Rapport in Interactive Discourse. Discursive Practices as Indicators for the Managing of Interpersonal Relations in Intercultural Business Meetings.

Abstract

This thesis provides a thick description about the construction of rapport in interactive discourse. In order to increase understanding about the interactional negotiation of interpersonal relationships and the effects on intercultural business meetings, the interaction itself has to be looked at and disassembled carefully. The dissension about the concept rapport lies within the lack of a general definition as well as its abstractness. For some scholars, rapport is the outcome of an interaction whereas its interactional and interdiscursive construction is not given sufficient attention. Goebel (to appear; in press) jettisons rapport and presents the concept common ground which is achieved through a series of discursive practices realized in every speaker turn. The aim of this thesis is to illustrate how rapport and common ground are related. The combination of three research instruments provides rich insight into the construction of common ground and rapport: through ethnographic field notes, conversation transcripts, and a questionnaire of nine participants of two intercultural business meetings, it was possible to make the discursive practices visible which construct common ground and finally rapport. The results of the two analyzed meetings are that rapport and common ground are related but not proportionally increasing each other. The discursive practices which lead to common ground need further distinction. Common ground does not substitute the concept rapport, but it adds to it whilst making a general definition possible. The conclusion of this thesis is that rapport should rather be defined as something that is constantly interactionally negotiated and not static. For further research, the discursive practices role alignment and belonging should be investigated regarding identity construction.