some people gathered around. They were some member of . is not funny at all these days, so we just passed by right away. You know what? Last Sunday I found that an idol group xx made an appearance on . I am a member of xx which is a fan club of xx. So, I was watching but suddenly my girlfriend and I were on the TV program. I think ➀ it is a violation of portrait right! P: Oh, so in short you and your girlfriend were on our program, even though you didn’t want it at all. I sincerely apologize for it. Actually I also checked the video you are talking about and I found one couple. Maybe it is you in high possibility. ➁ Your couple looks so good and you two are not the only one in this scene. I’m sure that your friends won’t talk bad about this scene. So if you understand us for once, it’ll be very nice of you. A: Nope. As I said before, ➂ it is a violation of portrait right and my girlfriend doesn’t want to be on TV show, either. As far as I know, It is a crime definitely, and it must be a serious problem to your program. Don’t think this simple. Can you give me some specific solution? P: How about this? I think that your couple did the same thing as extra actors in drama. So ➃ would you mind if we give your couple the same guarantee as extra actors. Of course we are not saying that money can solve all the problems. This is what we can do for you. A: I‘m not that kind of person who are crazy about money. ➄ I just feel bad about the situation in which my right is not guaranteed. I’m not talking about money… how dare you… P: ➅ It will be 7 dollars for each. We pay 7 dollars for extra actors per hour including waiting time. Since you guys didn’t had waiting time, total 14 dollars will be paid. A: No, actually I don’t care about money… to tell the truth, at the moment I was on sick leave. but actually I was totally fine as you might notice from the screen. The problem is that my boss doesn’t know that. And he is a big fan of . P: So now I see your point. Actually ➆ we can erase the scene in our re-run programs. The problem is streaming sites. Since we already send them the files it is hard to change it. Also clips on SNS or P2P sites are impossible to control. If your boss is young enough to use those site, it’ll be hard situation. A: Hey, hey! Are you living in 20th century? Or you just frozen for few decades? We all know that your company knows how to manage with SNS and other streaming sites. At least, you have to make some efforts. Otherwise, I’ll sue your company to xx Communications Commission. Of course I know what you are talking but ➇ seriously if my boss recognizes me, probably I will be fired. P: ➈ I hope that your boss does not watch this week, but if he recognizes you and your girlfriend, please call me. I’ll tell him that the shoot was taken on the weekend. If he does not believe me, I’ll contact the production team right away. A: Oh… that would be nice..! I hope my boss will believe what you say… Note A: accuser/P: producer

Even without proper understanding of the reason for the accuser’s anger (i.e. ➀ it is a violation of portrait right!, ➂ it is a violation of portrait

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right ), the producer compliments scenes of the couples (➁ Your couple looks so good and you two are not the only one in this scene. I’m sure that your friends won’t talk bad about this scene.). Although monetary compensation to manage the accuser’s complaint is not his primary wish as shown in ➄ I just feel bad about the situation in which my right is not guaranteed, the producer insists to manage complaint with monetary compensation (➃ would you mind if we give your couple the same guarantee as extra actors, ➅ It will be 7 dollars for each.). However, the producer eventually comes to the point what the accuser wants (➆ we can erase the scene in our rerun programs.), after few miscommunications mainly caused by the lack of attentive empathy. He eventually shows (affective) empathy (➈ I hope that your boss does not watch this week) in response to the customer’s concern illustrated in ➇ seriously if my boss recognizes me, probably I will be fired. Affective Empathy Affective empathy has been defined as identifying with what another person is feeling or responding with the same emotion as that of the other person (Aggarwal et al., 2005; Clark et al., 2013). Agents express affective empathy by offering emotional support. Affective empathy—stating understanding, offering apology, or referencing what others have experienced—is sometimes less than expected, and this kind of empathy is often not essential, even for customers in personal distress. But after agents express affective empathy, some customers may move to the core issue motivating their calls, which suggests that affective expressions may help move some calls toward resolution. Let us explore if affective empathy is realized there for complaint management. Example 11 is the case that a customer calls an airline company’s customer service to complain stolen items from her suitcase and ask for compensation.

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Example 11 C: Today while unpacking I found out that a few of my valuable items were missing. At this point, I’m not even surprised. If you want to clarify yet again, yes, I’m 100% sure I packed everything properly. There is no way something could have fallen out of the crack. ➀ I’m sure somebody working for YOUR airline had something to do with it. O: I apologise Ms xx. Could you give me the details of your missing items? What are they and how much do they approximately cost? C: It’s a golden necklace passed down to me from my great great great great great grandmother. I specifically travelled to Russia JUST to pick this necklace up. Is there any way for you to check a lost & found place?? Or CCTV cameras? ➁ I have a feeling it was stolen. ➂ This necklace means so much to me. O: I’m sorry to inform you that the airport has no lost & found service. However, I can check our CCTV recordings for any suspicious activity during the loading of your luggage. Would you like me to do so? C: Of course. Please do so. O: Ok Ms xx. Please hold. C: Yes, I’m waiting for you. Have you checked it? ➃ Did you find a thief? O: I’d like to inform you that your luggage entered the airplane without any problems. There was no suspicious activity found. Is there any possibility you could have put it into another bag? C: ➄ I’m convinced somebody from your airlines stole it. O: I did not find any evidence to prove that. What shall I do to make this situation better? C: YOU CAN SIMPLY FIND MY NECKLACE AND ➅ PUNISH THE PERSON WHO TOOK IT! O: I’m so sorry, but I’m afraid to inform you that there is no possibility of finding the necklace as it is common for items to go missing. I can, however, provide you with a money compensation, based on the value of the necklace. ➆ How much does the necklace cost approximately? C: Can you, please, understand that is not about the price of the item, ➇ it’s about how much it means to my family. It probably costs around 50 dollars, but for me ➈it’s priceless! O: I’m so sorry, ➉ we cannot consider that factor. We can only provide you 50% compensation fee. Note C: customer/O: operator

Although its original price is not much expensive, the lost item seems very special to the customer as mentioned in ➂ This necklace means so much to me., ➇ it’s about how much it means to my family., ➈ it’s priceless!. It makes the customer extremely emotional, so that she believes someone from the airline company must steal the item, as specified in ➀ I’m sure somebody working for YOUR airline had something to do with it., ➁ I have a feeling it was stolen., ➃ Did you find a thief?, ➄ I’m convinced somebody from your airlines stole it., ➅ PUNISH THE PERSON WHO

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TOOK IT!. Although the customer tends to invite (affective) empathy by highlighting the “invisible” value of the lost item, the agent does not show empathy back to her but instead she simply asks the price of the lost item (➆ How much does the necklace cost approximately?), and rejecting the customer’s wish to seek agreement with her emotion (➉ we cannot consider that factor.). Cognitive Empathy Cognitive empathy involves intellectually assuming the other person’s perspective while retaining sufficient judgment to helpfully intervene. Agents expressing cognitive empathy by providing language that the customer needed, proposing options for eventualities that the customer might face, or stating what other customers have done. Agents use expressions of cognitive empathy to anticipate a customer’s future needs and offer solutions in advance. Empathic expression may potentially mitigate the underlying, and sometimes conflicting, needs inherent in the call genre. Cognitive empathic responses have a greater effect on customer satisfaction and call efficiency than did affective empathic responses. After each of these affective expressions, the agent immediately enacts cognitive empathy to meet the customer’s informational needs. The possibility of misdiagnosing customer’s needs is an inhibitor of cognitive empathy. Agents become familiar with the range of needs that customers present in these calls with experience. In this respect, Clark (2007) characterizes cognitive empathy as “a mode of observation”. Cognitive empathic responses for finding the customer’s future solutions do take time. Unlike affective empathy, which can be expressed immediately, cognitive empathy is said to require “prolonged immersion in the broader perspective of a client’s life” (Clark, 2007). Let us exemplify cognitive empathy with the following example. Example 12 is the case that the customer complains three things about his eye surgery: slow recovery, incomplete recovery, and expensive cost. Before surgery, the counselor told him that it would take one week or so for recovery. However, he does not fully recover and still suffers from side-effect after surgery (e.g. sore and dry eyes). He also complains expensive cost of surgery compared to that of his friend who got LASIK surgery at another hospital.

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Example 12 Unit Talk

Function

1

Description of Problems

2

C: I got surgery six months ago. Before having surgery, coordinator explained to me that I would get recovered in one week, but it took six months. O: Oh Yeah? Sir, it must have been really tough for you. C: Yeah, I have gone through hard times recovering from the surgery. O: So, sir, what made you call us today? C: Because of such long duration of recovery, I could not have my daily life properly. I was almost half blind for six months. Since eyes recovered so slowly, I could not study hard for my college exams this semester. I could not meet girlfriend often. I could not drink at every meeting with classmates even though I am a representative of my school department. And most importantly, I was supposed to travel Australia this February, but I could not help but cancelling a flight ticket and hotel room. So I lost 80 dollars. I think the hospital should make compensation for my loss. O: Wow, we’re very sorry sir. That sounds really bad. But before giving you any answers, I’d like to ask you some questions. Is that alright sir? C: Yeah O: First of all, have you gotten a regular checkup? C: No, I knew I should have gotten regular check-up, but I couldn’t. I am living in xx, and I was half-blind. How could I go to xx by myself? O: Sir, I don’t think you really don’t see anything after surgery? C: I mean it. I was almost blind. O: Yes, I understand that sir. That said sir, you’ve been strongly advised to get a checkup every month. How many times did you get checkups? C: I visited the hospital twice for check-ups, and the doctor simply said I should wait more. Then it took six months. O: Thank you for your kind answers, now I’d like to know your postoperative behaviors. Do you wear the sunglasses when you go out? C: Yeah, I wear sunglasses every single day. O: Do you put the artificial tears? C: Yeah, three times every day. O: Have you been sober over the past six months. C: Um…….I drank two cups of beer a couple of times. O: Oh really? Thank you for your answer.

Agent’s supplementary questions

(continued)

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(continued) Unit Talk 3

Function

O: You know you are strongly advised to stay off from the Resolution to alcohol during the recovery. Also, the recovery period may vary the eye depending on the individuals, so it is with a heavy heart that we problem cannot confirm you any kinds of the specific recovery period. C: The counselor said it would take only 7 days, and now you change your position all of sudden? It does not make any sense. O: Sir, more than 95% customers are happily recovered within two weeks but unfortunately, sometimes it takes a bit longer for some of the customers, here. C: I know it may vary on a person-to-person basis, but six months of recovery is too long. O: ➀ Very sometimes sir, it takes 6 months and in some cases it takes even a year. C: The counselor should have made it clear and elaborated on this point. If I knew it would take six months for recovery, I would not have gotten surgery at your hospital. O: ➁ Our counselor may have given you a lucid explanation about that. Please see that ➂ everyone has their own recovery time, so we’d really appreciate it if you understand this point. C: If that was the only problem, I would not have called you. Even after six months of recovery, I still have sore and dry eyes. O: Then have you had your both eyes restored as planned? C: Why do you ask me? You should check my chart. O: My apologies sir. I will take a look at the record. Yeah both eye sights are 1.3. C: The counselor told me my eye sight would be 1.5 of both eyes but what has happened to my eyes? Something should go wrong. O: Sir, ➃ more than 1.2 of eye sight is considered perfectly normal. C: The surgery falls short of my expectation, and I have had side-effects. I am afraid unskilled resident performed my surgery. I watched on TV news that some hospitals do such immoral things. O: I’m afraid that’s not the case sir. It was our specialist xx who put you under knife. We have nothing to do with those illegal operations. C: I am really dissatisfied with operation results. I think I need to get surgery again. Of course for free as compensation. O: I’m sorry. Our protocols stipulate that re-operation is not possible on this case. Your sight is now okay and ➄ the dryness in yours eyes is temporary symptom. But you should know that your inconvenience is our top concern, so ➅ I’d like to give you free after-surgery examination coupons exceptionally for you. Please take this as token of our sincerity to you. (continued)

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(continued) Unit Talk 4

Function

C: Now that you mention the cost, I spent 700 dollars for the Resolution to surgery at your hospital. And one of my friends paid only 500 the cost dollars for the same surgery at another hospital. Why is there problems such huge difference in cost? Was there over treatment? Can I look at the detailed list of treatment? O: Yeah, let me check it. Your bill includes 550 of the surgery per se, 50 of extra cost for choosing our specialist professor xx, and 100 of autoserodiagnosis cure. C: What? autoserodiagnosis care? What are you talking about? I haven’t heard any word like that. I did not ask for such cure. Why did you guys prescribe drugs that I did not receive any explanation from the doctor? O: With due respect sir, ➆ You’ve signed the surgery consent form. If you’d like to have a look at it, we can send you the copy of it. C: No way. I think you guys overtreated me. You didn’t explain to me. You should give a refund to me for the drugs. O: Sir, we cannot refund you what we already made for you and you used up. This is very out of our reach but we’d like to compensate the discomfort you felt with ➇our special benefits you can use in the year-end tax adjustment.

Note C: customer/O: operator

The operator in general stands the denying attitude toward the customer’s complaint, while empathizing with the customer’s situation. In response to the complaint about the long recovery period, the operator tries to reason the customer into understanding that each individual may have different recovery time (➀ Very sometimes sir, it takes 6 months and in some cases it takes even a year., ➂ everyone has their own recovery time.). The operator here uses the “scapegoat strategy”, in which the operator shifts the blames to an undertrained counselor not for giving a clear explanation (➁ Our counselor may have given you a lucid explanation about that.). Also, the operator does not admit that the surgery went wrong, saying that customer’s eye sight is within the normal range (➃ more than 1.2 of eye sight is considered perfectly normal.). Though the surgery result is not as desirable as the patient expected with several side-effects, the operator anyway tells the customer that those symptoms are only temporary, as remarked in ➄ the dryness in yours eyes is temporary symptom. Finally, the operator provides the angry customer with the compensation of free examination coupon (➅ I’d like to give you free after-surgery examination coupons ). Although the operator evidences the consent form the patient

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signed in a response to the cross-selling allegation (➆ You’ve signed the surgery consent form.), the operator promises the customer to give special benefits which the customer can use in the year-end tax adjustment, as a token of apologies (➇ our special benefits you can use in the year-end tax adjustment.). Customer’s complaint is due to not only the unsatisfied outcome of his surgery (recovery time and side-effect) but also its higher cost than others. It takes time for the operator to make sense what kind of complaint the customer has and how the operator gets ready to give an answer. The operator provides solutions to the customer’s eye problems after multiple turns mainly with attentive listening by questions in unit 1 and unit 2. Solutions to the customer’s eye problems elucidate another complaint, which is a cost issue. Unsatisfied result of eye surgery seems like it plays an essential role in establishing groundwork for another complaint which is about cost for surgery. Otherwise, this conversation may be initiated with complaint about cost. This example illustrates that different type of empathy works side-by-side. Namely, cognitive empathy, resolutions to the customer’s problems, may not be realized without attentive empathy in Example 12.

3.4

Exercise

1. Define empathy and explain why it matters in call center talk. 2. Discuss negative use of empathy in call center talk.

References Aggarwal, P., Castleberry, S., Ridnour, R., & Shepherd, C. D. (2005). Salesperson empathy and listening: Impact on relationship outcomes. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 13, 16–31. Argenti, P. (2015). Corporate communication. McGraw-Hill Education. Benoit, W. L. (1995). Accounts, excuses, and apologies: A theory of image restoration strategies. State University of New York Press. Benoit, W. L., & Czerwinski, A. (1997). A critical analysis of USAir’s image repair discourse. Business Communication Quarterly, 60(3), 38–57. Bodin, M., & Dawson, K. (2002). The call center dictionary (3rd ed.). CRC Press. Brown, P., & Levinson, S. (1987). Politeness: Some universals in language usage. Cambridge University Press.

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Cameron, D. (2000). Good to talk: Living and working in a communication culture. Sage. Clark, A. J. (2007). Empathy in counselling and psychotherapy: Perspectives and Practices. Lawrence Erlbaum. Clark, C. M., Murfett, U. M., Rogers, P. S., & Ang, S. (2013). Is empathy effective for customer service? Evidence from call center interactions. Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 27 (2), 123–153. Fearn-Banks, K. (2002). Crisis communication: A casebook approach. Lawrence Erlbaum. Forey, G., & Lockwood, J. (2007). “I’d love to put someone in jail for this”: An initial investigation of English in the business processing outsourcing (BPO) industry. English for Specific Purposes, 26(3), 308–326. Hearit, K. M. (1994). Apologies and public relations crises at Chrysler, Toshiba, and Volvo. Public Relations Review, 20, 113–125. Hearit, K. M. (1996). The use of counter-attack in public relations crises: The case of General Motors vs. NBC. Public Relations Review, 22, 233–248. Hearit, K. M. (2006). Crisis management by apology: Corporate response to allegations of wrongdoing. Lawrence Erlbaum. Hogan, R. (1975). Empathy: A conceptual and psychometric analysis. The Counselling Psychologist, 5(2), 14–18. Jung, Y. (2017). Professional writing: A discourse analysis approach. Cengage Leaning. Milkovich, G. T., & Newman, J. M. (2005). Compensation (8th ed.). McGrawHill.

CHAPTER 4

Business Meeting

Abstract Although three stages are traditionally interpreted as obligatory elements of a business meeting, this chapter asserts that business meeting does not always follow this three part paragraph pattern up to the specific function of the meeting. It also exemplifies the role of power and (in)directness of disagreement in business meetings. It illustrates that those who have power influence paragraph and turn-taking structures. However, power is context-dependent, so that it is highly affected by variables, such as corporate culture and objective of meeting. In hierarchical establishments, chair has the right to declare the meeting open, to move discussion to new agenda items, to summarize progress, to ratify decisions, and to close the meeting. He or she serves the function of lighthouse to encourage and discourage participants to speak more or less depending on situations. However, in more egalitarian companies, the proportion and length of the turn by the chair are low and a contentious decision will be approached collaboratively with much negotiation. Besides, this chapter shows that arguments between participants having equal power illustrate a particular turn-taking structure (i.e., spiral

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 Y. Jung, Sociolinguistics and Business Talk, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-0051-8_4

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or cyclical pattern). It also shows that role of participant (e.g., lawyer) and the function of meeting to some extent affect who has power to decide and how much direct or indirect between participants in disagreement. All those variables need to be took into consideration for proper understanding of meeting structure. Keywords Business meeting · Power · Democratic · Autocratic · Disagreement

Discourse analysts have devoted a good deal of attention to meeting talk, examining the discursive strategies used in the management of meetings (Bargiela-Chiappini & Harris, 1997) and the complexities of how things get accomplished interactionally through meeting talk (Drew & Heritage, 1992; Firth, 1995). Those using a Conversation Analysis approach have identified patterns which help define a meeting, such as the structure of the opening and closing phases and the distribution of turns (Boden, 1994). This chapter starts discussion about meetings at the overall structure level (three-stage meeting structure and the role of function in organizing meeting structure). Although some research on the genre of the business meeting includes the preceding stages called pre-1 (pre-meeting), pre-2 (meeting preparation), and the post-meeting effects labeled as stage 4 (post-meeting effects) (Handford, 2010), this chapter does not include them. It is mainly because business meeting data sets of the study which are in regular internal peer meeting bypass the preceding and post-meeting stages. A discussion about global level of business meeting precedes another discussion about meetings at the individual phase level. Another half of this chapter explores the function of power in decision-making (autocratic vs. democratic) and strategic aspect of disagreement in business meeting. It discusses issues of power and voice of organizational members, those who have less status in an organization and who have the voice to influence design and distribution of those

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meeting. It exemplifies if the type of workplace will affect the type of decision-making and if power does serve the function to make the tone of disagreement direct or indirect.

4.1

Meetings at the Overall Structural Level

Previous research on the genre of the business meeting has proposed three-stage meeting structures (Bargiela-Chiappini & Harris, 1997; Holmes & Stubbe, 2003). The three stages are interpreted as obligatory elements of a business meeting. The first stage is opening the meeting, the second involves the discussion of the agenda, and the third is the closing of the meeting. These three stages involve conventionalized practices and give rise to formulaic language (Bargiela-Chiappini & Harris, 1997), such as “noticeable and analyzable openings and closings” (Boden 1994: 87). While most analyses focus on relatively large group meetings, this chapter is on aspects of professional identity in meetings between just two or three participants (Koester, 2006; Vine, 2004). In such contexts, chair provides many opportunities for asserting status and doing power, since he or she has the right to declare the meeting open, to move discussion to new agenda items, to summarize progress, to ratify decisions, and to close the meeting (e.g. Bilbow, 1998; Holmes & Stubbe, 2003). Let us investigate this claim with the following three-stage meeting. The main agenda of the meeting is whether xx University brings GPA based scholarship back in xx University. Since Dean xx has abolished merit-based scholarship and enlarged the need-based scholarship in 2015, the policy has remained controversial among xx University students.

