The Role of Politeness Strategies in Forming the Public Self-Image of an Organization: 312 UNIVERSITY OF CHITRAL JOURNAL OF LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE VOL. 6 | ISSUE I | JAN – JUNE | 2022 ISSN (E): 2663-1512, ISSN (P): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6iI The Role of Politeness Strategies in Forming the Public Self-Image of an Organization: A Mini-Ethnographic Case Study of the Punjab Police through the Pragmatic Lens 1Abdul Ahad Jajja 2Rashid Hussain 3Iram Arshad 1Lecturer, Faculty of Languages and Literature, University of Central Punjab, Lahore 2Lecturer, Faculty of Languages and Literature, University of Central Punjab, Lahore 3Lecturer, Department of English, National University of Modern Languages, Lahore Abstract The police are an important part of a society, responsible for the upkeep of law and order and listening to the public’s grievances. The latter is the concern of this study, which focuses on analysing the politeness strategies used by the members of the Punjab Police in conversation with the complainants in the police stations of Lahore. Moreover, this paper also studies how politeness strategies are used by the police to impart its own public self- image (face) to the public. The study adopted the politeness strategies framework (positive, negative, bald on-record, off record) outlined originally by Brown and Levinson (1987) to tag utterances exchanged between the police and the complainants. The study used a mini- ethnographic case study for the collection of data from police stations through observations, field notes and semi-structured interviews. Three police stations were observed for triangulation purposes where interactions between the complainants and the front-desk officers were noted down. Moreover, interviews were taken from front-desk officers, sub- inspectors, inspectors and SHOs. The observations and supporting interviews have shown that the police are keen on maintaining a positive face (i.e., maintaining solidarity and cordialness) which was in contrast to the complainants who by default maintained a negative face (i.e., maintained a serious demeanour, and had a more direct, to-the-point attitude). This goes on to show the conscious effort made by the police to maintain a friendly outlook, and shun stereotypical tags of being impolite, rude, and overpowering with the complainants. Keywords: politeness, politeness strategies, Punjab Police Introduction Organizations are formed of a group of people, i.e., the employees, who are working collectively to achieve a goal, or a set of goals, set out by the organization (Glass, 1991; Blau & Scott, 1962; Montana & Charnov, 1993). These people cumulatively form an identity, and thus the public self-image of an organization. The interaction of the employees with the clients of an organization - to be referred here onwards as customers - then becomes a matter of great attention for an organization. It is because this interaction is responsible for disseminating the public self- image of the organization. To know what such a public self-image would entail for an organization, and how politeness plays a role in its dissemination, this study has been conducted. The advantages for organizations of effective communication with customers include successful problem-solving, enhanced customer relationships, saving of time and money, and a better decision-making process (Van Staden et al., 2002). And amongst the elements of a The Role of Politeness Strategies in Forming the Public Self-Image of an Organization: 313 UNIVERSITY OF CHITRAL JOURNAL OF LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE VOL. 6 | ISSUE I | JAN – JUNE | 2022 ISSN (E): 2663-1512, ISSN (P): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6iI meaningful and effective communication is the usage of politeness (Brown & Levinson, 1987; Watts et al., 1992), which is linked directly with the public self-image of the interlocutors. Public self-image has been explained by David Goffman (1959, 1967) as the positive social value an individual lay a claim to within a particular interaction, by the line others assume s/he has taken. Here line refers to the repeated actions that the person does in order to maintain the public image over a period of time. Goffman termed this concept as “face”, which he claimed to be inherent to every person. He also held that most of the people are usually concerned with the opinion that others have of them. To address such a concern, a framework was devised by Brown and Levinson (1987) in the form of their Politeness theory. It propounds that politeness is the act of catering to other individuals face during a conversation, so as not to threaten it (Brown & Levinson, 1987). Similarly, organizations are bodies which communicate with other individuals, as well as other organizations. In doing so, naturally, they are conferred with a public self-image, or face we might call it. This might or might not behave like, or entail the constituents of an individual’s face, and of the usage of politeness, but this paper nonetheless claims its existence and constituents. In order to define the face of an organization, and how politeness comes into play, this