De-Gendering of Genderlect, A Case of Higher Education Institutions in Odisha

Relationships and tensions between gender and languag e have intrigued scholars for the past decades. Earl y scholars labelled woman's language as 'deficit' usin g man's language and communication style as a bench mark which triggered criticism from some scholars. Scholars wer e of the opinion that the inferiority of a woman's l inguistic style was a reflection of the role she played in society. The i dea that there is a difference between men and women gives the possibility of a theory based on gendered communication styles. Since the last two to three decades, more and more women have been entering the workforce and there has been a growing d iscussion on gender and language. Minimizing commun ication gap between male and female in the organization plays a ignificant role for the organizational success as the workplace might be impacted by the two styles of communication. Unle ss the communication gap is minimized, the world will look divided and so is the workplace. This paper aims to study t he existence of two types of genderlects and differe nce of the communication style of male and female employees in today’s workplace with the hypothesis that there is no significant difference in the genderlects and the intermingling of the two styles of communication in the organizat ion. It aims to study the differences and similarities between female and male genderlect in the workplace, and to explore degendering of the communication style in genderlects.