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Example 13

Unit

Text

1

C: Good morning everyone. Welcome to today’s meeting, Jay and Opening Sara. Thank you for being present. Here are the copies of today’s agenda. First of all, I’d like to introduce Jay, the senior manager working in general affairs section. And this is Sara, head of the department of corporate communication S1: Pleasure to meet you, Sara S2: The pleasure is all mine, Jay C: I just have to go ahead and ask if Chris’s absence today is accounted for, standard procedure you understand? S1: Yes of course, Chris is on a sick leave because of a severe flu C: Thank you, Jay. OK, so as you can see, our objective today is to bring back GPA based scholarships to xx University or not. As xx University has abolished all merit-based scholarships and only focused on need-based scholarships in 2015, the policy has yet to be reformed and remains controversial. I think we should try to tick of three items that are on the agenda today. So let’s go around the table so that we can hear everyone’s views S1, S2: Okay C: Let me preface this by reminding everyone, about the limited time we have today. I would like to be finished by 9:30 with this meeting. So, can we begin with the first item on the agenda? S2: Yes C: So, firstly, the main reason of the controversy is because of the Discussion ambiguous income calculation method for need-based scholarships. It is very simple actually; one simply gives out a GPA based scholarship as a result of a high GPA score, which is the only criterion. Giving need-based scholarships, on the other hand, is immensely more complex. Finding students who REALLY do need the financial support is a complicated issue. Basically, most universities refer to the national scholarship program’s income percentile, when it comes to need-based scholarships. Jay, what do you think? S1: The state scholarship’s calculation of a family’s income percentile is definitely not a reliable measurement. There are three main problems. Firstly, some students are measured as the lowest group, simply because their parents do not report their income taxes. Secondly, the national scholarship system takes part-time job wage into account; thus making students sometimes having to choose between a scholarship and a part-time job. Thirdly, it is not a given that the middle-class does not face financial difficulties as well. Nonetheless, middle-class students lose the chance to benefit from any financial aid just because their numbers deviate from the standard by a small margin. They might however be surrounded by circumstances that decrease those numbers even further but it is not something the national scholarship foundation takes into consideration

2

Function

(continued)

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(continued) Unit

Text

Function

C: Thank you, Jay. So you’re saying that the state’s present scholarship criteria pose 3 main problems: the self-employed tax evasion issue, part-time job wage issue, and lastly the middle-class student’s potential financial instability S1: Yes, that is correct. And may I add something here? C: Sure. Go ahead S1: I guess our University’s tuition is not only a big burden to students from low-income families but the majority affected are the middle class students who are on the ambiguous borderline between two different classes Also I’d like to add that low income students can get the scholarship anyway. Because most of the scholarships foundations give scholarships based on the family income, they are eligible to apply for scholarships from outside of xx University. But how about middle class students? They don’t get scholarships from their home institution nor other foundations. We are able to give more scholarships to our students but we don’t. I’d say it’s an inefficient use of our budget C: Thanks, Jay. Sara, do you agree? S2: I partly agree that the income percentile is not a perfect criterion for giving out scholarships but still it is the most accurate tool to measure the income of the students as for now. Also, it is impossible to satisfy everyone at once. As a matter of fact, we are planning to establish our own xx University Income percentile council so that we can reflect on all present problems that come with the income percentile such as the tax evasion issue and the part time job issue. We will interview students who applied for the scholarship and we will fairly assess their financial situations. And to your second point, I have to disagree due to ethical reasons. It makes no sense to send those who really need the scholarship away to get it and instead give it to students who only need it a little bit. Why should those usually first in line for a need based scholarship have to seek for help outside of their own university. That is quite simply not fair S1: xx University Income percentile council? So you’re saying that every student must prove their financial limitations by explaining all the details? Wouldn’t that be much more miserable to the students who need financial aids? S2: No, we are not trying to determine who has the least money. We are simply trying to ascertain which student is the most eligible when it comes to receiving financial support S1: I am afraid the idea is somewhat building castles in the air C: Okay, so we all agree that the government’s income percentile is not a perfect criterion and that we need to discuss the details of reforming the criteria for need-based scholarships. The topic is more difficult to handle than expected. So let’s discuss this in greater details at a separate meeting, solely focusing on that. I would now like to proceed, can we move on to the second point? (continued)

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(continued) Unit

Text

Function

S1: Okay C: Concerns of bringing back the GPA-based scholarship have also arisen because it would be a retrograde step in global terms. Also, it might potentially damage xx University’s “Proactive image”. For instance, instead of giving a merit-based scholarship, xx University provides entire tuition fees to students whose parents make less than 65,000 dollars a year. What do you think about that Sara? S2: I totally agree that it is important to stick with the new scholarship policy which primarily focuses on providing more financial aid to those in need. In fact, if you are not wealthy, you need tremendous amounts of time for a part-time job to earn the tuition fee and also pay for living expenses on the side. In other words, the time for studying gets reduced to at least half. Therefore, there is a problem that wealthier students are more advantageous when it comes to conducting their studies than the preoccupied students who need to their earn their own tuition. I think need-based scholarships are important because they are designed to give fair opportunities to everyone, so that they are able to merely worry about their studies at University and no financial problems S1: Is there any references proving that the need-based scholarship is a global trend? S2: Of course. Many universities in Korea are already reducing the amount of merit-based scholarships. For example, xx women’s university abolished one of its merit-based scholarship programs, which gave 500,000 won for students who got GPA over 3.75. And most of the United State’s universities do not have any merit-based scholarships at all but only need-based ones S1: Well okay. I agree you’re right on that point. But do you know many students point out that there was a problem in the procedure C: You make a good point, Jay. Our third item was about the school’s unilateral policy announcement. Would you care to give your opinion on this issue, Jay? S1: Yes, many students now insist that the decision should have been more discussed with the students beforehand. Even the very representatives of xx University students, xx University students association were not informed of the revision in advance S2: We understand we pushed ahead with our plan, creating chaos to a certain extent. But our plan was only tentative. It was only a set of guidelines. If there’s something wrong with it, we can fix it. It’s as simple as that S1: Now you are being irresponsible. You know that scholarships are one of the most sensitive issues to the students. You should have been more considerate, even if that was the draft policy. Do we even still care about our public image, or something? C: Jay has a point. Last week, the student union already held a press conference and denounced our administrative procedures (continued)

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(continued) Unit

Text

Function

S2: Everyone sitting here knows, it would be the best if we make decisions together with the students. But it’s us who make the final decisions. I mean students leave the school in, what? Like 4 years, but we stay here. We are the people who get the school forward. If we have to listen to what the students say every single time we make policies, there won’t be any decisions ever made. Cuz it’s gonna take thousands years to make one decision. And speaking of the public image, the press already started to hold our plan in high regard in terms of social justice. Our policy will most definitely improve xx University’s public image. You don’t have to worry about that S1: Yeah? Students leave, we stay? Huh? Can you say that in front of the students, and their parents? Well I don’t think so C: Calm down, Jay. Being cynical in a meeting never helps S1: My apologies. Of course she is right in that sometimes we need to make decisions against the student’s opinions. But students are the ones who pay. I mean the scholarship basically comes from their tuition, you know that right? We can’t neglect their requests every time. Isn’t it commonsensical that students are also a part of the school community? Shouldn’t they get their money’s worth? S2: Well, yeah, I guess we should have been more careful when announcing the policy. If you look at it from a different perspective, it seems a lot of students quite like our policy. A lot of the students do agree, that the school needs to seriously prioritise when it comes to giving out scholarships C: Did we ever carry a poll before? You got any data? S2: Yeah of course. We successfully conducted the survey two days ago. About 75% students are for our policy, and more than 90% of our professors are for it as well! C: Wow 75%. That’s way more than I expected S1: That’s great but still we need to care about the rest of the 25%. Middle class students are stuck in the dead zone of the school welfare system. GPA scholarship was the only way for them to get a scholarship but we took it from them. Don’t you think we demotivated them from studying more? S2: As far as I am concerned, our students have more than enough reasons to get a high GPA other than getting a scholarship. Like getting a job in a large company, for example, or applying for a double major, or pursuing a master’s degree etc. you name it. And from the perspective of the education, external motivation does no good to our students. They are advanced level students. We better give them internal motivation, not money. That’s what the experts say (continued)

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(continued) Unit

3

Text

Function

S1: Then what am I supposed to tell the students? Do I tell them they don’t get the GPA scholarship anymore because the experts think external motivation is bad? We took something from them. I suggest we come up with a complementary plan to compensate for what they lost, or they will keep complaining about this. I’m so sick and tired of hearing any of those complaints C: Any suggestions? S2: I have an idea! C: What would that be? S2: I suggest we increase the hourly wage of the students working at school C: What’s the current wage? S2: It’s 5,800 won but I suggest we hike it up to 10,000 won gradually. So that we can have middle class students working for the school and subsequently the burden of the tuition fee is lightened S1: Fantastic idea C: OK, perhaps I should summarize what we have decided. After all, we are going to stick to our current need-based scholarship system and focus on providing more financial aids to those in need. Bringing back GPA-based scholarship would be a retrograde step in global terms and it may damage our university’s proactive image. However, as there are some complaints from the students who are facing difficulties in earning financial aid from this scholarship, we are going to establish a xx University Income percentile council to overcome problems made by the national scholarship’s criteria. Secondly, the school will increase the hourly wage of the students working in the school from 5800 won to 10,000 won. Also, we will discuss greater details about how we are going to improve our scholarship’s criteria at a separate meeting. Is that clear? S1, S2: Yes C: Okay. I think we have covered everything. So Sara, I’d like to get Closing your opinion of how the meeting went S2: Despite couple of ups and downs I think overall we were successful and productive C: Thanks, Sara. How about you, Jay? S1: I agree. We had a clear goal even with some professional differences. And most of all, now there’s something I can give to the students C: Thank you, Jay. I feel we made great progress with our new scholarship issue. So, we can set a date for our next meeting. Is next Monday 9 a.m. convenient? S1, S2: That would be fine C: Good. If there are no further points, we can finish here. Thank you

[Note: C: chair/ S1: senior manager from call center/ S2: senior manager from corporate communication sector]

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First, opening of meeting in unit 1: The meeting begins when a quorum of participants is present and then the issue or issues to be discussed are highlighted. The issues to be discussed are explicitly outlined and agreed upon at this stage. This stage is signaled by the chair. The chair sets and distributes the agenda and manages the turn-taking and topic, sticking mainly to a predominant tradition, incremental structure, a linear pattern. There is no small talk or explicit addressing of face issues, signaling that the expectation is for the established, efficient transfer of information. Second, discussion of the agenda/topic in unit 2: This stage can be broken down into several phases or may be made up of only one phase. In institutional discourse, “clusters of activity” (Heritage, 1997: 167), or phases, can be recognized in overall structural organization, each of which involves the “pursuit of a specific sub-goal” in talk which is task-focused and usually centers on a specific topic from the official agenda (e.g. interplay between agreement and disagreement on merit-based scholarship policy in example 17). Bargiela-Chiappini and Harris (1997) argue that within meetings there are three possible directions for exchanges. They are chair to participants, participant(s) to chair, and participant(s) to participant(s). Unlike chair to participant direction in opening, discussion unit illustrates exclusively participant to participant direction for argument between pro-GPA scholarship side and con-GPA scholarship side. In this occasion, the approach to the topic is relatively more exploratory, which would also suggest a more cyclical, less rigid turn organization (see also the next section and two other sections, 4.2.1.2. and 4.2.2.2., for the same claim). The participants gradually come to a consensual decision through tying together a series of related issues. In describing such a process, Boden states: People build layers of discussion, debate and eventual decision on a given topic or activity, diffusing possible disagreement while molding decision through multiple occasions of interaction. Their conversational collusion is a matter of weaving, turn by turn, one agenda into another. (Boden, 1994: 164)

Given the claim, in example 13, pro-GPA scholarship side argues that the state scholarship’s calculation income percentile is not a reliable measurement as it does not provide clear cuts. In contrast, con-GPA scholarship side argues that income percentile cannot be perfect.

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Closing of meeting in unit 3: This stage tends to occur quite quickly right after decision-making. The chair, in a fairly typical series of moves in internal meetings involving peers, addresses the group with Okay, makes a positive evaluation, and thanks participants.

4.2

Meetings at the Individual Phase Level

This section explicates smaller units of business meeting than its overall structure. It exemplifies how power does (not) play a role in decisionmaking in business meeting and whether it does serve the function to make the tone of disagreement direct or indirect. 4.2.1

Power in Business Meeting

The central questions in the critical approach to understanding human behavior in organizations focus on power (Hoffman & Ford, 2010). Critical approaches to organizational rhetoric center on questions of power and resistance to power. The answers to the questions of power and resistance help us analyze whether an organization is acting fairly and ethically, with a particular focus upon the organization’s choices about voice and choice as they are demonstrated in its messages. The differing power relationships between speakers is one of the most relevant contextual categories in accounting for particular constraints in business meeting discourse. Hutchby and Wooffitt define power as “the structurally provided ability to constrain the actions of others” (1998: 170), and such a definition suggests that the greater the organizationally sanctioned power difference between the speakers, the greater the opportunity for constraint. According to Bargiela-Chiappini and Harris’s (1997) assertion, the more powerful the speaker, the more he or she speaks. This section explores how organizations use rhetorical strategies in order to establish and maintain their power in society (i.e., who has the right or uses the right to speak in decisions?; when an organizational representative speaks?; who is responsible?). It discusses issues of power and voice of organizational members (usually employees), particularly those who have less status in an organization (Cheney & Christensen, 2001) and who have the voice to influence design and distribution of those messages (Hoffman & Cowan, 2008). It exemplifies Holmes and Stubbe’s (2003) argument that the type of workplace will affect the type of decision-making. Namely, in hierarchical establishments, a contentious

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decision will merely require the ratification of the chair, but in more egalitarian companies, such decision will be approached collaboratively (i.e., consensus building) and with much negotiation (i.e., dynamic interplay between agreement and disagreement). Autocratic Business Meeting Some business corporations have a hierarchical corporate culture, a system of organizing people into different ranks or levels of importance in society or in a company. This hierarchical system has a bureaucratic culture, so there is a lot of emphasis on complicated rules and procedures. The rules and procedures prevent in-house communication from circulating smoothly. For example, the process of decision-making, especially in a large organization or in government, is largely characterized by an autocratic person or organization having complete power and making decisions without asking anyone else’s advice. Let us discuss this claim with the following example, which is xx company’s business meeting for troubleshooting explosion of its new mobile phone product. Example 14 is a typical autocratic meeting a chairperson leads. It demonstrates that the role of the chair is related to turn-taking. In formal meetings, the role played by the chair is explicit, as is often the case in manager-subordinate meetings (Holmes & Stubbe, 2003). In such meetings, the discourse is controlled by and through the chair, with him or her taking up a high proportion of the turns. The proportion of turns taken by the chair to be higher than in peer meetings, as the chair plays a more controlling role. The chairperson has power to control the meeting by discouraging participants from making any comments on personal attacks and deciding to have some cooling time, in case the meeting is overheated. The chair takes up a large proportion of the turns. The chair regularly provides backchannels, thereby attending to the participants’ positive face needs and encouraging them to continue talking. The chair invites his colleagues to comment further. Chair’s overt presence in the discussion would probably mean that the other participants would be less empowered to arrive at a decision by themselves.

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Example 14

Unit

Talk

Function

1

C: As you can see, the cause of this explosion accident isn’t the smart phone itself, but the defect of the battery made by xx company, which is one of our subcontractor. We are planning to expire the contract with them and contact China’s xx company for the new batteries S1: If it is, we can explain the exact reason when customers ask about it to our call center. Good! S2: That’s nice but I’m worried if we are described as a company which throw our responsibility to the subcontractor by the media. It will damage to our brand image. For example, xx company and xx company got big damage because they tried to evade their responsibility C: ➀Then, we are going to explain the battery problem from our subcontractor first. After that, we’ll mention that we are going to be responsible for the problem C: OK. Is there any other questions about the handouts? If not, we will move on to the Q and A session. As you all know, we have officially announced an entire recall. However, the consumers are protesting and the press is keep on talking about this issue, so we still need more follow-up measurement. First of all, we’d like to hear about what kind of complaints there were from consumers S1: As you can see it in copy, there were many calls like “ How can they get a recall?”, “How do we compensate for the burst phones?”, “There was a loss of money caused by the explosion in a car or house.”, “Is it available to get a recall for the phone which is not burst yet?” and “Is it possible to get a recall even though it is not xx phone but just xx phone?” etc C: Thank you for your briefing. Is there anyone who can tell us how the media is talking about this issue? S2: Yeap. For now there are a lot of articles that xx company is in a serious danger. Titles are like “xx company in danger, can they make a breakthrough?”, “Another explosion! What happened to xx phone?” C: ➁Please submit the articles of the press you’ve said now as a reference S2: All right, I’m gonna do that right away C: Is it possible to control these negative articles or news? S2: Hmm. Actually we can communicate with some major media, but it’s impossible to control all the small media and SNS

Discussion about shifting the blame to subcontractor

2

Discussion about media play

(continued)

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(continued) Unit

Talk

Function

3

C: Controlling the media is important, but it’s past that period to do so. It’s time to work on compensation and actual action. We have announced an entire-recall, but still need compensations since the explosion accidents are keep on occurring. Please don’t feel hesitation to talk about your opinions S1: Most customers would like to get a monetary reward. Some customers want damage compensation for their injuries or property loss from the explosion in their car or house S2: This morning, there was a opinion on in-company online community that all the staff want our company to decide to compensate for everything as much as we can, in order to recover the trust of consumer. We cannot ignore all the staff’s opinion although a lot of money will be required C: So everyone is agreeing on compensating. Then how should we actually take action? S2: Not to mention monetary reward, how about providing a rental phone before they get a new phone? C: Rental phones……. What do you think about this? S1: I think it is a good idea but customers are going to complain that they have to visit the retail stores when they get a new phone or return the rental phone S2: Agree, but it is impossible to visit all the customers who bought xx phone because we are recalling all the product… not only for defective products C: Since it is almost impossible to take back all of our products directly, ➂let’s provide rental phones to consumers. Any other opinions? S1: I understand that it is necessary to provide a rental phone. However, it is not the actual solution and there should be an additional action. How about stopping the production of existing products while we provide rental phones and produce new phones? This is for showing that our company is now regarding the situation as a serious problem S2: I would say shutting down the production line is the last thing that we should think about. Xx phone is a huge project… we prepared it for more than a year. If we shutting down the production line now, we cannot recover the brand image. And it is big loss of money as well C: That is right. ➃Calling off the whole production line is not a simple issue that can be argued in this meeting. We need other executives to decide about this. Also, the general meeting of stockholders will not agree because of the decreasement of stock price

Discussion about follow-up action

(continued)

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(continued) Unit

4

Talk S1: However, there were too many cases of accidents, and although we keep producing existing products and selling it, customers are never going to buy it. Throughout the history of our company, our company didn’t avoid the crisis when it came, rather overcame it raising the stakes. In 1995, former president xx did burning ceremony of the phone. Also, in 2009, when a xx refrigerator exploded, our company recalled every product to overcome the crisis S2: That’s true… but isn’t it too old case? Now consumers have changed a lot. They can get a lot of information than the past… so they can change their mind easily S1: Haven’t you seen the news? Currently, there were an official two cases of explosions of xx phone. Besides, xx company does not have good reputation for recall service among customers. If we admit our fault and be responsible for it, our company could restore trust from customers S2: Me? Haven’t seen news? I think it’s you who didn’t read articles carefully. Recently, the explosion of our phone is always on the top of all the media, news. The explosion of xx phone is nothing… compared to ours… and the number of the explosion is low too C: I understand both of your opinions but ➄I think calling off the product line seems to be an early decision for now. The sales rate will fall rapidly, but giving up on our main product should be more discussed S1: How about recommending use suspension? As you said, it is difficult to close the production line of xx phone, I think it is necessary to recommend use suspension to the customers who bought xx phone already. It is a duty at least C: Recommending use suspension… The US consumer safety commission and the federal aviation administration has already proposed it today morning. How do you think about this? S2: I think that’s proper… we can reduce our loss and people will get a image that we are taking responsibilities C: ➅The recommendation of usage seems to be agreed upon, so I will make an additional announcement sooner or later C: What we discussed today was about domestic affairs. Does anyone have anything to talk about the foreign market, especially China’s? China is excluded from the recall list now S2: Untill now, there was no accident in China.. so I think there’s no reason to do that cuz we put different battery in the product which is for China market

Function

Discussion about the case of global market

(continued)

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(continued) Unit

Talk

Function

S1: However, we cannot sure the safety of the battery because we never know when the accidents will happen. In addition, it is required to prepare for the situation that phones explode in China without any recall service. If we take actions and compensate relatively late, customers in China will complain about it a lot S2: But… didn’t you say that the battery is the main reason of the explosion? I think the battery is different from that of product in other market so it would be safe. For now we have to deal with domestic market, the states, and other global market as well. we don’t have enough energy to take care of the market where anything hasn’t happened yet C: The Chinese market is important and needs more attention, ➆but it is true that there is no reason to worry about the accident that has not yet occurred [Note: C: chair/ S1: senior manager from call center/ S2: senior manager from corporate communication sector]

In example 14, the chairperson shows forms of asymmetry in power not by staying in a neutral position but by supporting a particular participant’s opinion (S2’s opinion, exclusively) (e.g. ➂let’s provide rental phones to consumers., ➃Calling off the whole production line is not a simple issue that can be argued in this meeting., ➄I think calling off the product line seems to be an early decision for now in unit 3; ➆but it is true that there is no reason to worry about the accident that has not yet occurred in unit 4). The chair gives the directive to deliver a report with an imperative form (e.g. ➁Please submit the articles of the press you’ve said now as a reference in unit 2). Discussion in each unit is all initiated by the chair by giving topic or agenda (i.e., discussion about shifting the blame to subcontractor in unit 1; discussion about media play in unit 2; discussion about follow-up action in unit 3; discussion about the case of global market in unit 4). An individual decision was made by the chairperson without consensus building with participants (➀Then, we are going to explain the battery problem from our subcontractor first. After that, we’ll mention that we are going to be responsible for the problem.). An exception is only made in ➅The recommendation of usage seems to be agreed upon. The chair stays in a neutral position by seeking agreement with participants in this occasion only.