study will present a hypothesis and test it out against empirical evidence. Hypothesis It is hypothesised in the current study that there exists a face of an organization, on the same line as Goffman’s (1967) Face and facework theory of individuals. This face will be termed Organizational Face and is defined as the positive corporate value an organization stakes a claim to, and for which it takes a line – that is, it performs certain repeated actions – that its customers come to expect from it over a time. In Goffman’s consideration, face is an image with “approved social attributes”, and an image that others might share as well. Likewise, an organization has a face with sanctioned corporate attributes, whereby its face is also shared by the employees. Thus, an organization has to adopt a particular organizational face and be consistent with it, so that the society ultimately expects the same from it repeatedly. The formulation of Organizational Face takes further inspiration from Brown and Levinson’s (1987) Politeness theory, and their concept of Face-Threatening Acts (FTAs). As such, and by default, an Organizational Face of any rational organization is the desire or want to satisfy its customers and maintain its corporate image. It is hypothesised here that like individuals, organizations too have Organizational Face Wants, and will protect its face wants through facework in an interaction. It will use Organizational Politeness, to allay any threats to its Organizational Face. Moreover, during such a consideration we refer to a Model Organization (MO), on the lines of a Model Person (MP), which is an organization capable of making rational decisions. Face of an organization, as that of an individual, gets threatened via Face Threatening Acts (FTA’s). It’s different here in the sense that the face-threatening acts of the organization towards its customers, rather than the vice versa, threaten the face of an organization. To cope with such a phenomenon, organizations then use Organizational Politeness strategies to mitigate such face threats, the particulars of which is a topic for another study and will not be touched upon here. Face Theory and Politeness Theory Penelope Brown and Stephen Levinson (1987) gave an elaborate account of politeness phenomenon universals. They used the concept of “face” given by Erving Goffman (1967) for describing “human interactions that revolved around being polite” (Redmond, 2015, p. 2). The Role of Politeness Strategies in Forming the Public Self-Image of an Organization: 314 UNIVERSITY OF CHITRAL JOURNAL OF LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE VOL. 6 | ISSUE I | JAN – JUNE | 2022 ISSN (E): 2663-1512, ISSN (P): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6iI Goffman (1967) described face as “the positive social value a person effectively claims for himself (or herself) by the line others assume he (or she) has taken during a particular contact” (p. 5). Using the same concept, Brown and Levinson (1987) outline face as “the want to be unimpeded and the want to be approved of in certain respects” (p. 63). These wants, termed as face-wants, have been categorised into two specific kinds: one being “the desire (in some respects) to be approved of”, termed as positive face wants, and the other being “the desire to be un-impeded in one’s actions”, termed as negative face wants (Brown & Levinson, 1987, p.13). Though Goffman was the one who implied this concept, it were really Brown and Levinson who came up with the two face types, based on the face wants that humans subscribe to, i.e., negative face wants and positive face wants. Fundamental to politeness is the concept of intrinsic Face Threatening Acts (FTA’s) which has been derived from Austin (1962) and Searle’s (1979) speech act theory and adapted accordingly. FTAs are acts which are inherently a threat to the face of the speaker and the addressee engaged in a conversation (Brown & Levinson, 1987). It is therefore in the interest of the participants to avoid FTAs since each participant wants their own face to remain intact and would avoid threatening others’ as well. Brown and Levinson (1987) say that “any rational agent will seek to avoid these face-threatening acts, or will employ certain strategies to minimize the threat” (p. 68). Brown and Levinson (1987) put forward that a rational agent is the one who would take care of the following three wants: 1. The want to communicate the content of the FTA x. 2. The want to be efficient or urgent. 3. The want to maintain H’s face to any degree. Unless (2) is greater than (3), S will want to minimize the threat of his/her FTA. (p. 68) Goffman (1967) deliberated that a person’s own face and that of the other person have the same constructs. Exactly what to feel towards a person’s face is dependent on the dynamics of the interaction group and the self-generated definition of the particular situation. Goffman said a person is in face when the line taken presents an image of the self that is: (1) internally constant, (2) supported by evidence delivered by other participants, and (3) verified by neutral agencies in the situation. In the words of Brown and Levinson (1987), these concepts have been defined as follows: 1. Positive face: “the positive consistent self-image or ‘personality’ (crucially including the desire that this self-image be appreciated and approved of) claimed by interactants” (p. 61). 