Relational practice in the workplace: Women's talk or gendered discourse?

This article explores the concept of relational practice, the wide range of off-line, backstage, or collaborative work that people do which goes largely unrecognized and unrewarded in the workplace (Fletcher 1999). The analysis identifies a range of different ways in which people do relational practice in workplace discourse, and critically examines the proposal that, as subtle support work, relational practice is considered “women's work.” Drawing on the large Wellington Language in the Workplace database, it explores a variety of ways in which such relational work is manifested in workplace discourse; the analysis focuses on specific instances of relational practice, illustrating how such support work is backgrounded and typically discounted in New Zealand workplaces. The implications of the analysis for the gender/power dynamic are explored. Discussed in particular is the hypothesis that manifestations of relational practice differ in distinct communities of practice, and the validity of the equation of relational practice with “feminized” discourse is questioned.This article is based on a plenary paper presented at IGALA2, the second International Gender and Language Conference, held at Lancaster University in April 2002. It has benefited from comments received there as well as from other colleagues. We are also grateful to the anonymous reviewers and to the editor for helpful suggestions for improving it. We express our appreciation to other members of the Language in the Workplace team who have been involved with the project's development, data collection, processing, and transcription, including Maria Stubbe (research fellow), Bernadette Vine (corpus manager), and a number of research assistants. We also thank those who allowed their workplace interactions to be recorded. This research is supported by a grant from the New Zealand Foundation for Research Science and Technology. More information on the project can be viewed on our website, 〈www.vuw.ac.nz/lals/lwp〉.