Power and vulnerability: managing sensitive language in organizational communication
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Volume
14
Pagination
1266425 - ?
Publisher
DOI
10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1266425
Journal
Frontiers in Psychology
ISSN
1664-1078
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Organizational responsibilities can give people power but also expose them to
scrutiny. This tension leads to divergent predictions about the use of potentially
sensitive language: power might license it, while exposure might inhibit it.
Analysis of peoples’ language use in a large corpus of organizational emails
using standardized Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) measures shows
a systematic dierence in the use of words with potentially sensitive (ethnic,
religious, or political) connotations. People in positions of relative power are ∼3
times less likely to use sensitive words than people more junior to them. The
tendency to avoid potentially sensitive language appears to be independent of
whether other people are using sensitive language in the same email exchanges,
and also independent of whether these words are used in a sensitive context.
These results challenge a stereotype about language use and the exercise
of power. They suggest that, in at least some circumstances, the exposure
and accountability associated with organizational responsibilities are a more
significant influence on how people communicate than social power.