2. Negative face: “the basic claim to territories, personal pre serves, rights to non-distraction - i.e., to freedom of action and freedom from imposition.” Brown and Levinson (1987) came up with a number of strategies that the speakers can utilize for catering to other people’s positive and negative face wants. These are labelled: 1) bald on-record, as being the most threatening action to the face, followed by 2) positive politeness strategies, 3) negative politeness strategies, and 4) off record strategies being the least threatening. In total there are ten negative politeness strategies, fifteen positive politeness strategies and fifteen off record strategies, which have been laid out by Brown and Levinson. These strategies will help in the sorting and analysis of data. The current study focuses on assessing the threats to both the addressee’s (H) and the speaker’s (S) face wants. It will be through observing the interaction between the organization, i.e., the Police Department and the customers, i.e., the complainants. The Role of Politeness Strategies in Forming the Public Self-Image of an Organization: 315 UNIVERSITY OF CHITRAL JOURNAL OF LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE VOL. 6 | ISSUE I | JAN – JUNE | 2022 ISSN (E): 2663-1512, ISSN (P): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6iI Methodology Mini-Ethnographic Case Study This is a qualitative study and uses the mini-ethnographic case study for the collection of data. This model is a combination of an ethnography and a case study, in order to tailor fit research studies which, aim at having the best of both methods while attempting to negate the shortcomings (Fusch et. al., 2017). It remains helpful in managing the time constraints of a study, which otherwise the aforementioned two approaches do not cater to. Moreover, it allows for variety in methods especially for areas of limited access such as the police station in the current study. The following was also kept in mind while choosing this particular and novel approach, “a study design that enables one to best answer the research question (or hypothesis) …that assists the researcher in reaching data saturation and…can complete the study within a reasonable time frame with minimal cost. (Fusch et. al., 2017, p. 923)” Methods A number of data collection methods have been utilized, as provided by this methodology. The fieldwork includes (1) direct observation, of the interaction between the complainants and the police, (2) field notes, for jotting down helpful observations during the tenure of the field work and finally (3) semi-structured interviews with the selected participants (Fusch et. al., 2017). With these data collection methods, the research tool of open-ended questionnaires, as well as the researcher himself, were used to delve deeper into the understanding of concepts of face of the interviewees, and the general phenomenon. For the general guideline for doing qualitative research, instructions as laid out in Robert K. Yin’s (2016), “Qualitative Research from Start to Finish” were followed during the planning stage, and during the fieldwork, for the accurate execution of this mini-ethnographic case study. The current study focuses on language, and the data collection emphasizes especially on the complaint process, where observations were made of the interaction between public and police, for possible face-threatening acts, and usage of politeness strategies. It was supplemented through data from the semi-structured interviews of the police, and the public. Visits were made to a total of three police stations, all of which were visited in a single day. A total of nine interviews were conducted which included two complainants, two SHO’s, two SI’s, two front-desk officers, and one moharrir. Similarly, apart from observations during interviews, specific observations were taken into consideration of three complainants, of which two were also interviewed. Each of the complainants interacted with a different ranked police officer, i.e., with a SHO, a front-desk officer, and an investigation officer respectively. On an average one hour at each police station was spent. Politeness Strategies Framework The data would be analysed using Brown and Levinson’s (1987) politeness strategies framework. This framework details the different type of strategies for different politeness levels. Brown and Levinson came up with a total of 15 strategies for performing positive politeness, 10 strategies for performing negative politeness and 15 strategies for when a person remains off- record. These strategies were used as the basis for the analysis. The speech of the participants during the observation and interview was classified according to the types of strategies they used during interlocution. In a regular conversation, the participants would normally use all of the above politeness strategies, and the same would be true for the participants under observation for this study. However, the ones who use a particular set of strategies more