Face-Threatening Acts in the Writing and Presentation of Minutes in Selected Organisational Meetings

This study investigates the face-threatening acts (FTAs) in organizational meetings, with a particular focus on how they are represented in the writing and presentation of minutes across political, religious, and educational institutions in Abuja, Nigeria. Drawing on Brown and Levinson’s (1987) Politeness Theory, the research explores how institutional participants employ four main politeness strategies (bald on record, positive politeness, negative politeness, and off record) to negotiate authority, maintain harmony, and preserve institutional face. Using a qualitative descriptive design, minutes were analyzed as both linguistic and sociocultural artifacts that encode patterns of power, deference, and solidarity. Findings reveal that minute writing is not a neutral act of record keeping but a pragmatic process shaped by cultural norms of respect, hierarchy, and collective identity. Bald-on-record strategies function to assert authority and ensure efficiency; positive politeness strategies build solidarity and motivate cooperation; negative politeness strategies express deference and mitigate imposition; and off-record strategies manage sensitivity through indirectness and depersonalization. The study concludes that organizational minutes are inherently politeness texts that balance administrative precision with relational diplomacy, reflecting the intersection of language, culture, and institutional power in Nigerian workplace communication. Received: 18 November 2025 / Accepted: 31 December 2025 / Published: January 2026