Levelling the Hard Pitch of Politics in Organisations Through Code Switching: An Insider View from Education Sector

Abstract

Public sector universities in Pakistan have a strong political and hierarchical structure that leads to power struggles between the managers and subordinates (Shaheen, Abrar, Saleem, Shabbir, and Zulfiqar, 2021). According to Esdahl (2003), all conversations are also battles for power, and in these battles, linguistic resources can be used as tools. Therefore, the current study aims to find how code-switching, as a linguistic resource, is used as a tool to achieve higher status in the power hierarchy by the employees of a higher education institution. This research brings forward the functions of code-switching by observing the actual interactions from a native perspective and exploring the multiple goals achieved through shifting to English and Urdu during the conversation between/among employees in the organization. This paper extends a rare in-depth understanding of the role of code-switching in a public sector institution while giving directions for future research in this field.