often would obviously inform The Role of Politeness Strategies in Forming the Public Self-Image of an Organization: 316 UNIVERSITY OF CHITRAL JOURNAL OF LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE VOL. 6 | ISSUE I | JAN – JUNE | 2022 ISSN (E): 2663-1512, ISSN (P): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6iI us more about their conversation styles and politeness usage. This would enable in the analysis of the police officers and complainants’ speech pattern, and potentially inform about who among these is more polite and uses what kind of politeness. The below schematics give a fairer idea of all the possible strategies suggested by Brown and Levinson. Figure 1 Positive Politeness strategies schematic (Brown and Levinson, 1987, p. 102) Figure 2 Negative Politeness strategies schematic (Brown and Levinson, 1987, p. 131) Figure 3 Off record strategies schematic (Brown and Levinson, 1987, p. 214) The Role of Politeness Strategies in Forming the Public Self-Image of an Organization: 317 UNIVERSITY OF CHITRAL JOURNAL OF LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE VOL. 6 | ISSUE I | JAN – JUNE | 2022 ISSN (E): 2663-1512, ISSN (P): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6iI Population The Punjab Police of Lahore is the population of this study, and has been delimited to only the police stations of Lahore. Moreover, all the other departments of the Punjab Police, for example the traffic police, special branch, etc., have not been included in this study. Lahore with its huge population of over 15 million citizens, as per Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (2017) recent survey, has people of a diverse social class. Lahore was chosen primarily for its ease of access to the researchers and for traversing, as well as for its wide network of police stations, amounting to a total of 89. The stations are split into policing “Circles”, and these are further classified under the six administrative “Divisions” of Lahore. Sample Stratified sampling technique was used to look for a sufficiently representable data which had a minimum chance of bias. It enabled for control on the sample under study while at the same time ensuring randomness of the selections. The stratification allowed the researcher to cater to the hierarchy of the police stations, by taking into account divisions and circles. Therefore, for the proper representation of the population, a police station from each of the divisions was demarcated, which sum up to six. The six of these police station were selected at random from each of the divisions, without any regard to the police circles. The divisions of Lahore include the following: 1. Saddar Division 2. Iqbal Town Division 3. Cantonment Division 4. Model Town Division 5. City Division 6. Civil Lines Division Despite the ambitious target of six police stations, the researcher managed to access only three police stations due to the exertion required for gaining access to the stations, as well as due to the time constraints of the study. Nonetheless, three was the least number of police stations required for purposes of triangulation, and this goal was sufficiently achieved. The police stations eventually studied were from the Cantonment Division, City Division and Civil Lines Division respectively. Ethical Considerations The Role of Politeness Strategies in Forming the Public Self-Image of an Organization: 318 UNIVERSITY OF CHITRAL JOURNAL OF LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE VOL. 6 | ISSUE I | JAN – JUNE | 2022 ISSN (E): 2663-1512, ISSN (P): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6iI In view of the sensitivity surrounding such a study, certain information has been redacted and/or kept confidential to avoid possible identification of the personnel involved. This step included retracting the exact police stations name’s where the study took place, as well as the names of the police officers. Permission for audio as well as video recordings, either overtly or covertly, was not provided by the concerned officers and were avoided during the interviews, rather, hand-notes were made use of for data collection. Due permission, verbally, was taken from the heads of the police stations, to conduct the field work and observe the happenings in the police station. A permission letter, authorised by the thesis supervisor, was kept at hand and shown wherever asked. Observations at the Police Stations Among the observations made at the police stations, one was of how the hierarchy of the police played a role in the interaction with the public. Police stations only had police officers of grade BPS-16 and below, meaning the public only came in direct contact with the lower ranked police officials. Among these officials, first contact of the public was with a Front-desk Officers, or in some cases with a moharrir (note taker) who are at the entry-level rank. If the complaint is of a serious nature and time taking, only then the complainants got to interact with higher ranked officials in a police station. One of the first signs of cognizance among the police of the need to enhance its organizational face, is the establishment of front-desks in almost every police station in Punjab. As