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Democratic Business Meeting An organization with a horizontal structure organized in a less hierarchical way is far different from a hierarchical corporation. It is run along more democratic lines, based on the idea that everyone should have equal rights and should be involved in making important decisions. A company with a horizontal structure tends to aim to give all employees a relatively equal status within the company and build consensus among participants of a business meeting. It also has performance culture, so that the emphasis is on being successful and achieving results. The relationship between the transactional goals of the institution, the meeting itself, and the importance of the chair is outlined by Bargiela-Chiappini and Harris: “In all business meetings, the achievement of specific organizational goals depends on accomplishing the main task through the discussion of the agenda by the Chair and the Group” (1997: 208, emphasis is mine). In peer meetings, the chair takes a lower proportion of turns. Very long turns are not made by one speaker in the meeting. By not involving himself, chair provides an opportunity for the meeting participants to freely talk about the problem without an overt gatekeeping or leading presence. The proportion and length of the turns by the chair in peer meeting are lower than those in the manager-subordinate meeting. The following manager-manager business meeting is held with the objective to resolve a recent complaint received at the call center of an airline company. The complainer, who missed her flight because the airport shuttle bus she was in faced a traffic jam on the airport expressway, is seeking for some sort of compensation for the troubles. Although the bus company is a subsidiary of the airline company, both companies are different units. Yet, the customer wants the airline company to take full responsibility for something that is technically the bus company’s issue to deal with. Example 15 is a typical democratic business meeting. The chair less engages with or withdraws from the interaction for encouraging on-topic discussion between participants.

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Example 15 Unit

Talk

Function

1

S1: Yes. Alright. Yesterday, we received a complaint from a customer. Due to a traffic jam along the airport expressway, the customer was unable to make it for her flight. She was in the airport express bus, which is a sub company of our airline. Apparently, the bus did not arrive as scheduled. She had to stay in Florida for 2 extra days in a hotel. She also had to pay for another flight ticket C: So, to summarize, there was a customer who missed her flight because of the bus company? How did the operator handle the situation? S1: The operator who took charge of this call was one of our very best. He tried to explain that the bus company is not directly affiliated with us but he ultimately could not satisfy her C: So she is still not aware that the bus company is not affiliated with us? S1: She is, but I think she still doesn’t see the thin line between our sub companies C: Do we have a Standard Operating Procedure for such situations? S1: No S2: Before we discuss any further details, could you please identify the customer? S1: The customer is citizen of Republic of Korea, and she was flying to Seoul from Florida S2: Did she have any other complaints? S1: She also complained about our airline service. She said it was inefficient compared to other companies. Also, she requested for a translation service C: What is she asking from us? S2: It seems like she’s looking for some sort of compensation for her hotel fees and her flight ticket S1: She missed an important job meeting due to the missed flight. So she’s asking for more compensation as well. On top of all of that. The operator told her to wait for our response to her request which we will send via email C: So what do you guys think of this situation? What possible solutions are available to salvage this situation? S2: Ok. We can either comply to her request or not. In my opinion, we should not provide her with any sort of compensation. Besides not being affiliated with the bus company, such traffic jams are unforeseen and are sometimes unavoidable. Thus, we are not held responsible for the situation she was put in. As stated in the regulations, customers are advised to be at the airport 2 h beforehand

Description of problem

2

Discussion about compensation

(continued)

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(continued) Unit

3

Talk S1: I agree that it’s partly the customer’s fault for not considering possible setbacks during her travels but as I mentioned before, the bus provided by our sub company was not on schedule. I understand that we cannot provide her with a full compensation. However, I think we should meet her request to a certain degree. Perhaps we can provide her with flight miles? S2: We didn’t provide a full compensation. Yeah, the best we can do is to provide her with miles for her missed flight. BUT again, the responsibility is not on us. If anyone were to provide her with a compensation, it is the bus company. Regarding the bus that was not on schedule, again, I think we should refer her to the bus company. I think they would be able to satisfy her needs better than we can S1: I’m afraid she won’t be satisfied with our response. As mentioned earlier, she thinks we are in charge of the bus company. If we simply direct her to the bus company, it won’t save our image and I have a feeling we will lose her as a customer C: ➀Ok, considering the pros and cons, let’s have a quick vote to decide. Who is in favor of compensating her? C and S1 raise hands C: Ok then it’s decided C: Now let’s talk about how we should inform her about our decision S2: Doing it over email would make our compensation seem insincere. I think we should inform her over the phone S1: I can talk to my best call center operator and give him a briefing on this situation. Don’t worry, he’s dealt with even more difficult customers C: And what if things go sideways? S2: There is only so much we can do to save a customer. What ultimately matters is that we have to have a standard operating procedure prepared to avoid future situations like this C: Alright then, I leave it to you and your call center then. Please update us as the situation progresses. Your last point brings us to our next agenda—we have to come up with a standard operating procedure for future situations like this. Any suggestions? S2: I think the most important role is played by the call center employee. He or she will be the first point of contact for the angry customer. How are your employees trained?

Function

Discussion about corrective action

(continued)

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(continued) Unit

Talk

Function

S1: My team is knowledgeable of all protocols and strategies essential to satisfying a customer. We held a survey last year and the three things that customers want from call center employees are the following, ranked in order—having their problems solved quickly, having personal interaction with the call center agent, and being able to speak to a skilled agent. Our training is designed to fulfill these needs S2: Sometimes that is not enough. My question is what we can add to your program to minimize future damages to our company image? S1: In my opinion, it’s important for us to get to the root of this certain issue. As the customer has mentioned, the bus was late, and eventually, she was not able to check-in during the designated time. In this kind of cases, the check-in receptionist will have to ➁come up with possible solutions and inform the customer about the soonest flights in advance. As we can see from this situation, the customer didn’t find help, which means we need to remind all our check-in desk staff what the possible solutions are for such situations. I also believe there ➂should be something done about the buses. This is not the first time the airport express bus didn’t arrive on schedule. If operations are not improved, it seems like similar issues of passengers being late may appear more often in the future S2: I think we should consider ➃adding more airport express shuttle buses and increase their frequency. We could also ➄change the route of the bus to one that is not prone to traffic jams. Also, regarding our call center and check-in desk agents and staff, we can consider ➅creating a more frequent training course for our workers. It will aid in refreshing their knowledge about the most efficient ways of solving customer’s issues and update them on more possible customer complaint scenarios S1: In addition to that, I can also ➆create a template for my call center agents to follow when dealing with difficult customers over the phone [Note: C: chair/ S1: senior manager from call center/ S2: senior manager from corporate communication sector]

Different from unit 1, description of problems the airline company faces, the chairperson’s turn is highly limited in contrast with two senior managers in discussion units for troubleshooting, which are main concern of the meeting (i.e., two turns in unit 2 and three turns in unit 3, at most). Even the length of chair’s each turn is much shorter than that of others in both unit 2 and unit 3. The decision is also made democratically by voting

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on whether the company compensates the customer or not (➀Ok, considering the pros and cons, let’s have a quick vote to decide in unit 2). Other possible solutions are also made independently without chair’s intervention or assistance as shown in the last three talks done by participants (S1 ➁come up with possible solutions and inform the customer about the soonest flights in advance,➂should be something done about the buses,➆create a template for my call center agents, S2 ➃adding more airport express shuttle buses and increase their frequency,➄change the route of the bus,➅creating a more frequent training course for our workers ). 4.2.2

Disagreement

Some Characteristics of Disagreement Spoken business discourse is not always consistently polite. It is because business people are “inclined to override politeness considerations for the sake of conversational clarity” (Bargiela-Chiappini et al., 2007: 195). Since business communication is largely concerned with the discursive negotiation of obligations, the potential for conflict is ever present. The importance of the relational dimension in meeting talk has been given quite explicit attention by some discourse analysts (Holmes & Stubbe, 2003; Koester, 2006; Mullany, 2007). For example, a number of discourse analysis studies have centered on disagreement (e.g. Gardner, 2000; Kotthoff, 1993; Myers, 1998; Schiffrin, 1984, 1985). Among many of conflict talks in business, disagreement reflects the ability of a relationship to withstand features of talk usually associated with conflict, such as disagreement, insult, and interruption (Holmes, 2001: 333). Disagreement is always reactive, i.e., it is always a reply to a prior utterance from an interlocutor (Sornig, 1977: 364). In the context of conversation, “agreement” or “disagreement” refers to alternative actions that become relevant once an initial assessment has been tendered (Pomerantz, 1984: 63). Refusals or disagreements in the second part of adjacency pairs tend to be dispreferred, and, as such, the turn shape tends to be more complex than a preferred, or expected response. Sack (1987) states that disagreement is the dispreferred second response. Such a response requires extra interactional effort (Stalpers, 1995) in order to prevent negative consequences in the interlocutors’ relationship. One of the key factors in understanding why conflict is unwelcome is face, as disagreement will often involve threats to positive and negative face (Brown & Levinson, 1987). Face seems to be purposefully aggravated (Mutigl &

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Turnbull, 1998). Instead, what seems to be happening is an example of an “opposition format” (Kotthoff, 1993). Where “there is no preference for agreement any more”, and where a speaker uses a term of the other speaker in his or her argument. Some studies examine how disagreement is dealt with in the workplace (Angouri, 2012; Holmes & Marra, 2004; Marra, 2012; McCrae, 2009). The research found that direct expression of disagreement in the workplace is generally uncommon. Professionals mitigate their directives to accommodate their co-workers’ face wants (Holmes & Stubbe, 2003; Holmes & Woodhams, 2013; Koester, 2006; Vine, 2004). These studies indicate that in issuing directives, professionals carefully manage the balance between getting things done and keeping a good relationship with their subordinates by taking situational factors into consideration (Holmes & Stubbe, 2003; Holmes & Woodhams, 2013; Koester, 2006; Vine, 2004). In New Zealand workplace, for example, disagreements are often expressed implicitly or indirectly among co-workers who are native speakers of English (Holmes & Marra, 2004). In companies in Europe, however, participants in meetings treat “disagreement” as an inherent part of the problem-solving process and do not perceive disagreement as a face-threatening act or impoliteness (Angouri, 2012). Disagreements also become overt in internal business meetings (Handford & Koester, 2010; Koester, 2006). Heritage talks of the “bias intrinsic to many aspects of the organisation of talk which is generally favourable to the maintenance of the bonds of solidarity between actors and which promotes the avoidance of conflict” (1984: 265). Even when disagreement does occur, according to Heritage and Greatbatch, the disagreements “are routinely exited through a process in which the speakers deescalate their disputes by moderating their positions” (1991: 277). At other times, the conflictual topic will be ignored or postponed, because “[d]eferring disagreement or debate is not a casual or random matter; it is central … to the smooth and practical everyday enactment of the organisation” (Boden, 1994: 155). Types of disagreement are separated into a set of categories in the following section. Taxonomy of Disagreement Disagreement may be accomplished with a variety of forms, ranging from stated (explict) disagreements to unstated (implied) disagreements. Disagreements are often prefaced with a hesitation, verbal pauses etc. They are often presented with hedging devices, which are means of softening or mitigating the strength of the disagreement (Stalpers, 1995:

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278). Disagreements are frequently delayed within a turn or over a series of turns. Disagreements may be unstated, and may be marked only by the absence of forthcoming agreements or by gaps, requests for clarification, and so on. This claim can be scientifically explained by Brown and Levinson’s (1987, hereafter B&L) theory of politeness. B&L investigated politeness phenomena and established the relationship between the principles governing language usage and the principles governing social relationships. Taking up Goffman’s (1967) “face-want”, B&L (1987: 61) propose that every competent adult speaker in a society (i.e., a Model Person (MP)) has face, which is the “public self-image that every member wants to claim for himself”. The concept of face is central to B&L’s theory of politeness. Face is composed of two aspects: positive and negative face. Positive face is defined as “the want of every MP that his wants be desirable to others”, while negative face is defined as “the want of every MP that his actions be unimpeded by others”. They name certain kinds of acts that challenge face wants “the face-threatening acts (FTAs)”. Some acts (e.g. requests, orders) impose on the hearer’s negative face by showing that the speaker gets the hearer to do something. Other acts like disagreements threaten the hearer’s positive face by indicating that the speaker does not share the hearer’s wants. B&L establish five strategies for linguistic politeness. These are ranked in terms of degree of indirectness with 1. Being least indirect (bald on record) and 5. Most indirect (don’t do the FTA): (1) Bald on record; (2) Positive politeness; (3) Negative politeness; (4) Off record; (5) Don’t do the FTA (keep silence). Bald on record strategy involves performing the FTA in the most direct way without redress. Fifteen positive politeness substrategies are proposed, among them: notice, attend to hearer’s wants, needs; use ingroup identity markers; include both speaker and hearer in the activity; exaggerate interest, approval, sympathy with hearer; seek agreement; and use of slang. B&L (Ibid.: 130) claim that negative politeness may be qualified as “the stuff that fills the etiquette books”, in that it is oriented toward hearers’ negative face and their desire to be unimpeded by others. B&L propose ten negative politeness substrategies, some of which are: be conventionally indirect; hedge; apologize; impersonalize speaker and hearer; nominalize; and go on record as incurring a debt. Off-record strategy is used to perform speech acts non-conventionally indirectly. Therefore, it can be interpreted as expressing more than one communicative intention. Fifteen off-record strategies are proposed, some of which

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are: give hints; presuppose; be ironic; use metaphors; use rhetorical questions; and be ambiguous. Hutchby and Wooffitt (1998: 48) claim that the design features of preferred and dispreferred responses can be used as a resource for the maintenance of social solidarity in talk-in-interaction. When the response is negative, or in this case dispreferred, we expect it to be hedged, longer and more complex (e.g. hedged refusal). Positive politeness strategies tend to imply that the speaker is a cooperator or seeks common ground with the addressee. It is because in the workplace, where rapport among co-workers is indispensable (Holmes & Marra, 2004). A number of research papers have investigated the effect of the variable of power on disagreement (e.g. Beebe & Takahashi, 1989; Rees-Miller, 2000; Tannen, 1994). Locher (2004: 328) found that the ability to exercise power could depend on the interactants’ speaking style, cultural background, status, knowledge of frames, or gender. It also depended on expertise about the topic being discussed. Holmes and Stubbe (2003: 70) argue that meetings involving participants who are “equal in status”—that is, peer—tend to be more cyclical in structure, with speakers tending to “engaging in more extended exploratory talk”. Moreover, task-oriented or problem-solving meetings tend to a cyclical structure. Since one of the goals of disagreements is to win the argument to make a decision (Craig et al., 1986: 463), opponents are expected to defend their positions and stress their disagreement. According to Kotthoff (1993: 201), disagreement can become the preferred context and be “stressed and oriented to”. Such turn structure is extremely atypical in business meetings, and we can see how the negotiation of power issues (such as assertion) in external, contractually bound meetings can be aggressively enacted through linguistic divergence, and partly through unusual turn structures. Much of the linguistic surface evidence of conflict in this meeting, such as turn structure, seems to reflect and be caused by the bald expression of constraint and the aggressive reaction against it. Example 16 exemplifies how B&L’s politeness strategies are realized in making disagreements among participants in a business meeting.

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Example 16

Unit

Talk

Function

1

C: Now I would like to hear from the corporate manager S2: I was wondering whether or not there would be any chance our company had not provided quality service? ➀It seems like the cabin crew did not fully inform Mrs. Kim about our optional menu S1: In my opinion, ➁the cabin crew did her best. Actually, she followed the airline service instruction perfectly. She requested Mrs. Kim to show her the boarding pass which can indicate whether the consumer pre-ordered a special menu. However, the boarding pass didn’t have any information about the meal. Fortunately, the consumer had the internet receipt so the cabin crew apologized about it and offered the other option S2: The problem is that our company is based on the slogan “individual customized service” and ➂just following the service instruction doesn’t provide that C: Hmm, so what are your opinions on who should take the responsibility? I think this is closely related to the third point of our agenda which is about customer compensation. Corporate Manager, let’s start off with you S2: So much of the reason was due to the data processing error right? I would like to note that this sort of problem really degrades our brand image. Therefore, I think it should be thoroughly looked over and compensated for. If the customer continually files a complaint it would nonetheless damage our reputation. Don’t you think so? C: Do you have any response to the corporate manager’s comment? S1: ➃I think the customer has the major responsibility for this problem. Taking care of her own child is not the responsibility of the airline S2 ➄I agree that the major fault is in Mrs. Kim - providing her child food even after she knew what was part of the optional menu. ➅However, it’s clear that our services didn’t provide Mrs. Kim with a customized plan. The best the cabin crew could have done would be to wait for the parent to come back. ➆Wouldn’t our service seem too cursory to have given food without parental guidance to a four year old child? I dare say that it risks our airline’s reputation! S1: ➇Of course the image of the airline is also important. ➈However, if the airline compensates Mrs.Kim for this issue, it means the airline acknowledges that all the problems occurred are their accountability. ➉Isn’t it making the image worse to the customers of the airline?

Argument about (not) taking company’s responsibility

(continued)

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(continued) Unit

2

Talk 11 No actually that is not the case.  12 Previously, many S2:  airlines have dealt with their problems that way. For example, xx Air, a low cost budget airline in Europe, was infamous for showing indifference towards their clients’ complaints. And due to its bad reputation until recently it has been slowly losing many clients. Hence the company decided to change its policies and adopted a series of customer service improvements in a bid to stave off decreasing customers. This newfound attitude towards their customers attracted even more customers than before and allowed a stark increase in users. Thus, brand imaging is that much important to airline 13 We are not just providing transportation to our services.  customers. We are also providing service 14 I partially agree. Image is quite important especially S1:  15 However, for the airlines since it gives customer service.  taking the whole responsibility can also affect the image negatively. The public who do not know anything about this issue would think the airline did something very wrong that can be connected to the health of a four year old child. That is the point I am worried about C: Ok to summarize your points, I believe both of you agree that Mrs. Kim holds certain amount of responsibility in taking care of her child. However, I think you are having different opinions on what kind of compensation should be provided and to what degree C: Since this is a complicated issue, I think it is time for us to hear from our Business Lawyer. You’ve been listening throughout the whole meeting and you have kept quiet. I would like to request you to share your suggestions for us L: Because of some mistakes in proceed, this accident is happened, unfortunately. Actually, we don’t really have 100% of the responsibilities. This customer also didn’t check enough. She could check her boarding pass before and if the kid has allergy, she needed to check again to cabin crew. If so cabin crew could serve fruit meal or find extra vegetarian meal, not just usual meal fish optional. But originally a mistake about customer’s order in boarding pass was company’s fault, in system. And cabin crew also needed to check again to customer about any allergy food they have C: So what do you think the airline should do?

Function

Offering legal advice

(continued)

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(continued) Unit

3

Talk L: So since it’s better that company doesn’t make this situ16 it needs to compensate her and expressed ation bigger,  regret enough for avoiding sue. It apparently made some mistakes. And here actually have consumer damage. Even related with kid’s health problem. So, there is high probability of losing the trial, if the trial is held. And, regardless of the result of the trial, company will lose customers, and lose good image to the public. For recovering that, it will cost more than what she ask for compensation now, and need time to recover corporate image C: Does anyone have any questions or comments to the lawyer’s suggestions? 17 I agree with what the lawyer is pointing out. Mrs. S2:  Kim doesn’t seem like she will easily back down from this problem. Especially because it concerns her child. We should thoroughly talk it over with Mrs. Kim C: Thank you for your comments. I believe we are running out of time. Is there anything more to discuss? 18 I believe that there should be some sort of S2:  compensation for this problem. Although it wasn’t completely due to our mistake, there definitely had been some problem concerning our meal distribution and data processing error. In order to maintain our brand image that aligns with “individual customized service,” I believe that compensation is inevitable. And not only that we should also revise our manual for this scenario C: Ok, so why don’t we talk about the total loss/benefit if we give compensations in addition to revising our manuals until we hold our next meeting? S1: Until the next meeting, since we should apologize, I will write a letter of apology with the help of lawyer here

Function

Making an agreement

[Note: C: chair/ S1: senior manager from call center/ S2: senior manager from corporate communication sector/ L: lawyer]

In example 16, without much involvement of the chairperson in unit 1, peers, two senior managers, hotly debate ways of solving the problem. In unit 1, two senior managers start arguing about cabin crew’s wrongdoing. Participants of the meeting disagree each other on the agenda using bald on record strategy (➀, ➁, ➂). The argument is followed by a new agenda whether the company should take full responsibility. Unlike 11 , senior the use of bald on record strategy in unit 1, with an exception of  managers tend to take care of each one’s positive face wants in terms of

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using two types of indirectness (Searle 1975): conventional and nonconventional. Namely, they use off-record strategy to be non-conventionally 12 , 13 , 15 ), and indirect by only giving reasons for disagreement (➃,➅,➈, ask (rhetorical) questions (➆,➉). Besides, they also conventionally indirect by using partial agreement to mitigate the tone of disagreement 14 ). Conclusion is made in unit 3 after legal advice given in unit 2, (➄,➇, exclusively. This unit follows a linear structure, as participants look mutually agreed provisionally without further argument. In example 16, legal 16 in unit 2) plays a role in empowering advice from a corporate advocate ( a senior manager (S2) whose opinion is to support company’s full respon17 , 18 in unit 3). After the legal advice, an agreement seems likely sibility ( to be quickly made on giving compensation to the victim, as no more disagreement is made by S1 in unit 3.

