POLITENESS IN STAFF-CLIENTS INTERACTION: A STUDY OF NNAMDI AZIKIWE UNIVERSITY SERVICE ENCOUNTER

Abstract

This study focuses on the analysis of politeness strategies in some government public offices using Nnamdi Azikiwe University ASUU(teaching staff) members and College of Post Graduate Studies as study samples. The aim is to identify and describe politeness strategies applied by the officers in their daily encounters with their clients, paying attention to the politeness strategies effects and effectiveness in achieving their job objectives. We all have expectations as to how we desire to be addressed or talked to by people we meet in our day to day activities. The study of politeness therefore is the study of the ways in which these expectations are met or otherwise. Being polite linguistically involves speaking to people appropriately especially in public offices like such under study. Hence politeness is regarded as the linguistic expression of social relationships. The qualitative descriptive research design was adopted for this study. The study data were carefully collected using personal notes and observations. Politeness strategies were identified using Brown and Levinson (1987) as theoretical framework. The findings revealed that the most frequently used strategy is the positive politeness strategy of greeting between client and staff. For negative politeness, different strategies constitute the most used strategies while apologies are the least used. This study contributes to our understanding of politeness in institutional settings and provides insights for training staff in effective communication strategies to improve service quality. The study concludes that although the staff show semblance of politeness, it is conditional because it depends on their mood as well as the clients.