per the official website of the Punjab Police, front desks were set up back in the year 2016, when major police reforms came about after the model town massacre in which over 14 student protestors were killed amidst violent clashes (2016). These are a separate, renovated area within a police station where the complainants file their complaints. The front-desk officers are unranked and newly recruited graduates, without any uniforms who work more like customer support agents than police officers. They use formal language, including proper salutations and greetings coupled with serious cum polite behaviour. Analysis and Discussion Interviews of Police Officers The first question asked from the participants was about their belief in the existence of their organization’s face, put to them as its public self-image (translated in Urdu as khaaqa for one participant). Across the board, the interviewees accepted unanimously that the police had a face, which they defined as the police’s self-image among the public. The answer to the question that followed shows the correct interpretation of the concept of face by the participants. The second question asked the participants about the kind or type of public self-image that the police would like to portray to the public, through communication. Most interviewees proceeded to answer this question in continuation with the first question. This act reflected on the participant’s part their increasing willingness to communicate what constituted their organizational face. Once again, a common ground was achieved on the answers to the second question. The responses included the police being considered as “caring”, “a people’s servant”, “cooperating”, “a public helper” and “property of the public”. The interviewees painted a similar picture of the expected face of the police. Some interviewees went back in time to blame the tarnished image of the police on the image associated with the British Indian mode of policing and with it, which has not been fully gotten rid of. Media, especially electronic, was singled out as the chief reason for the maligned image of the police. The interviewees credited exaggerated one-sided news stories as well as the The Role of Politeness Strategies in Forming the Public Self-Image of an Organization: 319 UNIVERSITY OF CHITRAL JOURNAL OF LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE VOL. 6 | ISSUE I | JAN – JUNE | 2022 ISSN (E): 2663-1512, ISSN (P): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6iI negative depiction of police in films and teledramas as being counter to their efforts of portraying the expected face of the police. Table 1 Police Officers’ response summary Sr. Questions Aggregate Responses 1 Do you believe your organization has a public self-image? They unanimously answered in a “Yes”. 2 What kind of public self-image would you like to portray through communication? They wanted to promote themselves as “caring”, “cooperating”, “property of the public”, “a people’s servant” and “a public helper”. 3 How do you portray your organization’s public self-image? The public self-image is portrayed through “politeness”, “front-desks”, “social media”, “civility”, “polite language”, “traditional media” “courtesy”, and “chai (tea)’. 4 Has it ever happened that the actions of a complainant threatened the public image of the police? Complainants’ acts didn’t hurt the public image, it only affected the internal proceedings, through, “vendetta”, “darkhwast baazi” (constant appealing) and “revenge”. 5 Has it ever happened that the actions of an employee threatened the public image of the police? It has and mostly by “the lower cadre officers” who are in contact with the public. Moreover, it was through “impolite behaviour” and due to its “biased media reporting”. The third question asked the interviewees how the police was trying to portray its face. Yielding varied replies, the police officer who were more mindful of the current affairs of the organization were better able to answer the questions. As was expected, the newly introduced front-desks was on the top of agenda for all, claiming that introduction of this measure was a step towards improving the image of the police. Courtesy was pointed out as one of the other factors in bettering the image of police, and it was done through acts of politeness, and offering tea to the complainants on their arrival to the station. Continuing the same trend, the fourth question yielded answers with unanimity, asking the interviewees whether the actions of the complainants could threaten the public self-image of the police. The case of darkhwast baazi (incessant appealing) meted out to the police officers by some ill-behaved complainants resonated with all the respondents. This is a case in which an application is written against some of the police officers to the gazetted police officers, usually revolving around the mishandling of their cases, who then take action against the lower ranked officers. This unruly behaviour of the applicants was also attributed to a lack of understanding of the law and jurisdiction of the police. But importantly, no such cases were reported in which acts of the complainants were responsible for hurting the public