4.3

Exercise

1. Study the cases of which business meeting does not follow three-part paragraph pattern. 2. Discuss the role of power and (in)directness of disagreement in business meeting.

References Angouri, J. (2012). Managing disagreement in problem solving meeting talk. Journal of Pragmatics, 44(12), 1565–1579. Bargiela-Chiappini, F., & Harris, S. (1997). Managing language: The discourse of corporate meetings. John Benjamins Publishing. Bargiela-Chiappini, F., Nickerson, C., & Planken, B. (2007). Business discourse. Palgrave Macmillan. Beebe, L. M., & Takahashi, T. (1989). Do you have a bag’ Social status and patterned variation in second language acquisition. In S. Gass, C. Madden, D. Preston, & L. Selinker (Eds.), Variation of second language acquisition: Discourse and pragmatics (pp. 104–120). Multilingual Matters. Bilbow, G. (1998). Look who’s talking: An analysis of “chair talk” in business meetings. Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 12, 157–197. Boden, D. (1994). The business of talk. Organizations in action. Polity Press. Brown, P., & Levinson, S. (1987). Politeness: Some universals in language usage. Cambridge University Press.

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Cheney, G., & Christensen, L. T. (2001). Organizational identity: Linkages between internal and external communication. In F. M. Jablin & L. L. Putnam (Eds.), The new handbook of organizational communication: Advances in theory, research, and methods (pp. 231–239). Sage. Craig, R., Tracy, K., & Spisak, F. (1986). The discourse of requests: Assessment of a politeness approach. Human Communication Research, 12(4), 437–468. Drew, P., & Heritage, J. (1992). Analyzing talk at work: An introduction. In P. Drew & J. Heritage (Eds.), Talk at work. Interaction in institutional settings (pp. 3–65). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Firth, A. (1995). The discourse of negotiation: Studies of language in the workplace. Pergamon. Gardner, R. (2000). Resources for delicate maneuvers: learning to disagree. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics Series, 16, 31–47. Goffman, E. (1967). Interaction ritual: Essays on face-to-face interaction. Aldine. Handford, M. (2010). The language of business meetings. Cambridge University Press. Handford, M., & Koester, A. (2010). ‘It’s not rocket science’: Metaphors and idioms in conflictual business meetings. Text and Talk, 30(1), 27–51. Heritage, J. (1984). A change-of-state token and aspects of its sequential placement. In J. Maxwell Atkinson & John Heritage (Eds.), Structures of social action: Studies in conversation analysis (pp. 299–345). Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press. Heritage, J. (1997). Conversation analysis and institutional talk. In D. Silverman (Ed.), Qualitative research: Theory, method and practice (pp. 161–182). Sage. Heritage, J., & Greatbatch, D. (1991). On the institutional character of institutional talk: The case of news interviews. In Deirdre Boden & Don H. Zimmerman (Eds.), Talk and social structure: Studies in ethnomethodology and conversation analysis (pp. 93–137). Cambridge: Polity Press. Hoffman, M. F., & Cowan, R. L. (2008). The meaning of work-life: A corporate ideology of work-life balance. Communication Quarterly, 56(3), 227–246. Hoffman, M. F., & Ford, D. J. (2010). Organizational rhetoric: Situations and strategies. Sage. Holmes, J. (2001). An introduction to sociolinguistics (2nd ed.). Longman. Holmes, J., & Marra, M. (2004). Relational practice in the workplace: Women’s talk or gendered discourse? Language in Society, 33(3), 377–398. Holmes, J., & Stubbe, M. (2003). Power and politeness in the workplace: A sociolinguistic analysis of talk at work. Longman. Holmes, J., & Woodhams, J. (2013). Building interaction: The role of talk in joining a community of practice. Discourse and Communication, 7 , 275–298. Hutchyby, I., & Wooffitt, R. (1998). Conversation analysis: Principles, practices and applications. Wiley. Koester, A. (2006). Investigating workplace discourse. Routledge.

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Kotthoff, H. (1993). Disagreement and concession in disputes: On the context sensitivity of preference structures. Language in Society, 22, 193–216. Locher, M. (2004). Power and politeness in action: Disagreements in oral communication. Mouton de Gruyter. Marra, M. (2012). Disagreeing without being disagreeable: Negotiating workplace communities as an outsider. Journal of Pragmatics, 44(12), 1580–1590. McCrae, S. (2009). ‘It’s a Blokes’ Thing’: Gender, occupational roles and talk in the workplace. In P. Pichler & E. Eppler (Eds.), Gender and spoken interaction (pp. 163–185). Palgrave Macmillan. Mullany, L. (2007). Gendered discourse in the professional workplace. Palgrave Macmillan. Mutigl, P. A., & Turnbull, W. (1998). Conversational structure and facework in arguing. Journal of Pragmatics, 29(3), 225–256. Myers, G. (1998). Displaying opinions: Topics and disagreement in focus groups. Language in Society, 27 , 85–111. Pomerantz, A. (1984). Agreeing and disagreeing with assessments: Some features of preferred/dispreferred turn shapes. In J. M. Atkinson & J. Herritage (Eds.), Structures of social action studies in conversation analysis (pp. 57–101). Cambridge University Press. Rees-Miller, J. (2000). Power, severity and context in disagreement. Journal of Pragmatics, 32, 1087–1111. Sack, H. (1987). On the preferences for agreement and contiguity in sequences in conversation. In G. Button & J. R. E. Lee (Eds.), Talk and social organisation (pp. 54–69). Multilingual Matters. Schiffrin, D. (1984). Jewish argument as sociability. Language in Society, 13, 311–335. Schiffrin, D. (1985). Everyday argument: The organization of diversity in talk. In T. van Djjk (Ed.), Handbook of discourse analysis vol. 3: Discussion and dialogue (pp. 35–46). Academic Press. Sornig, K. (1977). Disagreement and contradiction as communicative acts. Journal of Pragmatics, 1, 347–374. Stalpers, J. (1995). The expression of disagreement. In K. Ehlich & J. Wagner (Eds.), The discourse of business negotiation (pp. 275–290). Mouton de Gruyter. Tannen, D. (1994). Talking from 9 to 5: How women’s and men’s conversation styles affect who gets credit and what gets done at work. Virago. Vine, B. (2004). Getting things done at work: The discourse of power in workplace interaction. John Benjamins.

CHAPTER 5

Sales Talk

Abstract This chapter first illustrates that in principle sales talk should follow a certain paragraph convention to achieve the goal of sales success (1.approach, 2.presentation, 3.asking questions, 4.determine objections, 5.meet objections, 6.decision-making, 7.close). Among the overall paragraph convention of sales talk, the paramount goal of sales talk is to reach a positive decision-making from the prospect. This chapter addresses what the salesperson does need to understand is the various factors influencing the buying decision. First, it highlights the role of grounds for trust in making sales presentation successful. It exemplifies that crucial ways to establish credentials with the prospect are being ethical and professional. Second, it explores how attentive empathy serves the function to determine and meet the prospect’s needs. Finally, it values the function of cognitive empathy in sales success in that although acceptance signals are shown in the middle of sales talk, objections can suddenly arise near the end of the sales presentation. Keywords Sales talk · Grounds for trust · Bying decision

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 Y. Jung, Sociolinguistics and Business Talk, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-0051-8_5

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Sales talk involves communication between seller and buyer. The salesperson and the buyer discuss needs and talk about the product relative to how it will satisfy the person’s needs. Personal selling is the key to success in today’s competitive marketplace. In business, a traditional definition of personal selling refers to the personal communication of information to persuade a prospective customer to buy something (a good, service, idea, or something else) that satisfies that individual’s needs (Futrell, 2013). The salesperson often works with prospects or customers to examine their needs, provide information, and suggest a product to meet their needs. This chapter pays particular attention to sales presentation, which is the heart of the sale, and its effect to a lesser extent. It is mainly because the salespeople must master the art of delivering a good sales presentation to improve their chances of making a sale. The main goal of salespeople’s presentation is to provide information to the prospect/customer. The presentation provides knowledge via the features, advantages, and benefits of product. This allows the buyer to develop positive personal beliefs toward product. These beliefs result in desire (or need) for the type of product. This chapter addresses what the salesperson does need to understand is the various factors that can influence the buying decision. It illustrates and exemplifies elements of why people buy. Data of the study include exclusively transaction selling, the salesperson sells to customers and does not contact them again, neither relationship selling (after the purchase the seller finds out if the customer is satisfied and has future needs), nor partnering selling (the seller works continually to improve the customer’s operations, sales, and profits). Focus is on selling in retail, exclusively direct seller who sells face-to-face away from a fixed store location, such as in-store salesperson, and telephone salesperson, in this chapter. Direct sellers sell face-to-face to consumers—typically in their homes—who use the products for their personal use. Data refer to a basic part of a firm’s promotional effort, personal selling, personal communication of information to persuade a prospective customer to buy something that satisfies an individual’s needs (consumer products, which are produced for and purchased by, households or end consumers for their personal use, not industrial products sold primarily for use in producing other products). Although customers can be individual and/or organizations, customers fall into a group in the chapter, households, neither firms nor governments. Some households consist of a single person whereas others consist of families. Before we discuss some spectrum of sales talk, let us first explore what thought process resulted in the decision to buy or not to buy.

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Paragraph Convention in Sales Talk

Understanding of communicative purposes and paragraph conventions (type and/or sequence of paragraph, length of paragraph) of specific genres plays an important role even in building trust (Bhatia, 1993; Swales, 1990). That is, match between a particular paragraph convention/unit and a genre pursuing a certain communicative purpose is of crucial importance in building trust. Given the claim that the strategic nature of paragraph structure depends on the communicative purposes, speeches for persuasion, including sales talk, are sometimes organized with the strongest argument first or last, or cause and effect, or problem and solution. First, salespeople ask how the persuasive speech gets the attention of the audience. Second, salespeople ask about the order in which the ideas appear in the persuasive speech. Third, salespeople ask about how they conclude the discourse. In detail, the salesperson might make a sales opener (approach), discuss the product’s features, advantages, and benefits, and then start to solicit comments from the buyer with questions, and handling objections (Futrell, 2013). At the end of the participation, the salesperson moves in to close the sale, right after the prospect’s decision-making. 1. Approach 2. Presentation 3. Asking questions 4. Determine objections 5. Meet objections 6. Decision-making 7. Close Let us exemplify the sales talk convention with Example 17. This is the case that the fashion brand salesperson tries to sell fashion items to the fashion director, who is looking for items for the celebrity, C-dragon. The director originally sent out multiple emails to fashion brands asking for items that can be used for the celebrity’s album photo shoot. She

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received numerous replies from many fashion brands that are willing to participate and this is a sales presentation among many others. Example 17 Unit Talk

Function

1

Approach

D: I recently sent out an email to our many fashion brand partners informing them of C-dragon’s return. I asked them to send in items they think would fit the concept of the album and Lina’s submission is one of the many we have to review. Now, many of you know how picky C-dragon is with his fashion choices. The reason why I said that this is one of our biggest projects is because C-dragon is considered a fashion icon. What we put on him will be scrutinised by the fashion world. No games, this is serious business. Everybody got that clear? S: Yes. D: Alright, Lina you may carry on. S: Right, my name is Lina and I’m from the xx sales team. This is my assistant Jane who will be assisting me in handling the item I have for you today. Considering C-dragon’s status as a fashion icon, my team and I have carefully picked an item that will boost his title even more. In the briefing you said that his album concept is going to change from his regular edgy style. Something slightly different. What I have for you today is the perfect match… what I have for you today… these are xx’s best. D: How many items do you have for us today? We have a tight schedule to uphold. S: I have 3 items to go through with you today. I will try to keep it short and simple. D: I want jackets that fit the album concept we have planned for C-dragon. The concept being his dangerous and powerful side. It’s gonna be a concept that’s still edgy yet more daring than his usual style. We want him to look fierce. Did you prepare items as such? S: Yes. D: Carry on.

(continued)

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(continued) Unit Talk

Function

2

Presentation

3

S: So the first item we have for you is this luxurious Tiger Embroidered Men’s Bomber Leather Jacket. 100% genuine leather, embellished with embroidered appliqués. At the chest is the number 25, favored by world renowned Italian fashion designer, Alessandro. It’s embroidered with a cloth effect and the roaring tiger motif is embroidered to the other side of the chest. It has a detachable blue and red knitted collar and it also has a snap button closure with a silk lining. This beautiful piece was made in Italy. This is going for 3,499 pounds. I think it’ll fit C-dragon extremely well. This second one here is a beauty. Soft Ivory leather, Knit trims, Vintage ribbon trims along the sleeves, thread embroidered Donald Duck, Silk lining, Embroidered “šραπις” appliqué, which is a reference to the Egyptian deity Serapis. The dyeing process used on the leather creates a one-of-a-kind effect, meaning no two garments will be exactly alike. This means that C-dragon will be wearing one kind piece. The leather is edgy, just what you’re looking for. And the Donald duck patch is something completely different from his usual style. I think this will fit the concept you’re looking for. Edgy, yet different. This is going for 4,157 pounds This last piece is fashioned in sky-blue calf leather, it’s all-over embellished with oversized studs, it has Embroidery and appliqué with motifs collection’s signature. It’s made out of 100% calf leather and it was hand made in Italy, like our previously showcased items. Again, the leather makes this look edgy. But what makes this piece different is the combination of studs and the sky blue leather. C-dragon is too much of an icon for a basic black leather jacket. I think this piece, edgy with its studs yet different because of the colour, will be an amazing collection to C-dragon’s fashion history. This is going for 5,499 pounds. S: May I… get your opinion?

Asking question (continued)

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(continued) Unit Talk

Function

4

Determine objections

5

6

7

D: Ok listen. I’m not feeling the vibe of this piece here. It’s a little too… basic in my opinion. I mean, it’s cute but… it’s not C-dragon you feel me. Don’t you have something else? I told you upfront that I am looking for something that will showcase C-dragon’s edgy and somewhat dangerous side. He needs to demand respect with his look. His look needs to say “Fear me” but not too much otherwise it will scare people off. I mean I expect a variety of styles you know. We don’t pay you to look basic. Hmm…the second one. I see your point on the uniqueness of the piece. The dyed leather also does seem exceptional exquisite. I like this one a lot better than the first one, I have to admit. However, I am not fully convinced that it represents the intended edgy that we are trying to portray in the shoot. The white makes it seem a little bit…. too calm and somewhat reserved. I do believe a more stunning color would achieve the effect that we are looking for. S: Oh ok I understand. But don’t you feel that the donald duck patch, combined with the dyed leather gives it that special something? The edgy that you were perhaps looking for in a more untraditional sense? I would say it matches your concept quite nicely actually. D: Ah yes…another stud…they are speaking to me. The baby blue makes them stand out even more as opposed to the usual black leather that they are usually attached to. Although the placement of the zippers is quite peculiar it makes it stand out even further. Also the embroidery is quite daring. To combine those motifs with studs and add the sky-blue? Not bad. Not bad at all. I will most definitely have to go over my decision again and discuss this in depth with my styling team. We will get back to you as soon as we have made a decision. If we do decide to take it we will be sending you C-Dragon’s measurements as soon as possible. S: oh..ok. Umh thank you for your consideration. We would like to thank you for your time and we are looking forward to collaborating with you in the future.

Meet objection

Decision-making

Closing

Note D (director): buyer/ S (Lina): salesperson

With the beginning of each party’s introduction in unit 1, the meeting follows up with sales presentation in unit 2 explaining 3 jackets. Buyers

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may be unfamiliar with a specific brand or type of product and have difficulty in making the purchase decision. Since buyers are faced with limited or extensive problem solving, they may want to collect information about the product. The sales presentation provides buyers with the necessary knowledge to make brand comparisons and increase their confidence that the purchase of the product is the correct decision. Sales presentation includes the material of the jacket, the process behind its making and each item’s price. In unit 3, a question is asked by the salesperson neither for buying nor for making any type of purchase decision but for an opinion. The question is to determine the customer’s opinion toward the salesperson’s proposition to know whether or not it is time to close the sale. Thus, its main purpose is to induce feedback from the buyer. The use of a question to induce feedback is a persuasive communication technique and it should be used after making a strong selling point in the presentation. In unit 4, as the fashion director is for a celebrity who is considered a fashion icon in the entertainment world, she acts very high and mighty, so that it makes the brand salesperson feel nervous. In addition, the fashion director does not specify as to what the items should look like. She does, however, explain the theme of the shoot as to having to portray the artist as an influential and impactful artist, who despite living a luxurious lifestyle he still represents a certain amount of edginess in terms of style and attitude. Unit 5, meet objection, is the process of helping the customer to make a decision that will benefit her. In general, salespeople use the main features, advantages, and benefits of interest for the prospect during the step. They summarize benefits in a positive manner so that the prospect agrees with what they say. In unit 6, the fashion director tells the salesperson that she will consider the items showcased and that she will get back to her shortly. A buyer’s product information evaluation determines what will be purchased. After mentally processing all the information about products that will satisfy a need, a buyer matches this information with needs, attitudes, and beliefs in making a decision. Determining what type of decision process a buyer is using is critical to sales success. In this case, there is limited decision-making—a moderate level of actual buyer involvement in the decision (We will get back to you as soon as we have made a decision.). Or presumably decision-making is likely to be the stalling objection. Namely, when prospect says “I’ll think it over” or “I’ll be ready to buy on your next visit”, salespeople must determine if the statement is the truth or if it is a smoke screen designed to get rid of them. Example 17 ends up with unit 7. Salespeople close sales and at

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the same time try to maintain a great relationship with the buyer, because they want to sell to their present customers today, more tomorrow, and even more the day after that.

5.2

Grounds for Trust in Sales

Trust has often been defined in terms of the belief that someone or something is reliable, positive, effective, etc. (Crichton, 2013). It can be achieved in terms of the grounds for trust. According to Candlin and Crichton (2013), trust can be taken as a discursive practice. It is constructed discursively alongside with the trust grounds. This section discusses some grounds for trust in sales. 5.2.1

Be Ethical

Best and easiest ways to build persuasive powers with prospects are being honest and doing what salespeople say they will do. Honesty is the best policy, and it is an effective way to build trust. The salesperson should never claim more than the product can accomplish. Salespeople should handle their customers with unselfish and ethical service by telling the truth about what the product will do. Morally ethical is certainly someone who will be faithful in taking care of customers. Let us discuss this with Example 18, the case that the salesperson tries to sell so-called future food, Lab.

