Influence of Politeness Maxims during Conflict Resolution in Faith-based Institutions of Higher Learning in Karen Nairobi, Kenya
Abstract
This research paper aimed to explore the influence of politeness maxims during conflict resolution in faith-based institutions of higher learning in Nairobi County, Kenya. The paper was anchored on two theories: Politeness Maxims by Geoffrey Leech (1983) and Austin's (1975) Speech Acts. It appropriated mixed methods of data collection and analysis. Within the bounds of this articulation, questionnaires and interview guides were employed to obtain and analyze quantitative and qualitative data. Purposive and systematic sampling techniques to select 1 Head of Department, 7 Non-academic staff, 3 Academic staff and 160 students from 1st to 4th-year students were used. The findings disclosed that politeness maxims (modesty and generosity) can facilitate conflict resolution in faith-based institutions of higher learning, and the moment people employ the maxims during conflict resolution, by making their comments more generous and modest, harmony and comity will be established. Drawing from the findings and conclusion of the study, the following recommendations were made: the educational practitioners specifically grievance officers should find support and retrieval as a mechanism for conflict redress which is achievable through politeness maxims to pacify hurts and heal grievances, the faith-based institutions should create a conflict resolution desk/unit Department of Human Resource to take charge and instil continuous employment of polite use of language in conflict resolution situation of grievances, tensions, misunderstandings that emanate from the causes of conflict as revealed by the study findings and each Department should be charged with the responsibility to organize seminars, workshops and conferences on a sustainable basis to discuss and reinforce the usage of polite language when trying to resolve any conflict on campus.
Keywords: Conflict, Politeness maxims, Conflict resolution
References
Ani, C. O. (2015). The role of language for peace and conflict resolution. Journal of Research Development, 24(2), 1-6. Retrieved on 13th September, 2020.
Astin, A. W., Astin, H. S., & Lindholm, J. A. (2010). Cultivating the spirit: How college can enhance students’ inner lives. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass/Wiley.
Angus, S. (2010). The Oxford Dictionary, (3ed.). England: Oxford University Press.
Aula, P. & Siira, K. (2010). Organizational communication and conflict management systems:A social complexity approaches. Nordicom Review, 31(1), 125-141. Retrieved on 30th November, 2019.
Bernardo, M. A. C., and Baranovich, D. (2014). “Higher Education in the Heart of Armed Conflict: The Pivotal Role of Student Affairs.” International Journal of Educational Development 35: 78–85. Retrieved on 11th October, 2020.
Bhise, D. M. (2015). Importance of Politeness Principle. International Journal of Multifaceted and Multilingual Studies, 1(7), 1-8. Retrieved on 10th September, 2020.
Bower, L. (2009). Faith-learning interaction in graphic design courses in protestant evangelical colleges and universities. Christian Higher Education, 9(1), 5-27. Retrieved on 4th December 2019.
Brown, P. (2015). Politeness and language. In J. D. Wright (Ed.), the International Encyclopaedia of the Social and Behavioural Sciences (IESBS). Amsterdam: Elsevier.
Cnaan, R. A. (1998). Bowling alone but serving together: The congregational norm of community involvement. Paper presented at conference, Religion, Social Capital, and Democratic Life Conference. Grand Rapids: Calvin College.
Crystal, David. (1990). Linguistics (2nd Ed.). England: Penguin Books.
Dybko, K. (2010). The Role of Politeness in Advertisements’ Slogans: A Study within Gricean Pragmatics. ACTA: Philologica.
Dyatmawan, I. (2015). Politeness maxims applied by characters in movie My Week with Marilyn. Humanis, 13(2), 1-8. Retrieved on 15th October, 2019.
Fleetwood, K. L. (1987). The conflict management styles and strategies of educational Managers (Master’s thesis, University of Delaware, USA). https://scholar.google.com. ph/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q=Fleetwood%2C+K+L.+%281987%29.
Retrieved from on 15t h October, 2019.
Felemban, F. H. (2012). Building up learners; Communicative Competence: The Politeness Principle. Procedia-social and Behavioural Science, 46, 70-76. Retrieved on 19th September, 2020.