image of the police, resonating with the hypothesis’s claim. The fifth and last question from the interviewees was whether the actions of the police officials had any impact on the public self-image of the police. A SHO of a police station pointed towards the police employees of the lower cadre, who also happen to be the ones most in contact The Role of Politeness Strategies in Forming the Public Self-Image of an Organization: 320 UNIVERSITY OF CHITRAL JOURNAL OF LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE VOL. 6 | ISSUE I | JAN – JUNE | 2022 ISSN (E): 2663-1512, ISSN (P): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6iI with the general public, as the major contributors of threats to the face of the police. He pointed towards the impolite behaviour by the police officials with the public as the cause for the degradation of the organizations image. Interviewees were adamant at pointing at the presence of good and bad people in any organization, and claimed same was the case with the police. This shows the constant mindset towards maintenance of face by the police officials, that when faced with a scenario of interviews and possibly of a chance at improving their own image, they would lunge at it. That is not to say the same also happens while the actual day to day affairs are happening. One interviewee pointed to the old setup of moharrirs as bribe takers in order to timely dispense of the people’s complaints. Claiming that media was keen on picking up such incidents and had a propensity of reporting these quite vociferously, which led to considerable damage to the police’s image. The interviewers emphasized that since the actions of a few individuals had impact on the whole organization, the department had strict measures in place to take action against such troublesome individuals in the department. The Police-Complainant Interaction Compared to the police officials, not a lot of complainants were available for the interviews during the period of the fieldwork, so much so that a proper interview became possible. The rest two complainants were simply observed during the fieldwork, in order to understand their correspondence with the police officers. The first of the observations was made of three people, who came to the police station for lodging a lost item complaint. Initial observation gave an impression that the complainants lived abroad, probably in an English-speaking country due to their conversation being in a British accented English. During their interaction with the female front desk officer, highly animated and at times frustrated conversation took place. The complainants wanted the complaint challan to be backdated by a day due to insurance requirements, however, the front-desk officer pointed out the computer program as not being able to perform such an action. A senior police officer, seeing the tense environment, came from across the room to intervene and ask the matter himself. “Madam ji, aapka kia masla hai?” (Madam, what is bothering you?), asked the officer. “Mera wallet gum gaya hai, uski complaint lodge karwani aur mujhay sirf slip chahiye insurance claim karnay k liye.” (I’ve lost my wallet and I’ve to lodge its complaint so I can get a complaint slip), replied the complainant. The officer asked for clarification from the front-desk officer, and then moved to the complainant for further information. Assessing the scenario, he suggested the complainant to go for filing a FIR, which, however the complainant was reluctant to do. “Madam mein to kahoun ga k aap FIR katwa lain, chori ka case hai.” (Madam, I would suggest you get a FIR registered, since it’s a robbery case), the officer insisted. The complainant conversed with her fellows in English lamenting the state of affairs of the police organization, and venting her frustration. “They’re not gonna help us. Such unprofessional behaviour they have.”, she quipped. It’s quite evident from this chain of events that the police officer was not complying with the complainant’s negative face, rather was using positive politeness strategies for conversation, as referenced in the Table 2. The officer was adamant at giving his advice and said, “Mein to aapko yehi mashwara doun ga k aap chori ki information bhi dalwa dain.” (I would suggest that you get the information of the money added in the report as well). The complainants were dead set on what they wanted, and were looking back and forth at the front-desk officer and the police officer for clues, before finally leaving with the slip they got. The Role of Politeness Strategies in Forming the Public Self-Image of an Organization: 321 UNIVERSITY OF CHITRAL JOURNAL OF LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE VOL. 6 | ISSUE I | JAN – JUNE | 2022 ISSN (E): 2663-1512, ISSN (P): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6iI In the above interactions, the female front-desk officer had a more focused and serious demeanour with the complainants, and conversed in Urdu, using mostly negative politeness. However, the senior police officer frequently code-switched between Urdu and Punjabi, and used positive politeness strategies, and disregarded face of the complainants. The complainants were using bald-on record