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Example 18 S: This is Lab, which is a future food that will innovate human life. C: Future food? This is my first time to see it, so is it safe? S: Start-up company named xx made this food. ➀ We are pretty sure that this is safe. YY strictly checked this food and concluded that this food has no problem in safety. ➁ You can say that it is from YY. C: A question about eating habit. If you just drink these, won’t you have any problem with your eating habits? And I think it will be bad for your teeth. And I have pulled wisdom teeth, isn’t that bad for the wounds? S: I am pretty sure that ➂ you’ll not eat Lab for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for one day, so you will not have any problem in safety. Also it is balanced in nutrition. In case of wisdom teeth, you don’t use teeth since it is beverage. So I’m convinced that it is better than any other food. It doesn’t even stimulate your scar. C: There are many kinds of color of bottles, but the tastes delicious as well? S: It is quite tasty. You can see that there are variety of bottles here. You can check it based on your own preference. Chocolate, Grenola yogurt, green tea cereal, sweet potato, uba milk tea… There should be one that you like. C: Well, for example, chocolate tastes like sweet, but it doesn’t taste like chocolate. ➃ I ate chocolate protein shakes before, but, I’m afraid it’s terribly awful. S: Of course, it is not exactly same, but it is still nice. You can see that ➄ grenola yogurt is out of stock. Do you think that awful food can be out of stock? C: I told you I ate protein shakes. When I first drank it, I had to wait a few minutes, and after an hour, my stomach was empty and I had to go to eat something. I eat twice and I get more time and I lose a lot of money. S: Lab makes you feel full, as if you eat nice meal. ➅ I drink it for lunch and you can see me explaining this food with great energy thanks to Lab. C: Oh, by the way, it looks like the bottle is only powdered, isn’t it a little expensive? If it is 3.5 dollars, I can go to cafeteria instead. Besides, the water is not free, how would I drink if there is no water? S: It is very rational price. It is future food so it is made of high technology. Also, ➆ it is pretty, tasty, healthy, high tech, awesome, and there are so many advantages. Also you can recycle this bottle since it looks good. Also you can get 10% discount if you upload it in your Instagram. Just hashtag Futurefood Lab your best choice ➇ It is awesome. Simple right? Also you can get some YY one point as well. So you can get almost 20% discount. It is very very economic. C: Ah… it is cheaper than I thought. Of course, I think hash tag is a little too much. But I feel like I’m running out of something. S: If you eat Lab you can care your skin and eat the meal at the same time. It is not over yet. It is only 300 kcal, so it is good for diet as well. Diet, skin care, and nutrient at the same time… it is only possible with Lab. C: You’re saying that it’s good for skin and diet. Despite most supplements I’ve eaten, eating fruit or vitamin C has often been more effective than supplements. S: You can get three main nutrient and 23 vitamins and mineral at the same time. ➈ It is much better than fruit or any other supplement. Note S: salesperson/C: customer

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The customer is not sure of the product’s safety as it is from a start-up company. The salesperson explains that the product is safe (➀ We are pretty sure that this is safe) as it is YY’s OEM product, so that it is YY product. However, this explanation is unlikely to fully establish credentials because the salesperson does not explain how much reliable start-up company it is. Also the customer thinks that it may not be healthy. The salesperson claims that the product is better than any other food due to its nutrition even without certain argument and reasoning (e.g. specific instances accepted by the audience, such as accurate statistics). This sales talk is not fully justified as the salesperson does not give concrete information but subjective evidence that is not neutral (e.g. ➆ it is pretty, tasty, healthy, high tech, awesome, and there are so many advantages, ➇ It is awesome, ➈ It is much better than fruit or any other supplement.). He also gives an answer to the customer about problems about eating habits, such as ➂ you’ll not eat Lab for …. Contrary to this talk, the salesperson himself drinks the product for lunch, as confessed in ➅ I drink it for lunch. Customer also worries about taste, since she could not drink “Protein Shake” due to odd taste (➃ I ate chocolate protein shakes before, but, I’m afraid it’s terribly awful.). The salesperson says that they have variety of taste, with no explanation of how good each taste is. He is in a hurry to justify good taste of the product with highlighting the fact that a particular taste product is out of stock (➄ grenola yogurt is out of stock. Do you think that awful food can be out of stock?). However, who knows it happens due to the failure of stock control. Salespeople should not be subjective but objective or relatively neutral for establishing credibility. They can provide scientific result of experiment to be objective on their sales presentation. Data should be the result of sufficient sample size, and correct gathering and processing of them. Salespeople can use sales data such as test market information and current sales data. Industrial salespeople use performance data and facts based on company research as proof of their product’s performance. Furthermore, proof furnished by reputable sources outside the company usually has more credibility than company-generated data. It must come from sources with experience or expertise in the area being discussed. For instance, pharmaceutical salespeople frequently tell physicians about medical research findings on their products published in leading medical

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journals by medical research authorities. Knowledge of firm usually helps salespeople project an expert image to the prospect. Company knowledge includes information about the history, firm’s development since its origin, policies, procedures, distribution systems, promotional activities, pricing practices, and technology that have guided the firm to its current position. All salespeople need to know the background and current operating policies of their companies (e.g. how an order is processed; how long it takes for orders to be filled; firm’s returned goods policy; how to open a new account; and what to do in the event of a shipping order). These policies are salespeople’s guidelines, and they must understand them to do their job effectively. The thing is that the policies must be open access information to the customer and should not be cryptic. In this respect, the salesperson in Example 19 seems losing credit from the customer. Example 19 is the case that the salesperson visits a customer to sell dairy products. Example 19 C; Isn’t xx drink from xx Yogurt as well? I had it before and went through a terrible stomachache. I suffered from it for a week! I called the manager to complain about it, but there weren’t any apology or compensation. S; Oh really…? Yeah… that is our product.. sorry for that, but we made it for the weak stomach! You don’t have to worry about the same problem. ➀ I already tried it and it was good. If you are more interested in health food, we have ginseng jelly and cheese cube as well! Okay… ➁ Don’t tell anybody. I’ll give you ginseng jelly or cheese cube if you sign it now! Note C: customer/S: salesperson

The salesperson’s response to the customer’s problem caused by one of his company’s products does not fully establish credentials in that his answer sounds rather subjective (➀ I already tried it and it was good). Some operating policy information in Example 19 (e.g. promotion gifts) seems suspicious as it sounds confidential information (➁ Don’t tell anybody). It is not sure if giving promotional gifts is exclusively for the particular customer or it is actually for general customers. Salespeople may need to avoid language that suggests not ethically binding promises. Giving promotional gifts should not link to the particular customer but to the particular period for promotional purposes.

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5.2.2

Be Professional

Because customers have many suppliers wanting to sell to them, they are impatient with salespeople who are unable to quickly demonstrate that they are knowledgeable business professionals. Salespeople need to know a significant amount of product’s information. Today’s salespeople need to be experts on a wide range of topics in order to be considered a business consultant by their customers. This requires information. What the seller should obtain is professional knowledge about sales product (knowledge about product [e.g. performance data; physical size and characteristics; how the product operates; specific features, advantages, and benefits of the product; how well the product is selling in the marketplace]). People are going to buy what the salespeople offer only if those things make a positive difference to them. They are going to contract for his/her services only if he/she somehow will improve their life or circumstances. And people are going to be far more inclined to share high-quality information with him/her if he/she shares some quality information with them. The requirement of professional knowledge is relevant to knowledge-based trust (Candlin & Crichton, 2013), trust based on the performance, knowledge, and proficiency or ability of others’ actions (e.g. experience, accomplishment, education, membership, and reputation). Let us exemplify knowledge-based trust with Example 20. The salesperson tries to sell the new xx smartphone to a customer that has only been using YY company’s products up until now. Example 20 S: The new xx phone has an ➀ infinity display. An infinity display means that it has end to end screen that takes the entire front of the phone. Also, look at this. The new xx phone has an updated ➁ foolproof security. Meaning that not only does it scan your fingerprint, but it also can scan your iris. C: Iris scanning? Does that mean the phone scans my iris in order to unlock the phone? S: Exactly! By the way did you know that we used the world’s first 10 ➂ nanometer processor? C: Nano…What? S: 10 nanometer processor. C: What’s that supposed to mean? (continued)

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(continued) S: Well, it means that you will be able to use a phone with one of the fastest performances in the world! What’s more, you can also get ➃ a wireless charger that comes with the phone. C: A wireless charger? So you wouldn’t be needing a cable for this phone? S: Yes, definitely. Also, this bit of technology contains a new personal assistant that completely changes the way you search! ➄ xx AI assistant! C: What’s so different from YY AI assistant? Isn’t it the same thing? S: Well, no. It’s much more than that. xx AI assistant provides you with a truly personal experience. You can even call it while you are in camera mode. C: Hmm… Interesting. But I still don’t feel like I will be using this over YY products. I have always been using YY products and I just don’t want to go through the trouble of adjusting to a new interface. Moreover, I really like YY’s designs and it feels like they provide a faster processing speed. S: In the past, that might have been the case. However, as I mentioned to you before, ➅ the new 10 nanometer processor has utterly changed the speed of the device. It’s easier, better and faster! C: Well… yeah that may be the case but I also use a YY computer and I think it will be easier to YY media player with an YY phone. I am not even sure if the new xx phone is compatible with my YY computer. S: Of course ➆ it’s compatible for the YY computer. It’s compatible with any other electronic devices. ➇ It’s even more convenient than the YY phone, because it instantly allows you to see its folders and files without having to go through xx media player. C: Wow, that is an advantaged compared to YY phone. I had always thought that using xx phone was a bit inefficient and I’d rather directly access my phone from the computer. But what about the explosion that happened with the new xx phone? Didn’t like all the phones explode and you guys had to retrieve them all back? I don’t really want to risk my life for this piece of metal! S: No worries! We realized that the battery we used last time was incompatible to long term usage and tried our best to produce an alternative. We really worked hard on this one, in order to recover from prior damages on our reputation. This time we not only fixed the explosion problem, but we also enhanced the quality of the battery so that it will be durable for a longer period of time. C: Was there any safety tests done on the phone? Because I wouldn’t be able to feel assured without any tests on that explosive bit of technology. S: Definitely! ➈ We conducted various tests on the new xx phone, and it had already passed the security test without any cases of explosion. ➉ Also, various youtubers have conducted all sorts of durability tests on the new xx phone and they have proven that it will not ignite. You can go see it anytime of Youtube. Note S: salesperson/C: customer

The salesperson in Example 20 describes the function of the new xx smartphone. The salesperson states that the new xx phone has faster

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processing speed than any other smartphones (➅ the new 10 nanometer processor has utterly changed the speed of the device). She claims that the new xx phone is definitely compatible with any other electronic devices (➆ it’s compatible for the YY computer. It’s compatible with any other electronic devices.) and it is actually more convenient than the YY phone because the customer does not have to use xx to YY media player (➇ It’s even more convenient than the YY phone, because it instantly allows you to see its folders and files without having to go through xx media player.). As specified in ➈ We conducted various tests on the new xx phone, and it had already passed the security test without any cases of explosion, the salesperson indicates that xx company has been trying to recover from their prior damage and has significantly improved the quality of battery compared to the previous xx phone. They had conducted various tests on the new xx phone, and it had already passed the security test without any cases of explosion. The salesperson also talks about how various Youtubers have conducted all sorts of durability tests on the new xx phone and they have proven that it will not ignite (➉ various youtubers have conducted all sorts of durability tests on the new xx phone and they have proven that it will not ignite.).

5.3

Some Factors Influencing the Buying Decision

Despite the considerable influence of grounds for trust on the consumer’s buying decision, there must be inevitable environments(s) to facilitate his or her decision to purchase item(s). Concretely speaking, attentive listening practices done by the salesperson try to see a prospect’s point of view. It may help the salesperson determine the prospect’s needs and match the product’s benefits to his or her needs for sales success. The salesperson also needs to give advice and/or solution to the customer facing some sort of problems which might be possible obstacles to sales. This section explicates all these things to see some selective factors influencing the customer’s buying decision. 5.3.1

Listening Attentively

Many of the barriers to communication can be overcome when the salespeople place themselves in the buyer’s shoes. As discussed in Chapter 3, empathy is the ability to identify and understand the other person’s feelings, ideas, and situation. It is evidenced by a salesperson’s display of

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sincerity and interest in the buyer’s situation. For this reason, listening is a communication skill critical to sales success. In traditional sales talk, the salesperson does 80 to 90 percent of the talking, only occasionally allowing the prospect to respond to predetermined questions. Many salespeople are so intent on talking that they forget to listen to what the prospect says. Salespeople often believe that their job is to talk rather than to listen. However, salespeople need to listen consciously to prospects so that they can give intelligent, meaningful answers that aid their prospects. Active listening refrains from evaluating the message and tries to see the other person’s point of view. Example 21 exemplifies the role of attentive listening in giving proper answers. It is the case that salesperson who is from xx company visits the prospect to introduce data driven marketing solution system. The café owner already used similar marketing service called “YY ID” which is a service for small businesses made by YY Talk in order to increase the number of regular customers. However, it did not help much. The café owner wanted more special service that differentiates from YY ID service. He is also afraid that he cannot make the best use of the service because he is ignorant when it comes to smartphone application. The instructions in the manual of “YY ID” were too complicated for him. Example 21 Unit

Talk

Function

1

S: Our company xx provides customer management solution which is called “xx point”. Based on this “xx point service”, we provide data driven marketing services such as “xx message” and “xx advertisment”. After launching service on April 2012, we are now the overwhelming leader company in this field. O: Actually, I haven’t heard about your company. I am just wondering how many people and stores are using your company’s service. S: The total number of our company’s client is about 10,000 stores so far, and the number of registered customers are about 12 million people. Based on these accomplishments, we also entered Japan market on May 2015. O: Wow, that is a lot more than I thought. What kind of solution do you guys provide? S: We offer total customer management service to solve problems that ordinary stores face.

Introduction

(continued)

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(continued) Unit

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Function

2

O: Oh, then actually I have a problem while running my café. I opened this cafe one year ago. But, the number of regular customers has very slowly increasing. Only a handful of them. Before starting this coffee business, I thought that decent quality of coffee would guarantee success. I guess that is not the only key for success. One-year after running this coffee shop, I learned a lesson that increasing the number of regular customers is a significant factor. Most customers end up being the first-time visitor. S: There are many restaurants and coffee shops that disappear all of sudden, no matter how good the products and services are. The biggest reason is because they didn’t manage their customers properly. Many managers even do not know who their regular customers are. Therefore, we offer the solution and it is “xx POINT”. “xx Point” is a web-based service that can manage customers with only a phone number. O: xx point. That is new to me. But I am afraid that I can’t make the best use of the service because I am ignorant when it comes to smartphone application or computers. I already used similar marketing service provided by YY Talk, which ended up as failure. I couldn’t find it useful. The instructions in the manual were too complicated for me. S: Using our service is very simple. First of all, our technical staff will directly install our company’s tablet in your store. And if the customer simply enters the phone number and some personal information on the tablet screen, their ID information and loyalty points will be automatically collected in our IT database. Therefore, shop owners do not have to spend money on buying customer loyalty coupons or stamps, and customers do not have to bring anything but just enjoy the service. It is convenient not only for the stores but also for customers. O: That sounds quite easy. Actually, many customers spend some time finding our store’s coupon out of a bunch of other coupons.

Prospect’s problem about maintaining the number of customers

3

A using method of the service

(continued)

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(continued) Unit

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Function

4

O: I have a question. Do you guys only provide the service that manages customers’ points? I guess if that’s the only service, it doesn’t appeal to me that much. S: You don’t need to worry about that. You can also get various marketing services as well. For example, you can send birthday coupons to the customers who have entered their personal information. Also, you can send new menu information and related promotions. Moreover, it is possible to send these through YY talk messages. It is because we are in a partnership with YY talk’s “YY ID’ since last September, which is a service for small businesses. O: Yeah. that YY talk YY ID. That’s the service that I used when I first opened this store. But that didn’t help. Is there any service you provide that differentiates from YY ID? I mean, when I used YY ID, it managed customers just like yours. They also sent free birthday coupons and a congratulatory message. If you guys provide the service that is just as good as YY ID, I think there is no need to use your service. S: We offer way better service than YY talk’s YY ID. We provide monthly report of marketing to our clients. We even analyze consumption patterns of the customers. This service will be a great solution to the small business owners. O: What kind of “optimized” marketing strategy do you offer? I need more details. S: Of course, sir. We send personalized messages to each type of customers based on our IT database. For example, we classify customers such as a VIP customer, a first-time customer, or a customer who haven’t visited for three months. And then, we apply different marketing strategies to each type of customers. After doing that, we provide monthly marketing report that analyzes the marketing effect of each strategy.

Type of services

(continued)

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(continued) Unit

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Function

5

O: That’s quite a lot. And I have one more question. Actually I asked YY ID for refund when their service proved not to be useful. But they just turned down my request giving ridiculous reasons. They said they cannot give refund because they do not have such regulations. It was really embarrassing to me, and I want to make sure that such kind of situation does not happen again. Do you guys provide refund when your service ends up as failure? S: Unlike the YY ID, we provide rewards for your failure. If your revenue doesn’t show increase more than 30% within 15 months, we will cover 70% of the total subscription fee of our service. This kind of policy exists because we are 100 percent confident with our service.

A matter of refund

Note O: owner of the café/S: salesperson

The salesperson tries to attentively listen to the potential customer by giving a turn priority to him for proper answers (i.e. how xx point fulfills exactly what he needs). It is of interest to see that each unit, excluding introductory unit 1, is led by the potential customer, owner of the café. The majority of turn-taking structure of Example 21 is the customersalesperson talk pair. After listening the customer’s opinions regarding his needs, the salesperson tries to give answers to meet the customer’s needs as follows. First of all, xx point is easy to use (unit 3). Xx’s technical staff installs the company’s tablet in his store. And if the customer simply enters the phone number on the tablet screen, their ID information and loyalty points will be automatically collected in their IT database. Therefore, the manager does not have to spend money on buying customer loyalty coupons or stamps, and customers do not have to carry anything but just enjoy the service. It is convenient not only for the store but also for the customers. Also, it provides other special services that “YY ID” does not provide (unit 4). For instance, xx provides monthly report of customer data marketing solution to clients. Xx even analyzes consumption patterns of the customers and sends personalized messages to each type of customers. Lastly, xx company also guarantees refund in case that the service does not help (unit 5). If the café’s revenue doesn’t show increase more than 30% within 15 months, it will cover 70% of the

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total subscription fee. Consequently, attentive listening is a prerequisite to determine precisely and then meet the prospect’s needs properly. 5.3.2

Meeting the prospect’s Needs

Since personal selling requires understanding human behavior, each salesperson must be concerned with a prospective customer’s motivation, perceptions, learning, attitudes, and personality. Human beings are motivated by needs and wants. People’s needs result from a lack of something desirable. Wants are needs learned by the person. Previous section illustrates that attentive listening helps the salesperson determine a prospect’s needs and then match the product’s benefits to the particular needs and wants of the prospect. Once salespeople determine the individual’s need, they are better prepared to develop their sales presentation in a manner relating their product’s benefits to that particular need. A most powerful selling technique used by successful salespeople is benefit selling (Upah, 2018). Purchase satisfaction comes from receiving benefits expected, or greater than expected, from a product. In benefit selling, the salesperson relates a product’s benefits to the customer’s needs using the product’s features (any physical characteristic of a product, such as size, terms, packaging, color, flavor, taste, shape, ingredients, technology), advantages (reason for benefit), such as how the product will help the buyer (➀ saving electricity fees in Example 22), and the performance characteristic of a product that describes how it can be used (➁ easy way for changing filter in Example 22).

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Example 22 C: The first thing to consider with any new appliance is the energy cost. I’m worried that the electrical bills will start to add up. S: That’s actually a very good point. We can proudly say that ➀ our product is so energy efficiently designed that it only cost 30 dollars a month in average even if you keep it on all month long. C: Well, that’s great. Umm because it’s my first time encountering this product, I don’t actually know how it operates. Like, for example, how do I clean it? Or change the filters? I’m really bad at dealing with any technology S: Only thing you have to do is to change the filter annually. What you need to do is simply put out the filter and put another new filter in it. ➁ As simple as that. It’s one-touch filter replacement system. Note C: customer/S: salesperson

A product benefit is a favorable result the buyer receives from the product because of a particular advantage that has the ability to satisfy a buyer’s need. While the salesperson’s chances of helping the customer increase when the salesperson discusses both the feature and the advantages of the salesperson’s product, the salesperson must learn how to stress product benefits that are important to the prospect in the salesperson’s presentation. Let us extend this discussion with Example 23, the case that salesperson wants to sell an air purifier to a random customer, a housewife. A buyer’s reactions to the salesperson in the early minutes of the sales presentation are critical to a successful sale. First few minutes of the interview should be constructed to determine the prospect’s need, capture attention and interest, and allow for a smooth transition into the presentation. Questions are the most common openers because they allow the salesperson to better determine the prospect’s needs and encourage the prospect to participate in the sales interview (➀ You have kids?, ➁ Your kids’ symptoms got worse recently when the yellow dust came?). Customer is a housewife, and she has some interest in the air purifier product since her children started to show some symptoms caused by pollutants in the air.

