Getting Things Done at Work is primarily a book for linguists interested in the analysis of “the language used by native speakers working together in a workplace context” (p. 1). At the same time, the book has a great deal to offer to those concerned with the construction and negotiation of roles and power within workplace interactions, and it has a specific focus on two women managers and their staff.
The book is based on Vine's doctoral thesis which comes out of the University of Victoria's major, ongoing project into language and the workplace in Wellington, New Zealand. The wider project initially involved audio‐tape recordings of everyday interactions in four different government workplaces and was subsequently extended to include the private sector. Vine's work covers one female‐dominated, public sector policy unit. Twelve volunteers in this workplace controlled their own recording of interactions over a two‐week period. From the resulting 135 interactions involving 56 participants, Vine selects for detailed examination the 52 one‐to‐one interactions involving four key women, two managers, Sonia and Ruth, and two senior policy analysts, Katie and Jo. Vine seeks to explore the expression of power in the interactions of these four key women.
As a general principle, Vine argues that a decline in the overt marking of coercive “power over” in our society, including legitimate power and expertise, has involved an increased concern for the use of consultative power in the workplace. She selects three management leadership styles, authoritarian, participative and laissez‐faire in order to suggest a corresponding movement from the uses of authoritarian to participative styles of management. Within this perhaps over‐simplified management framing, she focuses on the ways in which management and staff either mark or minimise power in their workplace interactions.
Central to this examination of power is the concept of control acts, defined as “an attempt to get someone to do something” (p. 27). The three interrelated types of speech acts that make up the control acts in Vine's analysis are directives, requests and advice. The first two are directing control acts; advice is a supporting control act. Vine further refines the three types of control acts for analysis by selecting those acts which require a physical action, not just a verbal response by the hearer. Control acts are marked by specific forms, for example, imperatives and interrogatives, and minimised by politeness strategies such as “please” which reduce the face threat to the hearer.
If your eyes are beginning to glaze over at this point, persist at least till the end of this review. Linguistic analysis can sometimes seem a little overwhelming, especially to those of us who have a limited background in grammar or in languages. At times in the past, I have dipped into other linguistics texts only to flounder in a morass of modals. Or alternatively, I've followed the findings of a piece of research but been frustrated by not being told the how of methodology, instruments and analysis. The pleasing thing about Vine's book is that she takes us through the research process and shows us exactly how it was done from the data gathering, to coding and categorization processes, through justifications for decisions made in these processes, to the difficulties of drawing boundaries in relation to different types of control acts and their sub‐forms. Of course, there were for me moments of faltering at a “new language”. I thought I had covered and understood control acts, when I was nearly undone by “control acts head acts”. I even asked a friendly linguist for help which was not possible out of context. But in fact it was all there when I went back to the book and my notes – in case you're wondering “each utterance realising a control act is referred to as a ‘head act’ (p. 53) or to put it another way, a head act is ‘the minimal unit which can release a request’ ” (p. 61). The writing is clear and the material well‐structured so that the book provides a most useful learning text for readers with non‐linguistic backgrounds.
Even more fascinating is the world of work through the linguist's lens. I had never realised how many overlaps and “ums” occur in everyday conversation. Then there was the fact that the more transcripts you read the more the characterizations emerged, dominated by the two managers, Sonia and Ruth. And what a relief that they all behaved so beautifully – at least for the tape! I admit I would have liked Vine to comment further on the “power” of the key participants to control the recording, or non‐recording, of conversations throughout the study.
While the first five chapters of the book establish the frame and explain the methodology and analytical considerations of the research, the remaining chapters reveal how this methodology is applied to the data and the results that ensue. Chapter six, for example, takes a transcript and shows in detail how the classifications and modifying devices previously defined apply to the data. Vine asserts the analysis “shows how utterances pattern in relation to one another and to the surrounding discourse” (p. 70). More specifically, the analysis shows how the managers' control acts examined in this data are always mitigated and that this pattern is also reflected in staff responses. The patterning suggests that in this workplace “joint effort and cooperation/negotiation are more striking that the displays of power and acquiescence” (p. 145).
Vine's analysis emphasises and illustrates two interrelated points: the importance of contexts both at the level of social context and at the level of discourse. For example, she suggests that the forms of the control acts relate to how long the participants have worked together and how well they know one another. She also points to the ways social distance and power are constantly negotiated through interaction. The publisher's blurb states “the results … challenge earlier research both on power and control acts”.
The three final chapters of the book focus on the two women managers and are of particular interest to those interested in workplace communication and relationships.
Vine suggests that the two managers in her study provide a model of the consultative style in the way they minimise status differences through drawing on a range of control act forms which always involve the use of mitigation. Similarly, in her discussion of other factors that may reflect power relationships, such as turn taking and topic selection, Vine argues that the two women managers engage in an interactive and participative style of consultative power based on cooperation and the satisfaction of mutual needs. These patterns are also evident in the mutual respect shown in the interactions of participants of equal status as between the two managers.
From my perspective as a business researcher, this book provides a new way of exploring and affirming the principles of effective management communication, which has particular interest for women in management researchers. Dr Vine ends her book with the following point:
In this workplace staff development and involvement comes before concerns about presenting a powerful image. The managers demonstrate a range of attributes identified by management researchers which aid effective communication in the workplace. The staff also show many of these attributes, both in their interactions with managers and between themselves (p. 218).
One thing's certain. I got increasingly involved and interested in these women. I wanted to find out other things. There's an account of a potentially difficult encounter between Sonia and Eloise at one point. I kept imagining the next scene. Like what did Eloise say when she got back to her office? Or what did Sonia say to her partner that night about Eloise. Or did Sonia even have a partner? And what about Eloise? And then there was Genevieve – a name I've always fancied. What about her?
In summation, Vine's book is an example of careful, meticulous and scholarly research. To the uninitiated, some of the material may seem rather dense or, as previously suggested, overwhelming. At the same time, methods from differing disciplines, for example, speech act theory, conversational analysis, narrative theory and analysis, discourse analysis, rhetorical and dramatistic analyses are all increasingly becoming applied to the area of management, workplace interactions and workplace communication. Vine's study provides us with a clear and detailed account of some ways in which a linguist approaches the corporate world. In so doing, she expands the possibilities and potential approaches of women in management research.
