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Programme: accepted abstracts

Abstract ID: 896

Part of Session 153: Working in the City (Other abstracts in this session)

Negotiating group norms in the urban workplace

Authors: Angouri, Jo (1); Marra, Meredith (2); Holmes, Janet (3)
Submitted by: Angouri, Jo (University of the West of England, Bristol, United Kingdom)

Entering the urban workplace for the first time or moving to a new one is demanding, not least in terms of adapting to new ways of communicating. Becoming familiar with the interactional norms of new communities can be very challenging as they often operate at the interface of linguistic, professional or national borders and employees need to effectively and efficiently cross these boundaries on a daily basis.   When problems do arise, “cultural differences” have often been targeted as explanations. ‘Culture’ then becomes a convenient shorthand for explaining away complex issues.   

In this paper we challenge accepted categories based on nationality or ethnicity and we explore ways in which individuals navigate competing group norms. The research builds on previous investigations of diverse workplaces. Using analyses of naturally-occurring talk in workplaces where ethnic distinctions were foregrounded, the Wellington Language in the Workplace team recently proposed a complex theoretical model aimed at accounting for the “layered simultaneity” (Blommaert 2005) of factors which impact intercultural workplace interaction (Holmes, Marra and Vine 2011). Drawing on a range of professional environments the data analysis in this paper tests the robustness of the theoretical model by exploring various manifestations of ‘culture’, from national and ethnic group affiliations, through various organisational and occupational alliances, to the many possible hybridisations of these categories. Thus we problematise static assumptions and challenge a conceptualisation of culture that highlights difference or deficiency.

Guided by an “appreciative inquiry” stance and focusing on multicultural talk at work, we are interested in the ways in which professionals negotiate their integration as newcomers into existing communities. Instead of attributing difference to ‘culture’, in this paper we analyse how perceptions of difference at the level of the team are handled, exploring the views of employees who join a new workplace. We report on a pilot project which tracks international participants through their integration by recording their workplace interactions during phases of socialisation. We identify strategies which seem to support a positive trajectory from peripheral to core membership. Our analyses indicate that successfully integrating into a new workplace foregrounds issues of power and identity. While existing research seems to view 'otherness' as a problem, this paper sees group distinctiveness as a resource. In the process, we challenge fixed understandings of 'culture' in favour of a more dynamic and negotiable view of group identity. We close the paper by showing how ‘the way things are done around here’ in multicultural urban setting is discursively enacted and (re)negotiated.