The Complexity of Expressions of Approval—One Aspect of Relational Practice in Diverse Workplaces

ABSTRACT The majority of workplaces in Aotearoa New Zealand typically include team members from diverse cultural backgrounds, and yet an orientation to majority group norms (in this case, Pākehā) still dominates. In this article, we draw on naturally occurring workplace talk in a range of workplaces to explore both dominant group practices and norms that are influenced by differing cultural orientations. Our focus is relational practice, or people‐oriented talk, well recognised as a central part of workplace talk. To make our arguments, we highlight the contrasting ways that approval is expressed and responded to in interactions from organisations where Pākehā norms dominate, along with those found in a Māori‐oriented workplace and a multicultural factory team. In the latter contexts, relationally‐focused strategies are typically characterised as not only positive leadership practices, which are recognised and embraced as culturally‐appropriate, but also as important ways for other team members to enact their workplace identities. The article will demonstrate the centrality of relational practice to all workplace talk and its differing enactments across workplaces, as well as troubling the ongoing gendered and ethnic conceptualisations of relational talk that create bias against anyone outside the hegemonic norms. Some implications for those joining a new workplace and especially for migrants joining New Zealand workplaces are discussed.