Murphy, Anne (2015) So have we heard from everybody? : a pragmatic analysis of inclusion and exclusion in international conference calls. In: International Communication Association regional conference, 2015-10-10 - 2015-10-12, Copenhagen Business School.
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
In this paper I explore how processes of exclusion and inclusion are enacted in spoken interaction in the virtual context of an international conference calls in a multi-national corporate context. I draw on linguistic pragmatics, and in particular activity types (Levinson 1979, Thomas 1995, Culpepper et al 2008) to analyse a two-hour global conference call with twelve participants in different countries and time zones. I first examine features of interactional control (turn and share of the conversational floor) from a quantitative perspective. I then go on to analyse conversation structure and politeness norms from a qualitative perspective in order to explore their relation to discursive moments of inclusion and exclusion. Finally I reflect on implications for practice. As well as challenges, these working patterns provide learning opportunities for companies, teams and individuals to take leadership in inclusive and responsible ways. The paper assumes that an aspect of this learning lies in awareness of patterns of spoken interaction.