strategies, mixed with negative politeness, as can be expected from someone in distress. It is a case of what Goffman (1967) describes as being out of face. Keeping in mind the critical situation, the researcher approached the complainant for an interview. Initially being denied by the female chief complainant, her younger fellow obliged. The second question was asked straight on, to which he was sure that an organization had the responsibility, to cater to the public’s face. He, however, also expressed concern at the mishandling of their complaint, and the treatment meted out to them. However, he did agree that the police behaved politely but lamented that it was of no use since their queries were not catered to, pointing to the police being out of face. This point is interesting, since theoretically, polite behaviour usually comes at the cost of Grice’s (1975) Maxims of Cooperation, in this particular case the Maxims of Quantity (give enough information and not more) and Relation (only say what is required). Another observation was made of a man, in his forties and of low-income strata, pleading to the SHO for leniency. The SHO knew him already and used positive politeness strategies with him. He came with a plea to allow his little stall in the outskirts of a university, which had been ordered removed as part of a crackdown against cigarettes sellers outside universities. “Janab, tussi ay karo k koi hor shay rakh lo apnay khokhay tay. Bachay bohat si shaiwan kha lainday. Nimko waghera lay k rakho.” (How about you put some other things at your stall. Students like variety. Consider having nimko.) said the police officer. “Sir ji, mein tawanno das raya, bachay ay shaiwan nai lainday. Thora jeya reham karo, minno na hatawo.” (Sir, I’m telling you; students don’t eat such stuff. Have mercy, and don’t remove my stall.) appealed the complainant. In these responses the police officer is seen strategies of positive politeness such as S7: Small talk, S8: Joke and S9: Presuppose H’s concerns. The SHO remained quite affable despite having an unwavering stance and showed solidarity by being mostly positively polite. The pleader constantly maintained a negative face, and went on to cry while pleading, which did not put a dent on the SHO’s demeanour, and neither on solidarity. Table 2 Comparison of politeness strategies usage by police officials and complainants Police Officers Officer 1 (SI) Officer 2 (SI) Officer 3 (Front-desk Officer) Officer 4 (SHO) Face Mainly Positive Mainly Positive Slightly Negative Mainly Positive Complainant Complainant 1 Complainant 2 Complainant 3 Face Slightly Negative Mainly Negative Slightly Negative The Role of Politeness Strategies in Forming the Public Self-Image of an Organization: 322 UNIVERSITY OF CHITRAL JOURNAL OF LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE VOL. 6 | ISSUE I | JAN – JUNE | 2022 ISSN (E): 2663-1512, ISSN (P): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6iI Some extracts (Of police officials) “Chaa tay piyo gay tussi?” (Would you like some tea?) “Mein to aapko kahoun ga k iski FIR bhi daair karwa dain. Chori ka case hai, baad mein aapka hi bhalla hai.” (I would recommend that you file a FIR. It’s a case of a robbery, and would benefit you later.) “Ma’am, aapka kaam hojaye ga, aap fikar na kijiye.” (Ma’am, your query will be resolved, don’t worry.) “Yar mein tawano tajweez daina k tussi apnay khokhay tay koi hor shaiwan rakh lawo, koi nimko waghera.” (I would recommend that you stock up your stall with other things too, like nimko and stuff.) Politeness Strategies Positive: S1: Notice/attend to H needs, S7: Small talk Negative: - Bald on- record: Very less Off record: - Positive: S1: Notice/attend to H needs, S3: Intensify interest to H, S5: Seek agreement, S6: Avoid disagreement, S7: Small talk, S9: Presuppose H’s concerns, S13: S asks for reasons Negative: S8: State FTA as a general rule Bald on-record: Very less Off record: - Positive: S1: Notice/attend to H needs, S6: Avoid disagreement, S9: Presuppose H’s concerns, S11: Be optimistic, S13: Give (or ask for) reasons Negative: S1: Conventionally indirect, S2: Question, hedge, S4: Minimize the imposition, S5: Give deference, S6: Apologize, S8: State the FTA as a general rule Bald on-record: Very less Off record: - Positive: S1: Notice/attend to H needs, S3: Intensify interest to H, S5: Seek agreement, S6: Avoid disagreement, S7: Small talk, S8: Joke, S9: Presuppose H’s concerns Negative: S4: Minimize the imposition, Rx, S5: Give deference to H, S8: State FTA as a general rule Bald on-record: Very less Off record: S14: S displaces H Does S Cater to H’s Face? Insufficiently Insufficiently Sufficiently Insufficiently Conclusion The study has given interesting insights to the usage of politeness by the police and by the complainants. One of the trends visible from the observations and supporting interviews is that the police were keen on maintaining a positive face. Such a face type claims that the person is more willing to maintain solidarity and cordialness with the other conversant. This is the type of face used mostly with friends and with close kin with whom there is a cordial relation. It makes sense The Role of Politeness Strategies in Forming