Distinguishing workplace peers through speech events

Abstract

Peer relationships can provide multiple personal and professional benefits. However, little is known about the types of peer-to-peer relationships in the workplace and the communication that occurs in these relationships. By assessing speech events of informational, collegial, and special peers at the workplace, this exploratory study brought a better understanding of how communication constitutes peer-coworker relationships. Forty-eight retail employees who communicate with their peers completed a survey. Goldsmith and Baxter’s research on speech events used in everyday conversations formed the basis to measure the frequency of speech events used by co-workers of varying closeness at the workplace. My findings suggest that co-workers consider their peers as friends and feel close to them. Findings on the speech events co-workers engage in with different peers showed that workplace peers communicate using superficial and informal talk. My study helped to deconstruct the relationship between how co-workers feel about each other, and how these intrinsic perceptions were conveyed through their everyday communication.