Negative Politeness May Be More
Successful In Difficult Workplace Negotiation

March 28, 2000

Harrisburg, Pa. -- Even in the most open and democratic of workplace environments, employees tend to find negative politeness the best way to broach a potential touchy subject with superiors and co-workers, according to a Penn State study.

"Negative politeness seeks to minimize the sense of infringement implied in making a request, even when the request is justified or even necessary. This tactic also recognizes or establishes social distance between speaker and hearer," says Dr. David A. Morand, associate professor of management at Penn State Harrisburg.

"Apologetic language such as `Excuse me,' 'Pardon me' and 'Sorry to bother you, but ... ' acknowledge intrusion into the psychological territories of the other," says Morand. "Verbal hedges (`Could I maybe ask you a question?' or `I wonder if you could ...?') enable speakers to distance themselves from their own request.

"A third example of negative politeness is the use of honorific terms (Dr., Professor, Ms.), which elevates the hearer's status, thereby creating an aura of respect and social distance. This in turn cushions the impact of a request entailing possible loss of face on the part of either speaker or listener," Morand notes.

Negative politeness is distinguished from positive politeness, which assumes or insinuates that subordinate and boss share common interests, see themselves as part of the same team and can operate on familiar, even familial terms, according to the Penn State researcher.

A request couched in terms of positive politeness would sound something like this: "Bob, howzit it going today? Nice tie you're wearin'." Preliminary small talk is followed by "Oh, by the way, I wanna ask you if I can use the company car while my Volvo is in the garage." Positive politeness is connoted here both by its friendly directness and by the use of phonological slurring -- standardized ways of incompletely enunciating words or work phrases (a current example: "what's up" or "whassup.")

Persons comfortable with positive politeness would continue to use it even when broaching more sensitive subjects such as a raise or a complaint about working conditions. However, positive politeness can often be construed as too forward or presumptuous, Morand says.

A faculty member at Penn State Harrisburg, he published his research in "Language and Power: an Empirical Analysis of Linguistic Strategies Used in Superior-Subordinate Communication," in the spring 2000 issue of the Journal Of Organizational Behavior.

His study called for 84 subjects, all full-time university students, to take part in scenarios in which they make requests of hypothetical co-workers ranking either two levels below or two levels above them. Subjects read each scenario, imagined what they would say in such a situation, then activated a tape recorder to speak their role. The tapes were then transcribed. The data thus consisted of transcripts of subjects making four different requests of persons holding either higher or lower organizational status.

The scale of responses ranged from "barely polite" to "extremely polite." The degree of politeness of each act was calculated as the mean score of all six judges, higher scores indicating greater perceived politeness.

But Morand adds, "One caveat should be pointed out. While politeness is a good attribute, excessive politeness, especially negative politeness, can make a person appear servile and can also interfere with clarity of communication in the workplace."

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Contacts:

Paul Blaum (814) 865-9481 (o)

Vicki Fong (814) 865-9481 (o)/ (814) 238-1221 (h)

EDITORS: Dr. Morand is at (717) 948-6158 or at by email.