Research On Relationship Management Strategies In Tripartite Communication

Triadic communication is common in daily life.However,most of the researches on interpersonal relationship do not take into consideration the impact of the third party.Based on the discourse of triadic communication in the job-hunting TV program ‘You Are Hired’ and the theoretical framework of Spencer-Oatey’s rapport management model,this thesis aims to study the strategies adopted by the third party to manage interpersonal relations in triadic communication.81 rescue actions are collected as relationship management in 71 programs taken by the third party.It is found that the third party,as a rescuer,usually adopts three kinds of super strategies to manage interpersonal relationships,namely,convergence strategy,divergence strategy and transfer strategy.The three super strategies can be divided into 13 sub strategies in terms of cognition,identity and emotion.At the same time,they are also used with mitigators.According to the classification of identity,the third party can be divided into interviewer and host(Mr.Job).When the third party is with different identity,the management strategies are different.The strategies adopted by the interviewer are more direct than those adopted by the host,while the strategies adopted by the host are more indirect and diverse than those of interviewers.It is found that the reasons for the differences in use may be related to the rapport orientation and contextual variables.