This article explores the concept of relational practice, the wide
range of off-line, backstage, or collaborative work that people do
which goes largely unrecognized and unrewarded in the workplace (Fletcher 1999). The analysis identifies a range of
different ways in which people do relational practice in workplace
discourse, and critically examines the proposal that, as subtle support
work, relational practice is considered “women's
work.” Drawing on the large Wellington Language in the Workplace
database, it explores a variety of ways in which such relational work
is manifested in workplace discourse; the analysis focuses on specific
instances of relational practice, illustrating how such support work is
backgrounded and typically discounted in New Zealand workplaces. The
implications of the analysis for the gender/power dynamic are
explored. Discussed in particular is the hypothesis that manifestations
of relational practice differ in distinct communities of practice, and
the validity of the equation of relational practice with
“feminized” discourse is questioned.This article is based on a plenary paper presented at IGALA2,
the second International Gender and Language Conference, held at Lancaster
University in April 2002. It has benefited from comments received there as
well as from other colleagues. We are also grateful to the anonymous
reviewers and to the editor for helpful suggestions for improving it. We
express our appreciation to other members of the Language in the Workplace
team who have been involved with the project's development, data
collection, processing, and transcription, including Maria Stubbe (research
fellow), Bernadette Vine (corpus manager), and a number of research
assistants. We also thank those who allowed their workplace interactions to
be recorded. This research is supported by a grant from the New Zealand
Foundation for Research Science and Technology. More information on the
project can be viewed on our website,
〈www.vuw.ac.nz/lals/lwp〉.