Small talk as relational practice during assessment

Virtual performance appraisal interviews at a globalized company

Authors

  • Fien De Malsche University of Antwerp
  • Els Tobback University of Antwerp
  • Mieke Vandenbroucke University of Antwerp

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.1558/jalpp.25117

Keywords:

assessment, globalized workplace, performance appraisal, relational practice, small talk, virtual workspace

Abstract

This paper explores small talk as relational practice in performance appraisal interviews between managers at the Belgian headquarters of a small-sized service-oriented company and their sales agents who work remotely around the world. On the basis of a dataset of 14 online video-recorded appraisal interviews and two follow-up interviews with the managers, we examine by using a turn-by-turn content analysis the occurrence and function of small talk as relational practice within the specific interactional context of performance appraisal interviews. The findings show that within this specific virtual workspace context, the communicative purpose of performance appraisal interviews transcends assessment, as the managers make use of small talk to fulfill the additional aim of instilling the company’s corporate culture and personal approach in its employees. We reflect on the meaning of relational practice in the workplace and argue that the communicative purpose of such interactions is broadened so as to adapt to the globalized needs of modern companies.

Author Biographies

  • Fien De Malsche, University of Antwerp

    Fien De Malsche obtained a doctoral degree in Linguistics from the University of Antwerp. Her research interests are situated within the fields of sociolinguistics, linguistic pragmatics, intercultural communication and discourse analysis. Her PhD project examined the interplay between language and globalization in corporate contexts in Belgium from a qualitative discourse analytical perspective. 

  • Els Tobback, University of Antwerp

    Els Tobback holds a PhD in French Linguistics. She is an Associate Professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Antwerp, where she teaches French Business Communication. Her current research focuses on politeness and relational work in service encounters and in computer-mediated communication (with a special interest in the pragmatic realization of the speech act of Self-Praise). 

  • Mieke Vandenbroucke, University of Antwerp

    Mieke Vandenbroucke is a tenure-track Research Professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Antwerp. She holds a PhD in Linguistics and was a Fulbright scholar at University of California, Berkeley. She acts as the Adjunct Secretary General of the International Pragmatics Association and is an editor of the ongoing Handbook of Pragmatics (John Benjamins). She conducts and coordinates fundamental and applied research at the intersection of sociolinguistics and pragmatics, with a particular interest in the impact of globalization and migration on multilingual urban settings in Europe, institutional discourse and language policy. 

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Published

2024-07-29

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How to Cite

De Malsche, F., Tobback, E., & Vandenbroucke, M. (2024). Small talk as relational practice during assessment: Virtual performance appraisal interviews at a globalized company. Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice. https://doi.org/10.1558/jalpp.25117