Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 857

Part of General Paper Session (Other abstracts in this session)

Workplace environment and observer's paradox - "I'm still me!"

Authors: Chalupnik, Malgorzata
Submitted by: Chalupnik, Malgorzata (University of Nottingham, United Kingdom)

This workplace investigation focuses on issues such as observer’s paradox and self-censorship. By looking at extracts which indicate that the participants’ awareness of being recorded is heightened and by analysing their reactions in those situations, particularly when participants insist on continuing the recording, I attempt to examine the way workplace culture is enacted and challenged by members of an IT community of practice in their workplace environment.

Hammersley and Atkinson (1995: 18) acknowledge that “how people respond to the presence of the researcher may be informative as how they react to other situations [...] rather than engaging in futile attempts to eliminate the effects of the researcher completely, we should set about understanding them”. I would agree with this assertion as it seems that, while the issue of awareness of being observed is a fixture of any modern ethical research, the occurrence of the explicit manifestations of this awareness may not necessarily suggest that similar linguistic behaviour would not be present in any other settings. It is, however, important to keep in mind that although it is only the researcher who is involved in the data collection process, the presence of the recorder may remind the participants of the fact that their interactions may be later on accessible to a wider audience (Bell, 1984). It is impossible to establish the degree to which the participants of the study monitor their linguistic performance over time, manifestations of the awareness of being recorded are only transparent when there is an explicit reference made to the process of data collection. Those indicators, accordingly, seem to suggest that linguistic behaviour that is more controversial, confidential or personal may result in the heightened awareness of being recorded and in consequence can lead to a more restrained or extreme conversational behaviour (Bousfield, 2008). This conversational behaviour will differ depending on the situation and speaker. Those types of behaviour occurred not only in the early stages of the data collection but also in the later stages of the data collection.

The main aim of this investigation was then to determine the factors that influence the decision of either pausing the recording or insisting on making a certain statement in the presence of the switched on recorder.

Allan Bell (1984). Language style as audience design. Language in Society, 13, pp 145-204

Derek Bousfield (2008). Impoliteness in interaction. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Co.

Martyn Hammersley and Paul Atkinson (1995). Ethnography: principles in practice. London: Routledge

Sociolinguistics Symposium 19

Programme: accepted abstracts

Workplace environment and observer's paradox - "I'm still me!"