Ghaffar, A. (2010). Conflict in schools: Its causes & management strategies. Journal of Managerial Sciences, 3(2), 212-227. Retrieved on 15th October, 2019.
Gulti, B. T. (2014). Conflict and its management styles: Teachers, students, and principals perceptions, the case of Kolfe Keranyo sub-city government secondary schools of Addis Ababa (Doctoral dissertation, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia). Retrieved on 25th October, 2019.
Hill, B., Ide, S., Ikuta, S., Kawasaki, A. & Ogino, T. (1986). Universals of linguistic politeness: Quantitative evidence from Japanese and American English. Journal of Pragmatics, 10, 347-371. Retrieved on 25th October, 2019.
Ide, S. (1989). Formal forms and discernment: Two neglected aspects of linguistic politeness.
Multilingual, 8, 223-248. Retrieved on 15th October, 2019.
Janet, W. (2015). Influence of Principal‟s age on conflict Mgt. Styles in Secondary Schools in Kisumu County, Kenya. International Journal of Scientific and Technology Research, 4 (5), 105-112. Retrieved on 13th September, 2020.
Johnstone, B. (2008). Discourse analysis. Malden: Blackwell.
Kasper, G. (1990). “Linguistic politeness: Current research issues”. Journal of Pragmatics
(2): 193-218. Retrieved on 3rd December, 2019.
Katz, M. (2016). Politeness theory and classification of English speech acts. (Doctoral dissertation, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. https://scholar.google.com. Retrieved on 19th Sept 2020.
Lakoff, R. (1975). Language and women's place. New York: Harper and Row Publishers. Leech, G. (1983). Principles of pragmatics. London and New York: Longman.
Matsuoka, R., Smith, I., & Uchimura, M. (2011). Discourse Analysis of Encouragement in Healthcare Manga. Journal of Pan – Pacific Association of Applied Linguistics, 15(1), 49-66. Retrieved on 8th January, 2020.
Mulyono, E. (2016). Politeness principle analysis in cartoon movie entitled Stand by Me Doraemon. Premise Journal, 5(1), 9-23. Retrieved on 30th October, 2019.
Muthanna, A. (2016). “Plagiarism: A Shared Responsibility of All, Current Situation, and Future Actions in Yemen.” Accountability in Research 23 (5): 280–287. Retrieved on 12th November, 2020.
Opoku-Asare, N. A. A., Takyi, H. & Owusu-Mensah, M. (2015). Conflict prevalence in primary school and how it is understood to affect teaching and learning. Ghana: Sage.
Pishghadam, R. (2011, July). An analysis of the realization of politeness markers in official letters: A cross-cultural study. Paper presented at the 6th International Symposium on Politeness: Corpus Approaches. Turkey: Ankara.
Pishghadam, R. & Navari, S. (2012). A study into politeness strategies and politeness markers in advertisements as persuasive tools. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 3(2), 161-171. Retrieved on 30th October, 2019.
Ramani, K. & Zhimin, L. (2010). A survey on conflict resolution mechanisms in public Secondary schools: A case of Nairobi province, Kenya. Educational Research and Reviews, 5(5), 242. Retrieved on 10th October, 2019.
Scollon, R. & Scollon, S. (2001). Intercultural communication (2nd Ed.). London: Blackwell Publishing.
Sikula, J., & Sikula Sr., A. (2005). Spirituality and service-learning. New Directions for Teaching & Learning, 104, 75-81. Retrieved on 4th December 2019.
Shahmohammadi, N. (2014). Conflict Mgt. among secondary school students. Social and Behaviour Science, (159), 630-635. Retrieved on 13th September, 2020.
Wang, J. & Wei, F. (2016). The application of politeness principle in the analysis of drama: Take Teahouse as an example. Cross-Cultural Communication, 12(5), 35-38. Retrieved on 19th September, 2020.
Woods, N. (2006). Describing discourse. London: Hodder Arnold. Yule. George. (1996). Pragmatics. Hawaii: Oxford University Press.
