An Ethnographic Study of a Workplace through a Communication Lens

Our work proposes that the understanding of the relationship between communication and power structures is fundamental in teaching, learning and improving communication skills and, conversely, learning and improving communication skills enables people to become more aware of how power is operating in a given environment. Using situated observation in the workplace, our study investigates how pieces of information are communicated and accumulated in order to establish and reinforce power structures in a specific corporate culture. Our research questions are: how are patterns of power communicated verbally or non-verbally? How are they discerned, mobilised and combined? How does an individual, in such situations, negotiate their position?