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Example 23 S: We are from xx electronics air purifier promotion team. If you are not busy and if you do not wear mask inside your home, I’d like to introduce our product. C: I don’t think I’ll have enough time. My kids would be back from school in about 15 mins, and I need to prepare something to eat. S: Oh ➀ You have kids? Then, could you spare a minute for me please? Cuz our product is really good for the children. Especially, if your kids have any issues in respiratory system or have allergy, our product really helps. I mean, I have kids and I got the air purifier at my home. Their stuffy nose just gone. They had to breathe through their mouth particularly when a dusty day like today. But they got much better so if you like, we can measure the air quality of your kids’ room for free. Just give it a try ma’am. C: Thank you for your offer, but I don’t think I can let you in. Anyway if you don’t mind may I ask you a question? You see, these days my children are coughing very often but I don’t think it is a cold. Does this have anything to do with air quality? S: Oh ma’am. ➁ Your kids’ symptoms got worse recently when the yellow dust came? C: Definitely yes. That’s something I’ve been concerned about. S: Yeah right. These days, an increasing amount of fine dust and ultrafine dust seems to cause coughing or allergic reaction to those who have a weak immune system like children or senior citizens. C: Hmm. But does purchasing an air purifier really help? I read some articles stating that air purifiers are not effective as advertised. It stated that medical experts agree that these machines could provide people with clean air, but whether air purifiers actually help in controlling the respiratory problems is unsure S: On the contrary, less dust, less health issue. Very simple math. Do you know after you clean the room or cook at home and if you don’t open the windows because of the yellow dust, don’t be surprised, your house comes to have worse air quality than the dusty outside. More than 200 microgram per cubic meter of fine dust travel around all over your home. But you don’t want to ventilate in dusty days. What a dilemma isn’t it?. ➂ What’s special about this product is the sensor that detects the very fine dust less than 1.0 nanometer. These very very small particles can break through your respiratory system and stick to your surfaces of lungs, which is very detrimental to your health, and to your kids’ health. That’s why these days a lot of housewives are eager to purchase our products. Two weeks ago, xx TV reported air purifiers are sold like hot cakes. C: Are you sure? Ok, then I could spend some time seeing some of the products S: Yeah this is SP5C model. This product can push the purifed air to every corner of 120m2 house. And this is our brand new model. It is now almost out of stock. C: Hmm.. But I think the price is too expensive. And as you can see, my house is small so covering 120m2 of the house is not very appealing to me S: Oh yeah? May I ask what price you are willing to pay for? C: I don’t know, maybe about 400 dollars maximum S: Oh I see then I’d like to show you our best selling model. It costs 400 dollars. It’s housewives’ favorite. (continued)

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(continued) C: Hmm, okay.. like what I’ve told you, my children were coughing these days so I was actually thinking of purchasing the air purifier. So I in fact searched through the internet and found that the brand “YY” has similar product that costs for about 350 dollars. Also the website said they would give a kitchen’s set as a service S: Oh ma’am you know this old saying. “You get what you pay for.” Its intuitive display system, and its user-friendly manual, or its powerful filters. And its unique 360 degree cylindrical design that makes it possible for this product to circulate the air all over your place. Let alone our nation-wide after service system. ➃ YY’s small number of Service centers will only make you uncomfortable. ➄ YY’s filter was also reported by multiple media to have Octa eerie soci Acolon which is toxic substance. xx’s top priority is your safety. So we put our best efforts to making top quality product for your health. Considering these all, a difference of what 50 dollars is a penny for the product that you will use for next ten years. C: Let’s be honest. Isn’t there like a discount or something? S: I’ve been being honest with you all the time ma’am. Well as I told you, this is 400 dollars, but ➅ our promotion ends at the end of the month, so if you make up your mind within 3 days, you can get extra 10% discount on the product. I’ve worked as salesman for 4 years but this huge discount has never existed. Just buy and you can use it like for more than 10 years with our special 10 years product warranty. Note S: salesperson/C: customer

The salesperson appeals to the customer in three different aspects. First of all, he emphasizes the importance of the product in terms of health. Since the product gets rid of fine dust in the air, it can reduce the danger of being affected by those harmful substances (➂ What’s special about this product is the sensor that detects the very fine dust less than 1.0 nanometer). Second, salesperson also needs to know what his competitor is doing in each of these areas. Today’s successful salespeople understand their competitors’ products, policies, and practices as well as their own. It is because it is common for a buyer to ask a salesperson, “How does the salesperson’s product compare to the one the prospect is currently using” If unable to confidently answer such as question, a salesperson will lose ground in selling. A salesperson needs to prepare to discuss product features, advantages, and benefits in comparison to other products and confidently show why the salesperson’s product will fulfill the buyer’s needs better than competing products. In Example 23, the salesperson highlights its distinctive feature comparing to another company’s product. He naturally promotes its brand, while talking about YY’s small number

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of service centers (➃ YY’s small number of Service centers will only make you uncomfortable) and criticizing the unsavory issue of YY, in which the reports had it that the filter of YY had toxic substance in it last year (➄ YY’s filter was also reported by multiple media to have Octa eerie soci Acolon which is toxic substance). Third, economic needs are the buyer’s need to purchase the most satisfying product for the money. Since product price often is critical to customers, it is an important part of the marketing mix. Companies develop varied pricing techniques and methods for their salespeople. They offer customers various types of discounts from normal prices to entice them to buy. It is important for salespeople to familiarize themselves with the company’s price, discount, and credit policies so that they can use them as a competitive advantage and enhance their professional image with the buyer. In Example 23, the salesperson informs the customer of the limited promotion period and by presenting extra 10% discount the salesperson tries to attract the customer (➅ our promotion ends at the end of the month, so if you make up your mind within 3 days, you can get extra 10% discount on the product ). 5.3.3

Managing Rhetorical Barriers

The salesperson plays an act as a consultant who can give advice and/or solution to the customer facing some sort of problems which might be possible obstacles or barriers to sales. Rowland (2008) names the barriers or obstacles a rhetorical barrier. He defined a rhetorical barrier as “an attitude, belief or other problem that a rhetor must overcome in order to persuade an audience to accept a given position” (p. 42). He argued that a barrier may be related to the audience, the situation, the occasion, or the reputation of the rhetor. Example 24 illustrates that the salesperson’s proper management of rhetorical barriers is required with feasible solutions the prospect can use to overcome the barriers. Despite the fact that the customer wants to change her phone, she cannot because she has a 2 year contract with the present smartphone company that ends in 3 months. A 2-year contract with the present smartphone company causing penalty charge is a rhetorical barrier. The salesperson advises the

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customer to sell her unused phone, which will cover up for 3 months’ expense. Example 24 C: That’s actually not a bad deal. But I have a 2 year contract that ends in 3 months. I do not think I can change my phone during that period, because I will have to pay for the penalty charge. What should I do? S: You don’t have to worry at all. If you sell me your unused phone, I will give compensation for it. And by doing so, it will cover up for the penalty charges. C: How much do you think I can get for this xx phone? S: I’ll look it up right now. Can you give me your xx phone so that I can check its condition and send a photo to the head office? C: Thank you that will be perfect. S: (Takes a photo of the camera and sends it to the head office) This can be given a rate of… at the most 450 dollars. Will that be ok? C: Yeah it’s pretty old and I didn’t think that I would be able to sell it at such a high price. S: And your penalty charge will be about 150 dollars. So, you will get to keep the remaining 300 dollars. Note C: customer/S: salesperson

At times, most buyers have fears about risks associated with buying a product—they are afraid that the product will not do what the salesperson says it will do, or that the product is not worth either the time or energy required to use it or the actual cost. The customer with this kind of concern might give the salespeople caution signals, which are visible or invisible signals of rhetorical barriers. Caution signals should alert that buyers are either neutral or skeptical toward what the salesperson says (Futrell, 2013). Caution signals are important for the salesperson to recognize and adjust to. They indicate blocked communication, so that buyer’s perceptions, attitudes, and beliefs regarding sales presentation may cause them to be skeptical, judgmental, or uninterested in product. Let us discuss caution signals with Example 25. It is a case that the salesperson introduces home CCTV service to the prospect.

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Example 25 Unit

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S: I would like to introduce you something, that would probably change your opinion. Our company manufacture and provide customers with a service of the modern CCTV camera system. Comparing to the common CCTV our camera is very light and has stylish modern design and you can simply install it by yourself on any surface. C: ➀ So I can only put them on flat floors. Aren’t CCTVs usually attached close to the ceiling? S: Yes, but it’s not necessary. You can put camera wherever is comfortable for you. As well, the camera has a magnetic side, which allows you to place it on any metal surface. C: ➁ I assume the camera has only the recording function. What’s the use of it if anything happens when I’m not at home. Will I be able to check the recorded video only after I come back? S: Well, you don’t have to worry about that, since our product is linked to a mobile application, through which you can check the real-time video just with your phone. As well, the camera has a warning alarm, which would announce you in case something happens and also you can set the automatic call, which will report the police about a robber getting into the apartment C: I know this kind of services…➂ They never help. Few weeks ago our neighbours, who also had CCTV cameras were robbed and by the time when police came the thief left the house already. Moreover, he’d damaged the camera, so there was no evidence and totally no use of it. In the end they couldn’t find out who invaded their house and there was no clue from camera, as it was broken and all the videos disappeared. S: I’m really sorry for your neighbour, but that kind of situation would never happen if he’d used our company. As this kind of cases are quite common, we’ve created an extra service, which uploads all the filmed videos to the Cloud, so the user can get access to them any time, just using his own account with nickname and password, even if the camera is damaged or it doesn’t work.

Caution signals

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(continued) Unit

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C: Hmm..➃ A cloud service seems like a good idea, as it may be really helpful and effective for finding the suspect. However, I’m worried about my privacy and my private data. As the video uploads online, wouldn’t other people have access to it? The internet usually doesn’t have private information and whichever data can be easily reached by hackers. S: Our system has few levels of protection, which provides full security for your personal information. All you need to do is to install a special application, which would automatically pair with your camera account and protect the data from your camera and the cloud. C: Alright… ➄ I’m starting to believe you. Another thing I’m worried about: do I need to activate this every time I go in and out of the house? I might forget turning it off when I leave home, and the alarm will go on when I come back, even though I am the one who’s living here. S: I was just about to tell you another advantage of our service! The camera is installed with a unique facial recognition system, so you can simply “register” yourself and the alarm would only work in case it’s not you. C: Oh, then am I able to add other members of my family as well? I mean, I don’t live alone. Won’t the camera misrecognize my daughters or my husband as a thief when they open the door? S: For sure we’ve thought of that! You can add as many people as you want to the recognition system data, as your family members, friends or maids. It will recognize their face and won’t send any warning or call to police. Moreover, you don’t need to have an extra key or password to activate or deactivate the system. It simply does it by itself, which makes the service really simple and user-friendly. C: I see… If I got it right, should the camera be facing the door in order to recognize the face? Something can happen outside the sight of the camera, no matter how wide it is. Will it be able to film everything happening in the room? Other companies say they have 100, 130 degrees of angles in their cameras, but it means the other side of the angle can’t be recorded. S: Just for this reason we have a wide range of choice in terms of the filming angle range. Depending on your needs you can choose the camera from 130 up to 360 degrees of the filming range. Have you ever used cameras with an angle wider than 180?

Acceptance signals

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C: Well, I’ve heard of cameras for extreme sports, like ski or skateboarding, that film you and the surrounding in 360 degrees, but I’ve never seen those as a CCTV camera. ➅ You’ve almost convinced me to buy it, but I don’t want to buy additional cameras separately. S: If you are worried about other empty rooms rather than the living room, we have a special set, which includes 3 cameras. You can install them in your room, your children’s room, or anywhere else you would like to. C: Um… I think one will be enough. ➆ It’ll be too pricy for me to handle more than two. Also, ➇ I’m not sure if I can need it for a long time, as we are moving out soon.

Disagreement signals

Note S: salesperson/C: customer

Customer’s talk implies caution signals from the beginning of the sales talk. Namely, she is skeptical or uninterested in the product, as emphases are given on the product’s limitation in unit 1 (i.e. ➀ So I can only put them on flat floors, ➁ I assume the camera has only the recording function) and negations are emphasized back to the salesperson (➂ They never help…there was no evidence and totally no use of it … they couldn’t… there was no clue…). Salesperson’s management on the caution signals has changed caution signals into acceptance signals in unit 2 (➃ A cloud service seems like a good idea, ➄ I’m starting to believe you, ➅ You’ve almost convinced me to buy it ). Nevertheless, disagreement signals are suddenly evolved in unit 3, so that they cause a communication breakdown and make a sale difficult. This example illustrates that objections frequently arise near the end of the sales presentation (e.g. the money objection encompassing an economic excuse in ➆ It’ll be too pricy for me to handle more than two; the no-need objection in ➇ I’m not sure if I can need it for a long time, as we are moving out soon).

5.4

Exercise

1. Review the role of grounds for trust in making sales presentation successful. 2. Explain how attentive and/or cognitive empathy serves the function to determine and meet the prospect’s needs.

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References Bhatia, V. (1993). Analysing genre: Language use in professional settings. Longman. Candlin, C. N., & Crichton, J. (Eds.). (2013). Discourse of trust. Palgrave Macmillan. Crichton, J. (2013). ‘Will there be flowers shoved at me?’ A study in organizational trust, moral order and professional integrity. In C. Candlin & J. Crichton (Eds.), Discourse of trust (pp. 119–132). Palgrave Macmillan. Futrell, C. (2013). Fundamentals of selling: Customers for life though service. McGraw-Hill Education. Rowland, R. C. (2008). Analyzing rhetoric: A handbook for the informed citizen in a new millennium. Kendall Hunt Publishing Company. Swales, J. M. (1990). Genre analysis: English in academic and research settings. Cambridge University Press. Upah, G. (2018). Sales talks: Six Secrets to winning presentations, effective closes, and think-on-your-feet tactics that seal deals. Beaver’s Pond Press.

CHAPTER 6

Job Recruitment Talk

Abstract This chapter illustrates that hallmark of job recruitment talk is adjacency pairs placing corporate information and job recruitment information one after another. Overall purpose of job recruitment talk is to attract potential job applicants and to make them apply the job recruiter’s company as many as possible. Nevertheless, this chapter claims that corporate information is of essential importance to achieve the goal. It is because the information comprising corporate social responsibility, sustainability, and corporate values provides clues to job applicants for how they identify with the target company. Keywords Job recruitment · PR communication · Code of conduct

This chapter sheds light on the use of language features as tools for managing job recruitment. It deals with nature of public relations communication articulated in the different codes of conduct for a promotional genre (i.e. job recruitment talk). It suggests linguistic code of conducts that senior managers highlight when formulating PR messages for stakeholders (potential job applicants, in particular) and illustrates what language features might senior manager consider to initiate and guide corporate activities. It aims to help audiences of the job recruitment genre make sense of some organizational behaviors and words, which © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 Y. Jung, Sociolinguistics and Business Talk, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-0051-8_6

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can be manipulated and shaped from corporate codes of conduct. Before embarking investigation of individual code of conduct, the next section illustrates paragraph convention of job recruitment talk.

6.1 Paragraph Convention of Job Recruitment Talk Job recruitment genre is generally composed of four parts: selfintroduction, corporate information, job recruitment information, and Q&A. As illustrated in the following example, job recruitment talk from a media organization posts talks online for free distribution. In Example 26, self-introduction precedes corporate information, which includes ➀ mission, ➁ history, and ➂ types of business. Recruitment information follows the corporate information. It is composed of ➃ applicant’s capability, ➄ recruiting position, and ➅ recruiting process. Example 26 ends up with Q&A session in unit 4. Two compulsory units in job recruitment talk, corporate information and job recruitment information, are adjacent pairs, so that they must go side by side. First, corporate information unit is concrete information about a company. Nevertheless, it is also groundwork to justify why a corporate communicator encourages audience to work together with his/her company (i.e. highlighting company’s positive image or high reputation). Next section discusses how senior managers justify their recruitment by using which languages. It highlights types of management language used to attract job applicants placed right before giving them concrete information about job recruitment. Example 26 Unit

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We are here to introduce our brand and explain how we recruit our new employees. I am brand manager xx and this is xx, head of human resources department.

Self-introduction

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➀ Does anybody know what our company’s mission is? Information about company Right. “Spread idea.” xx is a nonprofit organization which is devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of powerful, short, around 18 mins more or less, talks. We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives, and, ultimately, the world. ➁ xx was born in 1988 out of xx’s observation of a powerful convergence among entertainment, design and technology. The first xx included a demo of the compact disc, the e-book and cutting-edge 3D graphics from xx film, which lost a lot of money. However, from 1995, the world was ready and xx conference became an annual event in xx. It attracted a growing and influential audience from many different disciplines united by their curiosity and open-mindedness. ➂ Here’s our business line now. First, xx conference. Yeap. This is the basic, main business of xx. At xx Conferences, speakers appear on the main stage to give 18-minute talks and shorter presentations, including music, performance, and comedy. xx Translators. The xx Translator program invites volunteers worldwide to subtitle xx Talks. Now, over 20,000 volunteers have created more than 90,000 translations in more than 100 languages. And xx Books! That’s what I am immersed in now. xx Books are long enough to explore a powerful idea, but short enough to read in a single sitting. xx Books are original titles that pick up where xx Talks leave off. The last one! xx residency. The xx Residency program is an incubator for breakthrough ideas. It is free and open to all via a semiannual competitive application. Those who are chosen as xx Residents will spend fourteen weeks at xx headquarters in xx, working on their ideas. Finally, they will develop a xx talk and appear on a xx stage. So, that was brief explanation of our business, of course we have many other business line, so if you need more information about that, you can visit our website or ask a question in Q&A session. So, that’s all I prepared. Now I hand over to my partner, xx. She will give a talk about job recruitment. (continued)

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(continued) Unit

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Function

3

Information about job ➃ Hello, I am xx from the personnel management recruitment department. I’ve been to many recruitment fairs, and the questions from students were similar such as “Am I able to enter your company?” or “What kind of person can join your company?” To answer these questions, I prepared 3 major features of our xx’s employees. First feature is being an open minded person. Since we get to meet various kind of people with various kind of thoughts and perceptions while preparing for conferences, this is a very crucial virtue. Second, we seek for people who like to share your ideas to others. If one is fluent and interested in sharing his/her thoughts, that person will be able to be in the presenter’s shoes and think what they would need in their perception. Lastly, curiosity. We believe that anyone has valuable ideas, and someone who is curious will have a higher chance in catching the blur ideas floating around him/her. ➄ There are 3 positions we recruit this half of the year, curation/editorial team, distribution team, and video team. As a part of the Content and Editorial Team, you help to make sure that xx’s conferences run seamlessly by working with curators and speakers to ensure a fun experience for all. You wrangle the calendars and essentially run the lives of xx’s content director and editorial director by planning and schedule meetings. You act as the point person for collaboration with other departments at xx to keep schedules, workflow, and projects organized. The xx Global Distribution & Licensing team develops media partnerships, editorial programs, and educational products that make xx’s content accessible to diverse audiences around the world in collaboration with leading internet, television, radio, and publishing companies. You need a strong, working understanding of online video, online publishing, mobile applications, and new media platforms for digital content distribution purposes. We are also looking for a motion graphics designer. This role is a part of our Media team, working on projects that include motion graphics and animation support for social media videos, digital products, campaigns, and general needs. This role will be responsible for developing and executing animation and motion graphics for videos on all key distribution channels. Working closely with our Format Development, Social Media and Design teams, this animator will support a variety of digital products, helping oversee each project through to its completion. (continued)

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(continued) Unit

4

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Function

➅ Now, it’s time for information that you’ve most wanted: How to apply. We only have 3 steps, which are very simple. If you visit our website, you are able to apply in each team you want to; first you have to submit a resume with your personal information. You are able to add your portfolio or other materials if you need to. We will individually contact the ones who have passed the application review process. Next step is having an interview for an hour with the managers of each team you have applied for. The successful applicant from this step will support each team for 2 months and your final acceptance status will be decided based on your performance. Well, this is everything we’ve prepared today. If there Q&A are any further questions, we will be willing to answer them now. Thank you for listening.

6.2

Keyword-Based Management Language

Organizations enter situations with a preexisting reputation that may make persuasion or promotion easier (e.g. marketing). Audiences may have developed beliefs and attitudes about the reputation of a particular organization that can make it easier for the speaker to persuade the audience. The complex nature of organizational credibility is explained in part by calculus-based trust, trust based on the ongoing calculability of others’ behavior (e.g. identity, values, beliefs, and goals) (Crichton, 2013). This claim is exemplified with the use of the eclectic management languages. This section illustrates that textual features related to corporate code of conduct and rhetorical action for fulfilling organizational goals are involving keyword-based management languages. It explicates companies’ codes of conduct generally illustrated by corporate value, corporate philosophy, business and/or management principle, and corporate vision through job recruitment talk. The complexity of management’s concerns and its language choice to articulate the concerns are expected to tell us each company’s exclusive keyword-based management language. Data of the study commonly include corporate social responsibility, sustainability, and corporate value as examples of keyword-based management language.

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6.2.1

Corporate Social Responsibility

An organization must demonstrate that it operates as a responsible member of the larger community. This component is similar to the traditional rhetorical concepts of character and goodwill. Hearit (1995) explains that “a corporation’s actions must be ethically defensible; that is, its acts must demonstrate responsibility, create trust, and be legal” (p. 3). Investigating in the community and supporting local organizations can set a business brand apart from the rest. Organization might identify appeals designed to create community by looking for claims about the charitable activities of the organization, or arguments that show that community members trust the organization. This claim is closely related to the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR). In Example 27, a cosmetic company claims that it is an eco-friendly company and introduces its corporate social initiatives to save the earth and make a better environment, such as using eco-packaging, putting the ingredient information directly on the package for saving paper, continuing campaign about ecology of wetlands, launching a product using mango, donating some part of profits for volunteering groups and mango seedlings to locals to improve their quality of life.

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Example 27 We pursue eco-philosophy that we created. We use credible organic ingredients. We use eco-package that is recyclable, and to save more paper, we put the ingredient information directly on the package that is made out of paper. We try to help make a better environment. Since one of our goals is to make a better environment, we do several events annually. For example, we continue a campaign called “Love the Earth” to celebrate Earth Day which is on April 22nd. We try to make sure that people realize the importance of ecology of wetlands. We donate a certain percentage of our profits for volunteering groups for ecology of wetlands. Also, we process activities for CSV, which stands for Creating Social Value. This is called “Love the Earth” campaign. In 2013, we launched a product using mango. From then on, every December, we donated mango seedlings in xx. This helps xx girls to improve their quality of life by gathering in mangos and selling them.

6.2.2

Sustainability

An organization must demonstrate that it can accomplish its goals— that it can produce a product or deliver a service that meets societal standards. When examining a piece of organizational communication, a speaker appeals to competence by identifying statements that claim that an organization’s products or services are safe or effective, or that vouch for the financial stability of the company. This claim might link to the value of research & development, which is the heart of a company’s activity that is concerned with applying the results of scientific research to create or develop new products and improve and/or update existing ones in highlighting corporate sustainability. Let us examine this claim with Example 28, PR talk of newly made company dedicated to making fun video contents.

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Example 28 We squeeze daily-life story into only 48 seconds video in a very creative and fun way. It’s a very compact and sophisticated video. We put more than 60 shots in less than 1 minute episode. It was a very new format in the market. And as a result, this format was able to catch a huge popularity across all the video platform service companies such as xx, xx, xx, etc. Our popular videos in average have millions of views per video. After our first success, we were able ➀ to collaborate with large companies such as xx, xx, xx among others, sometimes featuring top tv stars such as xx. Through collaborating with big companies, sticking to our mission was not really easy. We sometimes almost had to give up our principle because advertisers preferred to sacrifice fun over meaning. For example, when we had a business with xx, xx was reluctant to have self-deprecating elements in the advertisement video. They wanted us to make something conventional, and safe. But we didn’t step back. We managed to convince the advertising practitioner, and successfully presented our project to the market. And the result? Our video went really viral with more than 3 million views recorded at xx. And according to the report, 99% people showed very positive responses to the video. Now we’re settling in the Korea market. We’re securing various profit making channels. Not only do we collaborate with companies, but ➁ we’ve made partnerships with xx TV, xx TV, and xx Telecom based video platform xx, to which we also sell our advertisements. And we also ➂ got 2 million dollar investment last year. But we aim higher. We are gearing up to become Korea’s Disney. Let alone the domestic market, in the Korean wave, our globalization is successfully underway. ➃ We are now about to make Chinese version of 48 seconds video as a part of our localization strategy. We are a very young company. That means there’s much room for us to grow. And we’d like to grow up with you guys. Through a lot of projects we do that others never do, you will be able to face good challenges where you can learn essential skills to become a successful marketer or creative media content maker, whatever position it is. And in the recognition of our potential, this year ➄ more than 1000 people applied for our company though we’re 50 people company.

