Proposed Title:

A linguistic analysis of the adaption of the Scandinavian management style in the Asian business environment

3. Methodology Data and Population: The data currently includes long interviews with 28 Scandinavian and Asian business leaders who work in Singapore and around Asia. These interviews have all in all rendered more than 40 hours of interview time. Method: A linguistic framework broadly based on the Hallidayan systemic functional linguistics (SFL) school of thought will be adopted. In Hallidayan functional grammar, there are three distinct metafunctions in the inherent organization of language: experiential or ideational - used in construing a model of experience. This also includes the logical metafunction that is used in constructing logical relations interpersonal - used in enacting social relationships and textual - used to create a relevance to context Since the purpose of this work is to trace via linguistic analysis, the adaption of the Scandinavian management style and thinking in the Asian business environment, the framework will concentrate on investigating the ideational and interpersonal dimensions of language in use. I have favoured such a resolution because the expressive value as well as the experiential meanings indicate, better than the other functionalities of mode and textual meanings, the social identities conferred upon interviewees, thus allowing for a revelation of their attitudes, thoughts and ideas. These functions are expressed at the discourse semantics level in language and in the lexicogrammatical system of transitivity, mood and theme, where people, language and thought constitute a symbiotic relationship so that the intrinsic functionality of language is inevitably attached to the organization of the social context. The main agents of analysis will be taken from the (a) transitivity system. Transitivity analysis looks at transformations of the clause such as nominalizations and passivizations which are highly revealing of thought and attitudes in a person. The are six main process types to be looked into, including material, behavioural, mental, verbal, relational and existential; (b) lexical choices of the interviewees that renders possible a paradigmatic and syntagmatic analysis or sentence structure. Expressive lexis such as adjectives for example, may entail value-laden connotations, thus unveiling attitudes and thoughts of the interviewees; (c) pronouns and their use, that help indicate the 'point of view' of the interviewee, from which angle do they construct their views and how do they see the 'others' can be revealing in ideational and interpersonal contexts of analyses.

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