| Workplace discourse analysis and computer-mediated discourse analysis have gathered momentum in the broad field of applied linguistics, but analysts have rarely empirically studied workplace discourse and computer-mediated communication simultaneously from a socio-constructionist perspective. Studies of the former have tended to explore face-to-face workplace interaction in non-Asian settings, while studies of the latter have centered on interpersonal and public communication contexts. However, the reality is that the use of digital devices, especially instant messengers, has become a trend in backstage communication in the workplace, including the small-sized enterprises in Sino-settings. This research hence aims to explore how the professionals in three Hong Kong white-collar organizations interact in Windows Live Messenger, Tencent QQ, and Facebook Chat for various transactional and relational purposes. Drawing upon Etienne Wenger's Communities of Practice framework (1998) and James Gee's model of discourse analysis (2011), the study analyzes the participants' instant messaging chat logs supplemented with interview data, especially concentrating on how their humor and small talk took place functionally and creatively in such a computer-mediated work environment. Results indicate that these discursive strategies contain many fundamental features of Netspeak (e.g., the use of emoticons, non-standardized punctuation) that differentiate themselves from the counterparts in face-to-face settings, and that these speech events co-occur with the utilization of the general and specific instant messenger interfaces. The computer-mediated humor and small talk instances also activate various new dimensions to the reform of identity and the negotiation of power in the workplace. Further discussions reveal that these phenomena have facilitated sheer discourse processes in workplace communication, including the tendency to relational talk vis-a-vis business talk, the circulation of intertextual and multimodal meanings, the regression of social etiquette, the emergence of heteroglossic identity, and the amplification of individual intellectuality, linguistic competency, abilities of information access, and skills of information technology. It is concluded that humor and small talk in workplace instant messaging are socio-computational products of national cultural preferences, community norms, colleagues' personal experience and preference of usage, and that they are informal, interpersonal, multidimensional tools for achieving organizational goals in the long run. It is also argued that the gendered and colloquial, individual and professional characteristics of humor and small talk in workplace instant messaging normally coalesce a fluctuating state of turbulence of workplace identity, and that the discursive strategies often visualize and symbolize the intellectual capital and personal aptitudes for controlling technology of a colleague. This dissertation not only provides insight into workplace discourse analysis and computer-mediated discourse analysis, but also projects novel knowledge, viewpoints, and implications to white-collar practitioners in Hong Kong, if not other career fields and societies. |
