Schnurr, Stephanie and Zayts, Olga (2013) “I can't remember them ever not doing what I tell them!” : Negotiating face and power relations in ‘upward’ refusals in multicultural workplaces in Hong Kong. Intercultural Pragmatics, Volume 10 (Number 4). pp. 593-616. doi:10.1515/ip-2013-0028

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Abstract

This paper explores how refusals are constructed and negotiated in multicultural workplaces in Hong Kong. A particular focus is on the ways in which Hong Kong Chinese subordinates negotiate issues of face and power relations when refusing their expatriate superiors.

Despite abundant research on refusals in a variety of contexts across cultures, there are very few studies of multicultural workplaces. This is particularly surprising considering that refusals have been described as a frequent “ ‘sticking point’ in cross-cultural communication” (Beebe et al. 1990). This paper addresses this gap by drawing on more than 80 hours of authentic audio- and video-recorded spoken workplace discourse and a corpus of emails collected in multicultural workplaces in Hong Kong.

Findings of this exploratory study indicate that refusals are complex communicative activities that are carefully negotiated among participants. We argue that in contrast to earlier studies, participants' socio-cultural backgrounds do not appear to be the main determining factor of how issues of face and power relations are negotiated in upward refusals. Rather, a range of other factors, including media of communication, normative ways of interacting in a workplace, the relationship between interlocutors, as well as the content of the refusal, are more relevant for explaining participants’ communicative behavior.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD28 Management. Industrial Management
Divisions:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Centre for Applied Linguistics
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Supervision of employees -- Hong Kong -- Cross-cultural studies, Communication in management, Intercultural communication, Management -- Hong Kong -- Cross-cultural studies, Industrial relations -- Hong Kong, Power (Social sciences)
Journal or Publication Title:	Intercultural Pragmatics
Publisher:	De Gruyter Mouton
ISSN:	1612-295X
Official Date:	2013
Dates:	Date Event 2013 Published
Date of first compliant deposit:	26 December 2015
Volume:	Volume 10
Number:	Number 4
Page Range:	pp. 593-616
DOI:	10.1515/ip-2013-0028
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Access rights to Published version:	Restricted or Subscription Access
Funder:	University of Hong Kong (HKU)
Grant number:	201110159014 (HKU)

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