A corporate communicator of the above example tends to emphasize his company’s sustainability in terms of its achievements, including ➀ collaboration with large companies, ➁ partnership with major video platform, ➂ huge investment success, ➃ global marketing, and ➄ total number of job applicants. 6.2.3

Corporate Values

Values are generally agreed-upon ideas of what is right or wrong or good and bad in a society. Value appeals in organizational communication are often statements meant to demonstrate that the values of the

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organization align with the values of the audience or society in general. Bostdorff and Vibbert (1994) have paid particular attention to how values are used in organizational communication. After studying many organizational messages, they concluded that organizations use a practice called values advocacy in much of their rhetoric. They advocate the claim that values accomplish one of three goals. First, appeals to values may be used to enhance the image of the organization. By referencing things that are viewed by the audience as good or right, organizational communicators can create positive overall thoughts about the organization. Second, appeals to values may be able to help minimize the impact of criticism or an organization. Finally, appeals to values may be used to help prepare audiences to accept future arguments about policy issues. The following examples highlight few common corporate values such as people (➀, ➁, ➂, ➃ in Example 29) and best/excellence (➀, ➁, ➂ in Example 30). Example 29 A lot of people ask what is the secret of our success? I think, it is quite simple. Our company focuses on ➀ providing great environment for people. Moreover, we ➁ take care not only of our customers, we also work hard on ➂ providing a pleasant atmosphere among our employees. We consider all our employees and treat them as our big family. We think, teamwork is really important, so ➃ to make people closer and friendlier we create the events outside of the office, like group exercise or bowling nights.

Example 30 We are ➀ providing best food and service quality. We make our tacos only from fresh ingredients and do neither use any artificial flavors nor pre-cooked materials. As well, we make ➁ our best to create space for our customers, where they can enjoy their time with their loved ones and share the precious moments of their life with us. xx slogan is “Eat. Drink. Chill.” Our mark, a red flame, represents bright Mexican culture mixing with hot Korean, as some of our ➂ best dishes were inspired by Korean cuisine.

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6.3

The Notion of Identification

Some management languages illustrated above (e.g. corporate values) might be connotated information about selection criteria among job applicants, as they are likely to be signals to show how the applicant suits model person of the organization. Both corporate needs and values are related to the concept of identification. People who are highly identified with an organization are more likely to make decisions that benefit that organization (Tompkins & Cheney, 1985). Even people who are not currently employed may identify with an organization, so corporate communicators directing messages to external audiences also try to invite identification (Cheney, 1983). Individuals are more likely to identify with an organization that aligns itself with goals, values, and ideals similar to their own. Cheney (1983) found that organization expressed concern for individuals in the organization, recognized the work of specific individuals, advocated shared values, promoted benefits and activities provided by the organization, quoted outsiders who had praised the organization, and provided testimonials by employees speaking positively about the organization. Appeals to needs, values, and identification are all strategies that may create an emotional response in the audience, and thus move them to modify their thoughts, feelings, and ultimately behavior toward an organization. Organizations often try to “homogenize” the type of people they hire (Conrad & Poole, 2012: 47). If employees are as similar as possible, they are more likely to understand one another and work together easily. Corporations tend to accommodate soon-to-be employees to the norms of their organizations. It is because organizations’ impetus for homogenization is the desire of management to increase certainty, so that there will be less need for employee-relation management and the organization will operate more effectively. This might be the reason why scholars contend that one of the most influential factors that takes place in determining organizational attraction is person-organization fit (POF) (Backhaus & Tikoo, 2004; Gardner et al., 2012). Person-organization fit is the congruence between individual values and organizational values (Krisof-Brown et al., 2005). When employees’ values are in tune with organizational values, they have a tendency to have more positive attitudes toward the organization. This might be the primary reason for the

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explanation of corporate mission and philosophy in job recruitment talk. Example 31 supports the claim. Example 31 Unit

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1

xx has a set of standards or even morals as you will that Corporate philosophy we stand for proudly. One might even call it our philosophy. It can be ➀ categorized as 10 ideals we hold holy. The first being “Focus on the user and all else will follow”, indicates that we do our absolute best to give the user the best possible experience using our services. Number 2 “It’s best to do one thing really really well”, so focus your energy efficiently and stay focused. Number 3 “Fast is better than slow. Number 4 “Democracy on the web works”, xx actually relies on over 200 signals to determine which results to show before others. Number 5 “You don’t need to be at your desk to need an answer”, this advocates unlimited availability pretty much everywhere on the globe on every electronic device out there. Number 6 “You can make money without doing evil”. This refers to our advertising strategies. We don’t want to burden our users so we never had pop-up ads, the ads we do show are always relevant to the query and they are always simple and clearly identified. Number 7 “There is always more info out there” we are working constantly to obtain all new relevant info and supply it to our users. Number 8 “The need for information crosses all borders”, number 9 “You can be serious without a suit and lastly number 10 “Great, just isn’t good enough”. At xx, we’re helping ➁ to bring xx’s tech enthusiasm to Mission the rest of the world. We’ve developed products like xx with local users in mind, but also made global impacts through products like xx TV. Our sales teams help advertisers utilize rising ad platforms like xx and xx, and grow with xx by reaching international clients

2

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(continued)

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(continued) Unit

Talk

Function

3

After that little self-intro, I now move on to the main Recruitment position reason for our visit today. We, xx, are looking to hire some of you guys! We have openings at the Marketing & Communications division and we are looking for young fresh minds to collaborate with. The division represents a creative group ranging from event planners and designers to statisticians and analysts, our Marketing and Communications teams live by the ➂ 10 philosophies introduced today. We make sure that xx uphold every promise it makes to their users. Others pitch journalists, develop brand materials, tell compelling stories, and tackle complex business issues. Together, ➃ we define how people interact with technology and shape the perception of xx around the globe.

In Example 31, the corporate communicator describes his company’s philosophy (➀) and mission (➁), which are subordinated to the job recruitment information illustrated in unit 3. He claims that 10 ideas comprising corporate philosophy are of essential for job applicants to adapt to the company (➂). Furthermore, job descriptions are broadly made (➃) based on corporate mission, ➁.

6.4

The Function of Benefits in Job Recruitment Talk

Information about job recruitment talk is persuasive communication. Corporate communicators emphasize a variety of benefits in giving information about job recruitment to attract good human resources. They maximize benefit to the audience by noticing or emphasizing his/her wants or needs (Locker, 1994). They highlight audiences’ want to know how they benefit and motivate through audience benefits, by highlighting “what is in it for them?”, for example, tangible/intangible benefits (e.g. medical insurance, gym-pass, housing, day-off on national holiday, supporting worker’s self-growth and development in Example 32; inhouse kindergarten, paid vacation every 5 years, tuition support, global work opportunities in Example 33).

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Example 32 We try to take care of everybody individually and there are certain benefits xx employees receive. First of all, working in xx team you will get the medical insurance, also we will pay for your gym-pass or we can provide you with housing. As well, comparing to most of other restaurants in Korea, we don’t open on national holidays, so you can have day-off and spend the precious time with your family. Moreover, in xx we support self-growth and development of every worker. You can try working in another department or even invest your idea or start your own project inside our company.

Example 33 We provide the best benefit package in the industry. For example, we run a company kindergarten so many of the employees come to work with their children and drop their kids to the kindergarten. Moreover, we get a month of paid vacation every 5 years and xx is the only company that provides this kind of benefit. Therefore, xx has the lowest turnover rate in the industry. Not only being the overwhelming leader company in the e-commerce market, but also xx is famous for providing fantastic working environment. We operate programs for our employees to develop the world-class e-commerce talents. For example, we support employee’s graduate school fees. And we also offer global opportunities to the high-performing employees.

6.5

Using You in Job Recruitment Talk

Using you is highly context-sensitive. On the one hand, you can play a role in illustrating that the speaker values the hearer. The use of you demonstrates a method to highlight that the speaker orients to the hearer. Using you is tactical in this situation, as it serves a function to give priority to the hearer, in terms of its onset placement. This is an exceptional case running counter to self-effacing professional communication (see Jung [2017] for self-effacement genre). The speaker should avoid talking about what he/she is giving or doing to an audience (e.g. We will assign such as such jobs for you). Instead, he/she emphasizes how the audience’s expectations are met by him/her to show that he/she values the audience preferably with you subject. This is you-attitude, taking things from the audience’s perspective. It is of interest to see the heavy use of “you” in the description of recruitment information, potential role of new employees,

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and screening procedure of job applicants (➀, ➁, ➂, ➃, ➄, ➅ in Example 34; ➀, ➁, ➂, ➃, ➄, ➅, ➆, ➇ in Example 35). Example 34 We today are specifically looking for International marketing managers. As a member of the Executive Communications team, ➀ you will be part of an exclusively selected team which works towards producing employee communications and events for xx executives. ➁ You will work with members of your internal client team on communications initiatives, projects, and programs. ➂ You will support the work of the team to create strategic communications campaigns, come up with innovative ways to engage employees that are in tune with xx’s culture, write communications, business update presentations and talking points. ➃ You will also collaborate with internal partners as needed across functions (PR, Policy, Legal, HR, Operations, etc.) and geographies. As an Internal Communications Manager, ➄ you will be managing Internal Communications efforts for xx, xx and xx — 3 of the most popular platforms in the world. ➅ You will work as a close advisor to our product leadership and teams.

Example 35 After you pass the first selection procedure, ➀ you will need to take two interviews. The first one is quite informal: ➁ you will have general interview with our staff members and other applicants. We try to proceed the interview in comfortable environment, so you don’t have feel stressed. During the interview ➂ you will be asked about the reason you applied for this job, what are your plans for future and your social relations. If you successfully pass this first interview, ➃ you will have the final interview with the head of department you’ve applied for. He will ask some questions about your personality and temper, previous work experiences, and other things. Afterwards ➄ you will have a 5-minutes presentation. We will inform your presentation topic a week before the interview. In case if you do great on the final interview, ➅ you will be able to become a part of our xx family. After the hiring process, ➆ you will have one-month training session for the new employees. During the session ➇ you will learn about company values and work on on-the-job education.

On the other hand, using you in job recruitment talk sounds similar function to bald on record in performing speech acts with clarity. Direct messages have a tendency to deliver messages more clearly in terms of bald on record strategy in performing speech acts (Searle, 1975). The circumstances for bald on record strategy include cases when the speech act is used mainly for communication efficiency (e.g. pharmacy instruction; warning message). Directives play an important role within encounters

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involving instructions or procedures. In order to deliver certain information with maximum efficiency as in the case of delivering job recruitment information, a message sender can choose you as a subject. In case of seriousness, in a similar vein, redress would decrease the communicated seriousness (e.g. using occupational terms like the successful applicant).

6.6

Exercise

1. Discuss overall purpose of job recruitment talk. 2. Study clues to job applicants for how they identify with the target company.

References Backhaus, K., & Tikoo, S. (2004). Conceptualizing and researching employer branding. Career Development International, 9, 501–517. Bostdorff, D. M., & Vibbert, S. L. (1994). Values advocacy: Enhancing organizational images, deflecting public criticism, and grounding future arguments. Public Relations Review, 20, 141–158. Cheney, G. (1983). On the various and changing meanings of organizational membership: A field study of organizational identification. Communication Monographs, 50(4), 342–362. Conrad, C., & Poole, M. S. (2012). Strategic organizational communication: In a global economy (7th ed.). Wiley-Blackwell. Crichton, J. (2013). ‘Will there be flowers shoved at me?’ A study in organizational trust, moral order and professional integrity. In C. Candlin & J. Crichton (Eds.), Discourse of trust (pp. 119–132). Palgrave Macmillan. Gardner, W. L., Reithel, B. J., Cogliser, C. C., Walumbwa, F. O., & Foley, R. T. (2012). Matching personality and organizational culture: Effects of recruitment strategy and the five-factor model on subjective person-organization fit. Management Communication Quarterly, 26, 585–622. Hearit, K. M. (1995). ”Mistakes Were Made”: Organizations, apologia, and crises of social legitimacy. Communication Studies, 46, 1–17. Jung, Y. (2017). Professional writing: A discourse analysis approach. Cengage Leaning. Krisof-Brown, A. L., Zimmerman, R. D., & Johnson, E. C. (2005). Consequences of individuals fit at work: A meta-analysis of person-job, personorganization, person-group, and person-supervisor fit. Personnel Psychology, 58, 281–342. Locker, K. O. (1994). Business and administrative communication. McGraw-Hill.

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Searle, J. (1975). Indirect speech acts. In P. Cole & J. Morgan (Eds.), Syntax and semantics 3: Speech acts (pp. 59–82). Academic Press. Tompkins, P. K., & Cheney, G. (1985). Communication and unobtrusive control in contemporary organizations. In R. D. McPhee & P. K. Tompkins (Eds.), Organizational communication: Traditional themes and new directions (pp. 179–210). Sage.

CHAPTER 7

Job Application Talk

Abstract This chapter illustrates that general paragraph structure of job application talk is composed of three units, introduction-body-ending. The paragraph convention may increase the formality of the applicant’s job application talk, so that it may motivate the hearer positively to some extent. Unlike the general paragraph structure, emphasis is also on motivation of job application talk. The applicant tends to appeal to the audience by repeating his/her motivation in speech, as it is rather difficult to highlight it vividly and remarkably in writing. Keywords Job application talk · Motivation

Unlike the previous interactive spoken communication practices in group, this chapter exclusively deals with a representative individual spoken business genre, which is job application talk. Job application talk is talk for job application purposes. It is distinctive from a job interview in this chapter, as it is one-way speech without verbal interaction with an opposite party. This chapter explores the applicant’s job application talk. Its paragraph convention is investigated first in order to see how the job

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 Y. Jung, Sociolinguistics and Business Talk, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-0051-8_7

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applicant tries to boost the formality of his or her talk for job application. After introducing a general paragraph convention for job application talk (three-part paragraph structure of introduction, body, and ending), this chapter discusses if the general type of paragraph is standard in all instances, in that there is a certain exception running counter to the standard paragraph structure.

7.1 General Paragraph Structure of Job Application Talk Motivation for promotional purposes can first be done through message structure. Paragraph convention of job application talk is often seen as evidence of spoken communication skills to successfully target an employer and motivate him/her to listen them with interest. Credibility in terms of conventional paragraph structure can motivate the hearer positively. From the genre analysis approach, the conventional layout of job application talk increases its formality. Job application talk data exemplify that macro level of job application talk is composed of three sections, introduction, body, and ending. 7.1.1

Introduction

Introduction needs to grab the hearer’s attention. It builds the hearer’s interest and explains the speaker’s purpose for speaking in order to make the hearer establish a common ground and listen with the speaker’s reason or purpose for speaking in mind. The speaker needs to state his/her reason for application as a topic sentence to begin introduction with a generalization. Introduction serves the function to arouse the audience’s interest by identifying the applicant and giving a reason for job application. • Identification of the applicant Job application talk presents a description of the applicant’s selfidentity as in the following example. The applicant gives the hearer

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information about self-identity, such as name, age, origin, name of her current affiliation, and personality formed by a study abroad experience. Example 36 My name is xx. I’m 22 years old. I was born and raised in xx. I moved to xx when I was 18. I’m a student in xx University and I’m senior. Also, I studied abroad in University of xx in US for 1 year. Then, I studied sociology, especially World population and Aging as my major. My goal of study abroad was developing my knowledge and English but I got more. I got many friends from variety of countries and wonderful experiences. I experienced not only good things but also a lot of difficulties. So I developed my capacity of patience. And patience is one of my strength

• Clarification of motivation Based on elaboration of his/her story, the applicant needs to control tone and establish credibility to suit job requirements. Self-identity is a part of social-identity and self-identity and social-identity should be closely related for achievement of a common goal in any given organization. From the perspective of clear-cut description of social-identify in persuasion, the applicant also needs to understand what a company or organization aims to achieve and the kind of service it intends to provide. In this respect, proper understanding of a mission statement sounds of necessity for job application success, as it should say what the organization is, what it does, what it stands for, and why it does it. Since job application talk is an endeavor to be an in-group member of a target company, a description of the applicant’s background should be made within the domain of company’s group or social-identity to meet corporate values or selection criteria. That is the reason why motivation of job application should be cleared, accordingly. Description of motivation in job application is some sort of illustration of the applicant’s mindful preparation to

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do things that will benefit the organization rather than themselves. Some of the examples about showing motivation are given in Example 37 (➀, ➁) and Example 38 (➀, ➁). Example 37 There are two reasons that make me apply for this company. First, the game industry and second the company policy The first reason is that I love and played games while I was growing up. I’d played xx and xx when I was a child. That was the first encounter that I started to have interest in the game industry. Back then, gaming was only a fun thing to do but now it’s a enormous industry that not only is going to get bigger but more accessible for people around the world xx is one of the most famous companies that has been the industry for many years, and the second reason is that the company’s policy. ➀ I was very intrigued by which xx creates games for everyone. From children to adult. Gaming is a popular thing to do right now but I see it is more sifted to adults. We see more violence in games these days. But ➁ keeping games that every age can do is a great policy and that is the main reason for applying for this company

Example 38 I’m very interested in your business. Different from other real estate companies, ➀ your company has business diversification, such as introducing IoT into rental apartment, My DIY service that costumer can choose wallpaper or other designs, service apartment business for people in Japanese company who have to go business trip or be transferred to overseas, and Resort business in Eastern Asia. ➁ I’m attracted by your business that consistently use new technologies and try to match customers’ new demand

Job application talk “is” a story about job applicant himself or herself, so that it is likely to be subjective. Nevertheless, one of the keys for job application success is how the applicant makes his/her background knowledge sound rather objective or neutral with reliable evidence backed up. In this respect, the following example sounds rather subjective. Different from the above examples, information in the following examples is given subjectively, with no link to social-identity. In Example 39, the applicant

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applies for a web marketing company. However, the reason for applying exclusively for the particular company is unclear and the information rather sounds like lay people’s routines (➀, ➁, ➂). Despite clear illustration of reason for choosing media major and the justification of the choice of his/her major (➀), in Example 40, likewise, the applicant does not make much clarification of why s/he chooses the target university for study. The applicant only justifies the choice of an evening course by saying that s/he can manage time for evening courses at xx University (➁). Example 39 ➀ I am a big fan of your web media, so I always check your web contents. Today I am very excited to get the opportunity of this interview The reason why I chose this company is that ➁ I am very interested in web marketing. When I was a sophomore, I created the web site of my club. From this experience, I got to be interested in web media. After this, I created my web site which introduces my favorite things like music, movies, travel, culture, and something like that. In this web site, I earned a little money from the affiliate system. ➂ I am very interested in how the web site does reach people, so I think I can use my experience at your company and would like to learn web marketing more specific

Example 40 ➀ With the advent of fast-changing new media, I feel great need to study more about new media as a member of media industry. The trendy format and contents of new media is changing in a pace that I can hardly catch up with. Studying new media would help me to have deeper understanding in fast-changing environment of media industry. Speciality in new media will enable me to have advantage of going ahead of other workers in media industry. ➁ Since I can take evening courses at xx university after getting back from work, it will enable me to efficiently manage time. My field knowledge and hands-on work experience in new media industry will also help other media students to indirectly experience my field before they start to work in media industry. I would be also able to learn greatly from other students who have various backgrounds in media industry as I study at this program

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7.1.2

Body

Body is a main paragraph to appeal as a prospective employee. The generalization in the speaker’s topic sentence must be fully supported with sufficient evidence in the body of job application talk. What speaker says in the body of the message can enhance his/her persuasiveness. The applicant places his/her central “selling point” to the hearer immediately after introduction or in the very beginning of the talk with no introduction. This will facilitate or improve comprehension of the applicant’s speech. In the body of the talk, the applicant links his/her education, experience, and personal qualities to the job requirements: supports his/her claims of ability by citing specific achievements in education, work, or outside activities to offering credibility. The use of the applicant’s knowledge of the company, coursework, understanding of the field, his/her experience in jobs and extracurricular activities to show that his/her backgrounds are unique and distinctive is of crucial importance. The applicant also demonstrates knowledge of the organization by mentioning its operations or trends in the industry. S/he describes accomplishments and showing how they relate to what the applicant could do for an employer. The apparent way to boost the applicant’s credibility generally has to do with expertise based on scientific, objective knowledge or competence. Every employer wants businesslike employees who understand professionalism. Accordingly, the applicant needs to adopt a mature or businesslike tone in describing his qualifications suitable in a confidential manner. One of the ways to achieve the goal is that the applicant first focuses on qualifications to meet major requirements of the job in terms of introducing his/her theoretical background (knowledge acquired from an academic world) and then s/he develops his/her major qualification in order to clarifying his/her practical background (i.e. work experience). In the body of job application talk, the applicant shifts the focus to his skills and experiences, describing his theoretical background and practical background and showing how they can be useful to the employer and specifying the job he is seeking. Credibility emphasized through the writer’s professional knowledge may be relevant to the reader’s benefit. A motivational

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technique applying audience benefits may also be pertaining to reciprocity or bargaining (Munter, 2011), as in the sentences highlighted with underlines in the following examples. Example 41 I am extremely well equipped for graduate studies in corporate communication, and I feel certain I could become a distinguished, skilled alumnus of your institution. As the resume I submitted says, I already hold a bachelor degree in Product Design and in Media and I am fluent in communicating with others due to many team projects throughout my college years. Both major required many group assignments and since team projects require sharing ideas rather than one’s personal thought, I was able to practice my communication and discussion skills repetitively In addition to my experience, I am fluent in managing in SNS web pages. My online marketing and managing skills were refined as an editor working in a web magazine company called xx. I have experienced the importance of corporate marketing and advertising by working in the fields (with my skin) by actually managing our company’s web page. While working here, I became more interested in corporate communication and advertising our company’s positive image to others I believe studying in xx University’s corporate communication will be a contribution of communication skills and knowledge to xx university

Example 42 I have qualification of real estate transaction specialist. This qualification can be used in your company and I think there is few student having this qualification because the pass rate is about 15%. You know there are many job in sales that only people who have this qualification can do. So I will be benefit for your company And as I mentioned, I learned Aging. Like how people are aging, how change their physically and mentally through aging and how society should change response to aging society. I saw your company’s future vision that deals with aging society and satisfied with aged person’s demand. I’m sure my knowledge can be used at your company

7.1.3

Ending

The job application talk ending is another place the speaker might use motivational technique. When the speaker reaches the end of the talk, s/he needs a sense of closure. Also the speaker reinforces his/her communication objective and leaves the hearer with a strong final impression. One of the ways to do so is to show the applicant’s willingness to offer further information with polite ending (see the following example).