the Public Self-Image of an Organization: 323 UNIVERSITY OF CHITRAL JOURNAL OF LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE VOL. 6 | ISSUE I | JAN – JUNE | 2022 ISSN (E): 2663-1512, ISSN (P): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6iI for the police to go ahead with this approach considering that the interviews revealed the Punjab Police’s active approach in improving their image in front of the public as a friendly and people- first institute. On the contrary, it was observed that the complainants by default maintained a negative face, which is not at all surprising considering the complainants were in distress and in no mood for cordiality. This face type claims that the person is maintaining a serious demeanour, and has a more direct, to-the-point attitude. Such a style is typical of conversations with strangers, at the workplace and at formal settings. This study has eventually shown that there is a conscious effort being made by the Punjab Police to maintain a friendly outlook. Their eventual goal is to shun the stereotypical tags of being impolite, rude and overpowering with the complainants. By using positive politeness with the complainants, the police are trying to do exactly this where complainants are treated more as friendly visitors in distress whose complaints need to be heard and resolved in an amicable manner. Recommendations With the insights provided by this study into the relation between effective language usage and the general image of an organizations, it paves way for further studies into the phenomenon by linguistic, pragmatic and management scholars, as well as by government researchers. The study recommends organizations to put focus on training their employees on the usage of language that promotes their organization’s face as well as cater to the customer’s face. Moreover, the Punjab Police ought to learn from this study the importance of building their own. It needs to especially train the lower cadre, who are more in contact with the public. The Role of Politeness Strategies in Forming the Public Self-Image of an Organization: 324 UNIVERSITY OF CHITRAL JOURNAL OF LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE VOL. 6 | ISSUE I | JAN – JUNE | 2022 ISSN (E): 2663-1512, ISSN (P): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6iI References Austin, J. (1962). How to do things with words. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Blau, P. M., & Scott, W. R. (1962). Formal organizations: A comparative approach. San Francisco: Chandler, pg. 5 Brown, P., and Levinson, S. (1987). Politeness: some universals in language usage. Cambridge: Cambridge university press. Front desks changing police face | Punjab Police. (2016). Punjabpolice.gov.pk. Retrieved 18 May 2022, from https://www.punjabpolice.gov.pk/node/4443 Fusch, P. I., Fusch, G. E., & Ness, L. R. (2017). 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(2003). Politeness (Key Topics in Sociolinguistics). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511615184 Watts, Richard, Ide, Sachiko & Konrad Ehlich. (1992). Introduction. In Richard Watts, Sachiko Ide & Konrad Ehlich (eds.) Politeness in Language. Studies in its history, theory and practice, 1–17. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Yin, R. K. (2016). Qualitative research from start to finish. New York: Guilford Press. https://www.punjabpolice.gov.pk/node/4443 The Role of Politeness Strategies in Forming the Public Self-Image of an Organization: 325 UNIVERSITY OF CHITRAL JOURNAL OF LINGUISTICS AND LITERATURE VOL. 6 | ISSUE I | JAN – JUNE | 2022 ISSN (E): 2663-1512, ISSN (P): 2617-3611 https://doi.org/10.33195/jll.v6iI Appendix A Questionnaire From the Police Organization 1. Do you believe your organization has a public self-image? (Kia aap samajhtay/samajhti hain k aapkay idaray ka aik image hai?) 2. What kind of public self-image would you like to portray through communication? (Aap apnay idaray ki kia image zaahir karna chaahtay hain, khaas tor pay zubaan k istemaal say?) 3. How do you portray your organization’s public self-image? (Aap apnay idaray ki image ko kis tarah ayaan kartay hain?) 4. Has it ever happened that the actions of a complainant threatened the public image of the police? (Kabhi kisi darkhwast guzaar ki kisi harkat say aapkay idaray ki image kharab houi?) 5. Has it ever happened that the actions of an employee threatened the public image of the police? (Kabhi kisi mulaazim ki kisi harkat say aapkay idaray ki image kharab houi?) From Complainants 1. Do you believe that you have a public self-image? (Kia aap samajhtay/samajhti hain k aapki koi image hai?) 2. Do you feel that an organization should cater to your public self-image? (Kia aap samajhtay/samajhti hain k aik idara aapki image ko khatarkhwa mein laaye?) 3. Was your face catered to during the interaction with the police? (Kia aapki image ko khatarkhwa mein rakha gaya jab aap nay police say baat cheet ki?) 4. Did you feel the police used polite language? (Kia police nay aapkay saath polite/naram mazaji ka rawaiya ikhtiar kia?) @ 2022 by the author. Licensee University of Chitral, Journal of Linguistics & Literature, Pakistan. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).