Mediated Business Interactions

Acknowledgements List of Figures Chapter 1 Introduction 1.1 Mediated business (inter)action 1.2 Service encounters over the phone 1.3 Call centres and intercultural communication 1.4 On the ordinary-institutional continuum 1.5 Why openings and closings? 1.6 Previous research on openings and closings in institutional calls Chapter 2 Methodology 2.1 Background to the research 2.2 Data and ethics 2.3 Documentary analysis 2.4 Non-participant observation 2.5 Interviews 2.6 Telephone conversations 2.7 Analytic perspective Chapter 3 Openings 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Inbound calls 3.2.1 In-house rules for opening inbound calls 3.2.2 Opening sequences of inbound calls 3.3 Outbound calls 3.3.1 In-house rules for opening outbound calls 3.3.2 Opening sequences in outbound calls 3.4 Concluding comments Chapter 4 The Negotiation of the Business Exchange 4.1 Introduction 4.2 The middles of inbound calls: fabricated ignorance 4.3 The middles of outbound calls 4.3.1 In-house rules for placing outbound calls 4.3.2 First attempt calls: camouflaging 4.4 Follow-up calls: honouring arrangements 4.5 Some concluding comments Chapter 5 Closings 5.1 Introduction 5.2 In-house rule for closing calls 5.3 The English archetype closing 5.4 Practices for closing Spanish service calls 5.4.1 Arrangements 5.4.2 Summarised upshot of the conversation topic 5.4.3 Prior turn repetition 5.4.4 Reiteration of the prior material 5.4.5 Reason for the call 5.5 Foreshortened and extended closings 5.5.1 Foreshortened closings 5.5.2 Extended closings 5.6 Some concluding comments Chapter 6 Some Final Reflections: Toward an Understanding of Intercultural Communication in Spanish 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Mediated intercultural communication across Spanishes 6.2.1 On ambivalent si and unequivocal no 6.2.2 Hiding behind the name of 'Difference' 6.3 Some final reflections Appendices References Index