Estratégias de envolvimento em encontros de negócios: a interface polidez positiva / estilo enfático / rapport

Abstract

This study focuses on the analysis of the strategies used by participants to create and maintain involvement in business meetings. The research is an interpretive and qualitative case study in nature, based on a theoretical framework of Interactional Sociolinguistics. Two business meetings, recorded on audio and video, were used as a corpus: the purchase of raw materials and an agreement to outsource finishing graphic material. Through the politeness/emphatic style/rapport interface, we sought to point out face-want systems chosen by the participants in our data and the footings they assumed in an attempt to generate engagement with the self, with others and within the negotiation. The analysis demonstrated the distinction between the human desire for acceptance and approval, noting that, among the various authors studied, Lim & Bowers (1991) are those that best explain the face-want and face-work found in our research. Thus, there is consequent tension in establishing the boundary between institutional conversation and phatic communication. Also it was found that, depending on the footing and desires of the speaker to lose or save face, rapport can only be used to “break the ice” in transactional interactions or be responsible for a range of social functions, among which we strive to meet the positive face-want and to guide the social roles of participants in the relationship. This finding contradicts the view of some authors who do not recognize the importance of phatic communication.