Conceptualizing the Organizational Role of Technical Communicators: A Systems Approach

Abstract

Little has been written about the organizational role of technical communica tors. Using a systems approach to organizational theory, we argue that techni cal communicators engage in tasks that permit them to function as "boundary spanners. "As boundary spanners, technical communicators both disseminate and make sense of information required for coordination between organiza tional groups and for effective responses to the environment. We discuss the implications of this position for managing and educating technical communi cators.

Article: What We Teach and What They Use: Teaching and Learning in Scientific and Technical Communication Programs and Beyond

“…First, she used it to suggest that problem solving is recursive, that the movement across the gap is back and forth, not a single one-way trip. And second, her use of it confirms Harrison and Debs's (1998) claim that the importance of technical and scientific communicators as boundary spanners "goes considerably beyond their ability to act as conduits for information flow. .…”

Managing organisational writing to enhance corporate credibility

“…5 It is the former category of corporate writer the author is referring to in this paper: the professional who has received no specialised training in writing, not the career technical writers or journalists who see themselves primarily as writers and who typically write specialised documents based on or reporting on 'the activities of others'. 6 The author's observations arise out of her experiences as a long-term corporate consultant to public and private sector organisations; as a university teacher of corporate writing in both Australia and the USA; as a reviewer for Business Communication Quarterly; as an author of two books in which she deals with corporate writing; and as a researcher in the workplace writing of professionals such as engineers, lawyers, information technologists and public relations practitioners.…”

Spanning the Boundaries: Support for Media Rights Among Public Relations Practitioners, Journalists, and the Public

“…As such, practitioners belong to a larger class of personnel identified by students of organizational behavior as boundary spanners. Boundary spanning is often performed by more than one person whose job is to disseminate information to minimize conflict and to coordinate the activities of key groups (Friedman & Podolny, 1992;Harrison & Debs, 1988). Organizations can be described as boundary spanning if they exhibit high levels of collaboration, communication, and participatory decision making (Murphy, 1991).…”