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Example 43 I am willing to give any future information regarding my studies or field work if necessary. Also for future information from different sources please contact xx University about my background Thank you very much

Sometimes, job application talk ends with showing the applicant’s wish to work with the audience (e.g. I hope I will work at your company to use my skills and become professional in web marketing; I welcome the opportunity to discuss my qualifications with you in person). However, it is likely be pleading, in case no common ground to offer credentials has been fully established between the two. The speaker should avoid making a pest of himself by keeping asking a chance, as this practice could be considered interrupting.

7.2 Applied Paragraph Structure of Job Application Talk We may be able to consider the three-part pattern for job application purposes with unity issues, as illustrated above. Nonetheless, the speaker’s choices about type of information his/her audience needs are strategic. We need to know if the interviewer’s major concern “is” the applicant’s qualification. It is desirable to understand function of job application talk from the audience’s perspective. Is it for checking background, personality, motivation, or qualification of the applicant? Job application talk must be the 2nd round after successfully clearing the procedure of screening the applicant’s CV/resume and/or cover letter. Namely, invitation to job application talk is a signal which a target company has some interest in a certain job applicant based on his/her job application letter. The company wishes to check the applicant’s personality and/or motivation over the job application talk session, because the applicant’s personality/motivation is hard to be investigated solely based on

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job application letters. This claim is exemplified by the following examples, application talks to enter master’s program in communication at xx university. Example 44 Unit

Talk

1

I am applying for this program because I want theoretical Motivation background in my decision as AE. In workplace, I have to decide which “creative” that I’ll use, and which media that I should use. I should make plan to stress outstanding point and hide weak point of particular product. I mostly decide through data and insight, but I felt that it would be a great help if I have academic knowledge. I especially want to major corporate communication. I am interested in the trend of PR and advertisement. By researching varieties of cases in different countries, I am sure that I can follow up leading tendencies of successful marketing projects. I also think that there might be some common points in advertising campaigns regardless of countries. Then I can apply it to my own projects Qualification As account executive of xx Worldwide, I participated in several products including “xx” and “xx”. Through this experience I learned to find the core value in specific brand or product that should be emphasized. For example, I found that xx has a “challenge” in their brand image, so I could sell shoes by utilizing this I also learned to change the message into video clip. It means that I can utilize the grammar of film. By watching people run as fast as they can, you can see the message of xx. It is much more effective than showing the word “challenge” itself. All components including color, products, letters, background music affects the message and impact of advertisement. You should notice that even one second of your TV ad can greatly change the image of your client I also have a research ability. As you may know, concept and copy of each advertisement is based on research data of company. AE should be able to read the raw data and find valuable fact from great volume of data. It can be applied to academic studies as well. I can use statistic tool, such as Stata or R, to study media phenomenon. Thanks to my experience as AE, I am sure I can find useful tendency in those data I also have a basic understanding of the academic theories about Media. I majored media and communication while I studied in xx. Thanks to four years of training in xx, I am used to approach the media phenomenon in academic stance. By combing work experience and academic understanding, I am sure that I am proper applicant for your program

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(continued) Unit

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Function

3

It would be a wonderful experience to learn about Corporate Communication. Through this experience, I think I can greatly improve quality of our projects

Motivation

Example 45 Unit

Talk

1

In the wave of globalization, xx wants to train specialized Motivation personnel for international business with foreign broadcasting stations. Last year, we exported 9 dramas abroad. The problem is, sometimes we fail to get the business done for some reason. And 4 months ago, we missed the huge contract with the largest Malay drama distribution company. And rather the Malay company cut the deal with Japanese company, our biggest rival in the market We assume that this failure was partly due to communication breakdown. After which, xx started to run the program to foster competent communicators who know ins and outs of efficient global communication skills. And actually, I was in charge of that failed contract, so I was desperate to know the reason why my team has failed. But I didn’t really know the theoretical framework to analyze the interactions between the company. So my best judgement was to go to xx University special graduate school where I know I can learn a lot of essential skills to become a communication expert and there are good faculty members Qualification I studied media and communication at xx University for my bachelor degree. And my GPA was about 3.9 out of 4.3. Especially, I had my research paper for graduation chosen as the paper of the year of my department. My research subject was on internal communication and the professors at that time held my paper in high regard, saying that my paper is almost perfect at the undergraduate level. So though years has passed, still I know basic communication theories. So I want to assure you that you don’t have to babysit me in teaching me And furthermore, I’ve been working in xx for 5 years. And I did a lot of businesses with international business though the results were not always beautiful. I believe I can provide the classroom with a host of live cases that we can discuss in the classroom

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(continued) Unit

Talk

Function

3

My vision is to successfully collaborate with international Motivation broadcasting companies for public good. 4 years ago when xx wanted to open up the English teaching program for xx learners with xx. xx turned down the offer simply because working-level staffs were not prepared for the international meeting. And 2 years ago, xx channel wanted to import some of xx documentaries but xx remained quite reluctant to do the business with the American channel, also simply because the staff members weren’t professional at the international business. For now, xx doesn’t have any manual or training system for international business. But as far as I am concerned, efficient international business is increasingly important. Also I believe importing good foreign tv shows and exporting our dramas abroad is quite beneficial for public good That’s why I feel very passionate about learning practical trendy knowledge as well as theoretical basis for my vision at xx university

Unlike the standard adjacency sequence one-after-another between motivation and qualification, two examples of job application talk illustrate that a motivation unit is repeated right after qualification move in Example 44 and Example 45. It is not sure if the repetition of the applicant’s motivation may impose on the audience. Despite its negative aspect, repetition in the above examples may serve the function to emphasize a job applicant’s motivation. The applicant’s motivation for studying at the audience’s MA program may be boosted with the repetition of his/her motivation.

7.3

Exercise

1. Explain the positive use of three units of job application talk. 2. Discuss the negative use of three units of job application talk.

Reference Munter, M. (2011). Guide to managerial communication: Effective writing and speaking (9th ed.). Prentice Hall.

CHAPTER 8

Concluding Remarks

Abstract This chapter comes to the conclusion with the discussion about pros and cons of the academic use of simulated data and future implications. Keywords Authentic data · Simulated data

This book examines language socialization of adult novices in a simulated professional setting. It reveals how novices are playing an act as a new identity by acquiring critical skills. Although this book uses undergraduates’ role-play data for novices’ language socialization, a constant debate has been made about whether the simulated data can be comparable with the authentic data. This chapter discusses about pros and cons of the academic use of simulated data.

8.1 Authentic Data Created by Professionals and/or L1 Speakers A main difference between the authentic data and the simulated data is that the authentic data are situated in an authentic setting while the simulated data are situated in a setting that was set up for research purposes. Although simulated data can reflect communicative strategies people use © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 Y. Jung, Sociolinguistics and Business Talk, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-0051-8_8

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in authentic situations, there are certain discrepancies in how these strategies are actually implemented due to various contextual factors. Due to the complex and dynamic nature of interaction, authentic data is highly recommended for business communication research (Beebe & Cummings, 1996; Cheng & Warren, 2006; Du-Babcock & Chan, 2019; Ewald, 2012; Firth, 1995; Kasper, 2000; Koester, 2010; Mak & Chui, 2013; Stokoe, 2013; Timpe-Laughlin, 2019). This claim illustrates that theoretical knowledge and practical knowledge are of difference and there is a certain gap in between. That is the reason why competencybased approach to business communication is taken exclusively in business communication education (Van der Klink et al., 2007). In the field of vocational education, communication competencies as practical knowledge can be defined as “capabilities need for effective practitioner performace” (Jeffrey & Brunton, 2011, cited from Lucas & Rawlins, 2015), such as communication skills business professionals require (e.g. organizational, corporate, leadership, mediated, spoken and written, interpersonal, and non-verbal communication). In the approach to competency-based instruction, instructors develop learning objectives and assignments to prepare students to meet specific industry-identified competencies (Sharifi et al., 2009). The goal of competency-based education in business communication is to bridge the gap between school and the workplace (Jung, 2018). Communicative competence should be refined to meet the rapidly changing expectations or needs of contemporary professional communication contexts beyond the scope of the educational context such as university (Knight, 1999). In conclusion, researchers confronting the authenticity of simulated data support the claim that there is substantial gap between theoretical knowledge and practical knowledge.

8.2 Simulated Data Created by Professionals and/or L1 Speakers Getting access to and being allowed to record real-life workplace communication for research purposes may at times be rather challenging due to issues such as confidentiality. Researchers who regard simulated data are comparable to authentic data support that simulated data display a considerable degree of similarities to authentic data (Baubien & Baker, 2004; Chilcott, 1996; Du-Babcock & Chan, 2019; Lateef, 2010; Sekaran & Bougie, 2014; Ulijn, 2000). The key for simulated data is whether

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the data are created by professionals and/or native speakers of English. Demand for authenticity of simulated data is for filling the gap between pragmatics learning in class and pragmatic learning in workplace (BELF encounters, in particular). This is the primary reason for the matter of simulated data’s comparability to authentic data. Simulated data can be used as an alternative to authentic data only when the participants have relevant experience with the communication activity being studied. Simulate data can constitute valuable data for researching business and professional communication practices at macro level, or when the researcher intends to focus on a certain aspect of the situation and wish to control as many variables as possible (Baxter, 2015; Sekaran & Bougie, 2014).

8.3 Simulated Data Created by Non-Professionals and/or L2 Speakers Authenticity of simulated data is generally highlighted from the research aspect, not from the teaching aspect. From the pedagogical perspective, it is due to a tendency to over-emphasize the aspect of English for business purposes in class and deemphasize the role of English for academic purposes in teaching business speaking, writing, and business English itself. In this respect, we need to think about how we shall address the following questions: Which data shall we use to teach business talk? Do we have to use authentic data or simulated data exclusively created by professionals and/or L1 speakers to teach business and/or professional communication? Would it be OK to use data created by non-professionals and non-native speakers of English? Controversy between authentic data and simulated data is also up to standard or real-life communication knowledge. However, do we have to teach solely standard and real-life communication knowledge to students in classroom? These questions seem to go along well with Jung’s (2017) argument on the use of professional (instead of business) communication data in business writing class. His argument on the reciprocity between business and communication in business communication discipline is originated from the following two research questions: (a) Do business communication teachers need business background?; (b). Are business communication data necessary for business communication classes?. He argues that general information about the business mind and organizational behavior would give students sufficient knowledge about business. It is because a variety of business

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practices are different across business organizations. In this respect, it might be prejudicial knowledge, if instructors try to generalize a certain business practice in order to explain what is standard or non-standard in business. Although authentic samples in general have considerable merit in teaching pragmatics, instructors need to make sure that the samples are directly applicable to the target academic context. In this respect, this book does not focus on the instructor’s comments on students’ role play. It analyzes interactions between novices (students) in simulated workplace where Business English as a Lingua Franca is used. Jung (2017) claims that detailed descriptions of business practices to students might not be the job of the business communication teacher but senior‘s or mentor‘s jobs in the workplace for university graduates. University graduates will be reeducated in the workplace to meet the standards of particular business practices. As Stokoe (2013) and Dannels (2003) point out, therefore, teachers, when incorporating a simulations scenario into the curriculum, should carefully analyze the scenario and design relevant activities and instructions in accordance with course objectives (e.g. facilitating students in learning creative problem-solving skills), and help students develop a sensitivity to possible contingencies in real-life situations. This book gives emphasis on how students manage particular business and professional communication cases they create. It tries to work out which methods are feasible for troubleshooting and simulate the kinds of compromises that communities and industries in the real world must make for the correct outcome. The role-playing data demonstrate the students’ ability to apply the analytical and/or argumentative procedures they learn in class and to solve problems they may encounter in their future workplace.

8.4

Future Implications

This book focuses on a rather limited number of pragmatic phenomena. Hence, future research would need to focus on additional pragmatic features, in order to contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the multidimensional L2 pragmatics teaching and learning processes in the workplace. As a guideline for future research, the focus can be on how well English learners can identify and interpret face-threatening utterances (e.g. complaint, disagreement, and request) and on how well they express and negotiate them in open role-playing situations. There are pragmatic differences between the English varieties in workplaces in English medium countries. For example, Rees-Miller (2000) analyzed

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some in-class discussions between students and professors at an American university in order to study the effect of power and severity variables on disagreement strategy use. She found that power and severity accounted for some aspects of her data, but that the pedagogical context may also have been an influencing factor because it enabled the interlocutors to employ different disagreement strategies than they might in another context. Professors in the study used a lot of affirmative strategies in disagreeing with lower-status interlocutors so as to keep them involved in the class, while students were often more forceful in their disagreeing strategies than they might have been in different circumstances. Although disagreements are inherently dispreferred for saving face purpose, they are in certain contexts may be the preferred response to a speaker’s proposition or evaluation. Such disagreements are often made in reaction to a speaker’s negative self-evaluation, in which the speaker is perceived as “fishing” for a reply from the hearer that is more complimentary than the speaker’s statement (Pomerantz, 1984). Disagreement may denote solidarity between two interlocutors who have a close social relationship. So a direct and explicit disagreeing response can actually enhance a close relationship by underlining the acceptability of the direct disagreeing response (Holmes, 2001; Rees-Miller, 2000; Schwebel, 1997). These results are useful for discussing native-speaker disagreement strategies, but they are less applicable to an interlanguage context. In intercultural settings, for example, disagreements tend to be reinterpreted as miscommunication or misunderstanding (Marra, 2012). Since very little research has been conducted in terms of assessing the pragmatic abilities and/or development of L2 learners in new workplace, future research should expand the focus by also investigating other varieties of English. Research demand for varieties of business English is due to a growing number of companies located in non-English speaking environments have adopted English as the language of the workplace (e.g. online retailer Rakuten, the Tokyo-based global leader in tire sales Bridgestone, and Fast Retailing, which operates the Uniqlo fast-fashion chain). Such lingua franca interaction and the pragmatics negotiated in workplace communication are most likely very idiosyncratic, and may thus provide a different set of challenges for newcomers. More variety of and elaborated contextual factors for further research is of necessity (e.g. research which looks at language in external meetings (Poncini, 2002). Research has also found that vocal quality (e.g. voice quality, pitch, inflection, and pauses), and non-verbal communication features (e.g.

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posture, body point, body movement, handshake, facial expression, eye contact, hand/arm gesture, physical space, appearance (e.g. hairstyle, dress) can aid in business presentation. Nevertheless, this book does not consider the paralinguistic aspects of the participants’ communication strategies. For example, it does not pay particular attention to buying signals, referring to anything that prospects say or do indicating they are ready to buy (Futrell, 2013). Since all these elements are of crucial importance for business success, they should be useful agenda and be fully discussed for future research.

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Upton, T., & Connor, U. (2001). Using computerized corpus analysis to investigate the textlinguistic discourse moves of a genre. English for Specific Purposes, 20(4), 313–329. Van der Klink, M., Boon, J., & Schlusmans, K. (2007). Competences and vocational higher education: Now and in future. European Journal of Vocational Training, 40, 67–82. Van Dijk, T. (2011). Discourse studies: A multi disciplinary introduction (2nd ed.). Sage. Vine, B. (2004). Getting things done at work: The discourse of power in workplace interaction. John Benjamins. Wierzbicka, A. (1991). Cross-cultural pragmatics The semantics of human interaction. Mouton de Gruyter. Yates, L., & Major, G. (2015). ‘Quick-chatting’, ‘smart dogs’, and how to ‘say without saying’: Small talk and pragmatic learning in the community. System, 48, 141–152.

Index

A Acceptance signals, 112, 113 Accommodative statement, 38, 41 Adjacency sequence, 141 Affective empathy, 9, 46, 48, 50 Argument, 1, 12, 38, 43, 65, 66, 77, 79, 80, 82, 83, 89, 96, 120, 123, 145, 146 Attentive empathy, 9, 24, 46, 48, 54 Authentic data, 143–145 Autocratic business meeting, 13, 67 Avoidance statement, 38, 39, 41 B Benefits, 9, 14, 54, 88, 89, 93, 98, 100, 105, 106, 108, 124, 126, 134, 136, 137 Benefit selling, 98, 105 Build consensus, 72 Business English as a lingua franca (BELF), 1, 145, 146 Business meeting, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 11–13, 58, 59, 66, 67, 72, 77, 79

Buying decision, 13, 88, 100

C Call center talk, 9, 11–13, 32, 33, 37, 41 Caution signals, 110, 111, 113 Cognitive empathy, 9, 46, 50, 54 Conflict, 2, 8, 12, 39, 50, 76, 77, 79 Conflict resolution, 12 Corporate social responsibility (CSR), 5, 13, 119, 120 Corporate value, 14, 119, 122–124, 133 Creativity, 4, 10, 11 Customer service, 32, 34, 37, 45, 48

D Decision-making, 2, 8, 58, 59, 66, 67, 89, 92, 93 Democratic business meeting, 13, 72 Direct sellers, 88 Disagreement, 8, 12, 13, 25, 58, 59, 65–67, 76–79, 83, 146, 147

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2022 Y. Jung, Sociolinguistics and Business Talk, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-0051-8

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162

INDEX

Disagreement signals, 113 Discourse competence, 4, 5 Dispreferred response, 76, 79

M Motivation, 12, 23, 105, 132–134, 136–141

E Empathy talk, 4, 32, 33, 45

O Organizational apologia, 33, 37

F Face, 7, 8, 25, 33, 43, 50, 65, 67, 75–78, 147 Face-threatening acts (FTAs), 8, 25, 77, 78

P Person-organization fit (POF), 8, 124 Politeness strategy, 9 Power, 2, 13, 21, 58, 59, 66, 67, 71, 79, 94, 147 Practical background, 136 Pragmatic phenomena, 20, 146 Preferred response, 147 PR messages, 115 Problem solving, 3, 93 Professional identity, 59 Promotional genres, 7, 11, 12, 115 Prospect’s needs, 13, 100, 105, 106 Public self-image, 33, 78

G Genre, 1, 4–7, 11, 13, 32, 33, 50, 58, 59, 89, 115, 116, 127, 131 Genre analysis, 2, 5, 6, 132 Grammatical competence, 4, 5 Grounds for trust, 7, 13, 94, 100 H Hierarchical corporate culture, 67 Horizontal structure, 72 I Identification, 14, 124, 132 Image restoration strategy, 9, 33 Institutional data, 11 J Job application talk, 3, 5, 7, 11, 12, 14, 131–134, 136–138, 141 Job recruitment talk, 3, 5, 12, 13, 115, 116, 119, 125–128 L L2 pragmatics, 146

R Random business encounters, 11, 12, 19–21, 24 Rapport talk, 2, 6, 11–13, 20, 21 Relational talk, 2, 11, 13, 20, 21, 23 Rhetorical barriers, 13, 109, 110 Role-play data, 3, 4, 7, 143 S Sales talk, 3, 8, 11, 88, 89, 96, 101, 113 Second language learners, 2 Self-identity, 6, 132, 133 Simulated data, 3, 143–145 Social-identity, 133, 134 Sociolinguistic competence, 4, 6 Solidarity, 2, 5, 8, 21, 27, 77, 79, 147 Spoken business discourse, 2, 76

INDEX

163

Stakeholder communications, 1 Strategic competence, 4, 8, 12 Strategy, 3, 4, 7–10, 13, 33, 38–41, 58, 66, 78, 79, 82, 83, 124, 128, 143, 144, 147, 148 Sustainability, 5, 14, 119, 121, 122

Transactional talk, 13, 20, 21, 23 Transaction selling, 88 Trust, 7, 89, 94, 98, 119, 120 Turn priority, 104 Turns, 6, 9, 21, 22, 33, 54, 58, 65, 67, 72, 75, 76, 78, 79

T Theoretical background, 136, 139 Theory of politeness, 8, 25, 78

Y You-attitude, 8, 127