Connections and Fissures: Discipline Formation in Business Communication

Graham, Margaret B. W.; Thralls, Charlotte

doi:10.1177/002194369803500101

Cited by 18 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…Employers understand communication as a value-adding activity, not merely the transmission of information from one party to another. An instrumental focus has been central to the traditional business communication curriculum, and while some have questioned the inattention to theoretical concerns (Cohen, Musson, & Tietze, 2005) or noted the political hazards of functioning as a service course (Graham & Thralls, 1998), the pragmatic focus on clear, appropriate message construction remains central. This is not to say we have not noted the value of integrated assignments.…”

Section: Conclusion and Next Stepsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Communication Activities in the 21st Century Business Environment

Cyphert

Holke-Farnam

Dodge

et al. 2019

Business and Professional Communication Quarterly

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Effective undergraduate instruction requires accurate knowledge of professional communication practices and employer expectations, but ongoing contradictions between academic and professional expectations reflect historical, rhetorical, and pedagogical causes for inaccurate presumptions. Taking a customer service perspective, one business faculty revised its undergraduate goals in terms of empirically determined employer expectations. Interviewing professionals familiar with expectations of entry-level business graduates, the authors identified 10 communication activities, each comprising three to nine subtasks that constitute entry-level communication competencies. The results suggest a need to reconsider traditional curricular organization and instructional focus across the business curriculum to develop relevant skills across all business majors.

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Section: Conclusion and Next Stepsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Communication Activities in the 21st Century Business Environment

Cyphert

Holke-Farnam

Dodge

et al. 2019

Business and Professional Communication Quarterly

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“…Finally, progressive disciplinary convergence may contribute to a re-deÞnition of status and boundaries, which has preoccupied (mainly US) business communica-tion scholars, sometimes at the expense of contents, priorities and collaborative work (Shaw 1993;Reinsch 1996;Baker Graham and Thralls 1998;Verluyten 1997).…”

Section: Business Discourse: Old Debates New Horizons 275mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In their Guest Editorial for the 1998 special issue of the Journal of Business Communication on Discipline Formation, Baker Graham and Thralls (1998) lament the elusiveness of a common subject and method, after the failure of multidisciplinarity to provide a coherent identity. One solution could lie in a methodological shift.…”

Section: Business Discourse: Old Debates New Horizons 275mentioning

confidence: 99%

Business discourse: Old debates, new horizons

Bargiela‐Chiappini¹,

Nickerson²

2002

IRAL - International Review of Applied Linguistics in Language Teaching

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The aim of this introductory article is twofold: (1) to locate business discourse in the context of some of the most salient debates within its cognate discipline, i.e., business communication, thus acknowledging epistemological and methodological indebtedness; and (2) to encourage the discussion around a distinct paradigm for business discourse as a new Þeld of study by sketching out a Þrst analytical framework that draws on multidisciplinary research and promotes multimethod research. The article argues that the Þrst step towards a future multidisciplinary identity for business discourse depends on the operationalization of partnership research, i.e., collaborative research across associated disciplines. Old debates: A Þeld in search of identity?In our earlier work, we deÞned business discourse as "talk and writing between individuals whose main work activities and interests are in the domain of business and who come together for the purpose of doing business" (BargielaChiappini and Nickerson 1999a: 2). We further pointed out that the interactants' status was the decisive element that distinguishes professional from business discourse, in that the former but not the latter, would involve a lay person. Moreover, business discourse refers to spoken and written communication that usually takes place within a corporate setting, whether physical (e.g., a manufacturing organization) or virtual (e.g., telework).Within the remit (and word limit) of a position article, it is our intention to discuss the relevance of a business discourse approach to the analysis of communication in business settings. The signiÞcance of this move is best understood against the background of some of the ongoing debates within the broad Þeld of business communication, such as the related issues of disciplinary deÞ-nition and disciplinary boundaries and the discussions surrounding the plethora of methodological approaches that characterize the Þeld. We will be arguing Brought to you by | Radboud University Nijmegen Authenticated Download Date | 4/13/15 3:20 PM Francesca Bargiela-Chiappini and Catherine Nickersonhere for a discourse approach to business communication that seeks to reconcile discourse as product and discourse as action, represented in Figure 1 by two discrete discourse units of different orders of magnitude, i.e., generic discourses and typiÞed actions, respectively sequences and nodes in the corporate communication web. We both have a long-standing interest in the Þeld, which stems from a combination of research and language teaching and training experience in corporate settings over a period of ten years. Field research in The Netherlands, Italy and Britain has brought us into direct contact with the textual and non-textual realizations of communication that constitute corporate life. Hence, we understand business discourse as a web of negotiated textualizations, constructed by social actors as they go about their daily activities in pursuit of organizational and personal goals. It is therefore language as social ...

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“…The different BMOC academic areas include business, English, communication, business education, and other areas considered service or support units; therefore, superiors and peers of our members most likely encourage publication in journals from a variety of disciplines. Graham and Thralls (1998) discuss this question of identity and multidisciplinarity that exists, noting that “we should give up the notion of business communication as a single discipline or even a unified discipline and admit that our field (discipline) is multidisciplinary” (p. 10). The diversity of the accepted publications, in many cases, may prompt misunderstanding or even contempt from members of other disciplines (Cyphert, 2009).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

A Comparison Of The Top Six Journals Selected As Top Journals For Publication By Business Communication Educators

Martin

Davis

Krapels

2011

Journal of Business Communication

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This study compares the top six journals selected in an earlier survey of Association for Business Communication members as the top journals in which to publish for professional advancement. Those journals include Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Administrative Science Quarterly, Journal of Business and Technical Communication, Journal of Business Communication, and Management Communication Quarterly. Using variables found in other disciplines’ journal assessment articles, comparisons were made with the following: length of articles published, disciplines of authors, statistical methodology included, major discipline of article focus, number of references included, and research methods used with sample size where appropriate. The analysis indicated significant differences among many of these journals. In selecting where to publish BMOC (business, management, organizational communication) articles, prospective authors in the area will find the information on these six journals informative and beneficial.

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Connections and Fissures: Discipline Formation in Business Communication

Cited by 18 publications

References 10 publications

Communication Activities in the 21st Century Business Environment

Communication Activities in the 21st Century Business Environment

Business discourse: Old debates, new horizons

A Comparison Of The Top Six Journals Selected As Top Journals For Publication By Business Communication Educators

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