For this spring semester, I am going to look into the discourse of my workplace, which is an English learning centre with lots of female staff, in order to have a better understanding of the discourse and social interaction issues there.
I have been working there for half a year and so far i have noticed something interesting between the communication of the staff. Most of the staff in this company are female and there is quite a distinctive hierarchy. There are the academic panels, the full-time lecturers, the academic officers and the part-time tutors. The title of each position and its associated duties are made very clear. Tutors and officers are assigned to assist different lecturers with the teaching and hence, communication plays an important role in facilitating a smooth teaching progress as well as a peaceful working environment.
I have been working there for half a year and so far i have noticed something interesting between the communication of the staff. Most of the staff in this company are female and there is quite a distinctive hierarchy. There are the academic panels, the full-time lecturers, the academic officers and the part-time tutors. The title of each position and its associated duties are made very clear. Tutors and officers are assigned to assist different lecturers with the teaching and hence, communication plays an important role in facilitating a smooth teaching progress as well as a peaceful working environment.
For the sake of providing professional teaching quality, various means of communication are provided to the staff. All the staff are required to log in and check the intranet from time to time to catch up with the latest teaching progress of one another. Lecturers may also write memos, make phone calls or send emails to get in touch with the tutors. CCTV is also set up for evaluating the teaching qualities by the management level staff.
The messages sent by the senior panels tend to be slightly informal and direct, they will just say whatever they feel about the students and the teaching materials, no matter if it is positive or not. For example, the top-level panel would make fun of the student and said he was too stupid that does not deserve anymore help. But if the same thing is said by the new part-time staff, even if those informal smileys :) were added, the effect and the consequences could be totally different.
I am then curious to know why would the same thing means so distinctively when it is said by people with different levels of power or under different situations. I am even more interested in knowing how are these 'rules' formed and why do people act on them.
A workmate of mine was once in troubles after making her truthful, direct comment of certain senior staff. Miscommunication may arise if the message is mediated by an ‘inappropriate’ tone of voice, word choice or means of delivering the message etc. In order to get rid of these unwanted social interaction issues, it would be better if each of the staff could have a better understanding of the cultural and discourse background and then learn to act ‘appropriately’ within this everyday working environment. Since different forms of communication, either formal or informal, are functioned in a daily basis, it is necessary for everyone in the company to learn the 'rules' and to create a harmonious working atmostphere. I hope the knowledge that I gain from this course will help me have a broader and deeper look of the discourse of my company so that I can survive there more easily and happily.
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