Politeness of front counter staff of Malaysian Private Hospitals
Politeness is an important social element in the Malaysian society and it is gauged by the way people behave towards each other during interactions. In this context, politeness is taken to mean good manners such as greeting, acknowledging and thanking others. Taking the cue from the Malaysian govern...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Penerbit UKM
2013
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| Online Access: | http://journalarticle.ukm.my/6041/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/6041/1/2220-4390-1-SM.pdf |
| _version_ | 1848811020288524288 |
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| author | Kuang, Ching Hei David, Maya Khemlani Lau, Su Kia |
| author_facet | Kuang, Ching Hei David, Maya Khemlani Lau, Su Kia |
| author_sort | Kuang, Ching Hei |
| building | UKM Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Politeness is an important social element in the Malaysian society and it is gauged by the way people behave towards each other during interactions. In this context, politeness is taken to mean good manners such as greeting, acknowledging and thanking others. Taking the cue from the Malaysian government which emphasizes on showing good manners, this paper examines the public transactions of front counter staff and patients in nine Malaysian private hospitals. Focus was given to the use of openings and closings in 158 transactions which were extracted over a period of three months via close observations which were allowed by the gatekeepers manning the front counters. Data were then orthographically transcribed. Brown and Levinson’s (1987) notion of politeness and the Malaysian concept of good manners such as greeting and thanking were applied as a framework. Our analysis indicates that front counter staff in private hospitals employed more impolite openings but at the end of the transactions, they used more polite closings. A closer analysis of the data indicates that these polite closings were often given in response to patients’ initiations. Although our findings are small in comparison, we believe they will benefit researchers of communication, curriculum designers and practitioners as these findings clearly indicate that there is a need for professional communication skills to be taught and implemented in service industries.
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| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T23:39:45Z |
| format | Article |
| id | oai:generic.eprints.org:6041 |
| institution | Universiti Kebangasaan Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T23:39:45Z |
| publishDate | 2013 |
| publisher | Penerbit UKM |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | oai:generic.eprints.org:60412013-03-19T03:53:42Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/6041/ Politeness of front counter staff of Malaysian Private Hospitals Kuang, Ching Hei David, Maya Khemlani Lau, Su Kia Politeness is an important social element in the Malaysian society and it is gauged by the way people behave towards each other during interactions. In this context, politeness is taken to mean good manners such as greeting, acknowledging and thanking others. Taking the cue from the Malaysian government which emphasizes on showing good manners, this paper examines the public transactions of front counter staff and patients in nine Malaysian private hospitals. Focus was given to the use of openings and closings in 158 transactions which were extracted over a period of three months via close observations which were allowed by the gatekeepers manning the front counters. Data were then orthographically transcribed. Brown and Levinson’s (1987) notion of politeness and the Malaysian concept of good manners such as greeting and thanking were applied as a framework. Our analysis indicates that front counter staff in private hospitals employed more impolite openings but at the end of the transactions, they used more polite closings. A closer analysis of the data indicates that these polite closings were often given in response to patients’ initiations. Although our findings are small in comparison, we believe they will benefit researchers of communication, curriculum designers and practitioners as these findings clearly indicate that there is a need for professional communication skills to be taught and implemented in service industries. Penerbit UKM 2013-02 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/6041/1/2220-4390-1-SM.pdf Kuang, Ching Hei and David, Maya Khemlani and Lau, Su Kia (2013) Politeness of front counter staff of Malaysian Private Hospitals. GEMA: Online Journal of Language Studies, 13 (1). pp. 5-23. ISSN 1675-8021 http://www.ukm.my/ppbl/Gema/gemahome.html |
| spellingShingle | Kuang, Ching Hei David, Maya Khemlani Lau, Su Kia Politeness of front counter staff of Malaysian Private Hospitals |
| title | Politeness of front counter staff of Malaysian Private Hospitals
|
| title_full | Politeness of front counter staff of Malaysian Private Hospitals
|
| title_fullStr | Politeness of front counter staff of Malaysian Private Hospitals
|
| title_full_unstemmed | Politeness of front counter staff of Malaysian Private Hospitals
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| title_short | Politeness of front counter staff of Malaysian Private Hospitals
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| title_sort | politeness of front counter staff of malaysian private hospitals |
| url | http://journalarticle.ukm.my/6041/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/6041/ http://journalarticle.ukm.my/6041/1/2220-4390-1-SM.pdf |