Workplace narratives and business reports: Issues of definition

In the wake of Labov's seminal work in the late 1960s, sociolinguistic research on narrative typically focused a good deal of attention on narrative form, defining narratives predominantly by their structural features. More recently, however, sociolinguists have begun to take account of the functions of narratives in a range of different social contexts, including formal and informal interactions, in public and private settings (e.g., Dyer and Keller-Cohen 2000; He 1996; Holmes 1997a; Lakoff 2001; Schiffrin 1996). In this article, we extend the range of such settings to the institutional context of the workplace. Using data from the Wellington Language in the Workplace Project, this paper highlights the sociable function of workplace anecdotes, contrasting them with more institutionally ratified talk, such as business reports. Information on the distribution of workplace anecdotes in different New Zealand workplaces is provided; band discussed in relation to the notion of contrasting workplace cultures.