Abstract:
Emojis have changed the landscape of communication ever since people discovered putting a colon and a close parenthesis together made a smile. To this day, its ubiquitous presence penetrates the different aspects of life including relationships and work. This study takes a qualitative approach to investigate how emojis were used in the rapport management of a local government unit (LGU) in CALABARZON. Through a semi-structured interview with nine LGU employees, the researcher determined the types of emojis used by the employees and their frequency, motives, context, and purpose of emoji usage in workplace communication. The data were analyzed using deductive and inductive analyses guided by the framework approach. The responses were examined through the lens of the rapport management model by Helen Spencer-Oatey which recognizes three fundamental elements of rapport namely face, sociality rights and obligations, and interactional goals in order to examine its role in managing the interpersonal bonds of the employees. The findings revealed that the employees used emojis as support to accommodate their face sensitivities, respond to the factors that affect their behavioral expectations, and support their interactional purposes when communicating for and at work. Overall, emojis were found to be helpful when managing rapport in the professional setting and improving interpersonal relationships in the workplace. Future studies are recommended to explore other graphicons as well as the emoji usage in other industries.
