...those of the academic culture. Generally, the goals of workplace professionals demand that they think in specific, practical. and immediately applicable ways; those of us in the academy must think in terms that are more abstract, conceptual, and long-term. It is understandable, then, that works that might be highly valued by either practitioners or academics can seem entirely irrelevant to the other. And just as understandable, practitioners and academics can easily dismiss or discount the works valued by the other side. Ideally, the best popular press books or gurus would go further than simply aligning themselves with academic scholarship; they could enrich academic scholarship with the experience of savvy workplace professionals.

Keywords: management gurus, organizational change, Stephen R. Covey, popular press books, academic culture, workplace culture, practitioner advice

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The articles that follow present two perspectives on how ideas about management and change are disseminated in the workplace--one focusing on single "management guru" and the other examining popular press books. David Carlone (2006), in "The Ambiguous Nature of a Management Guru Lecture," offers an interesting and detailed analysis of a day-long lecture by Stephen R. Covey (1989), consultant and author of the bestselling book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Laurie K. Lewis, Amy M. Schmisseur, Keri K. Stephens, and Kathleen E. Weir (2006), in "Advice on Communicating During Organizational Change," provide an insightful analysis of the dominant themes in popular books on the subject of communication during organizational change. These articles represent a fundamentally important focus for business communication research because our theory and pedagogy must be grounded in a deep and authentic understanding of the powerfully influential ideas that inform workplace practice.

These studies reveal at once the validity of the ideas propounded by management gurus and popular books as well as their limitations and sometimes problematic advice. For example, many propositions in the Covey lecture seem sensible and, if practiced, would surely foster productive working relationships. At the same time, as Carlone (2006) concludes, "Covey's lectures simultaneously ease and deepen uncertainty and anxiety." Likewise, some of Covey's strategies, such as "disrupting the ontology" of his listeners, are those many teachers might use to get students to think about issues more deeply. However, few teachers see themselves on a near-religious quest for "transcendent vision," as Carlone reports, or view themselves functioning as something of a spiritual guru, as Covey does.

Lewis et al. (2006) see an ambiguity as well in the popular books they studied. On one hand, popular books often share much with reputable scholarship:

In our own reading of these books, we noticed a surprising alignment between some of what has been consistently found in the scholarly literature and what is advised in these books. Thus, these books appear to be useful summaries, to some extent, of related scholarly research.

This surprising alignment of principles of popular books with academic scholarship could be "by accident," as they suggest. Or it may result in part because some authors of popular books come from the ranks of the academy, or at least hold advanced degrees in the relevant specialties. (1) In what I believe is an insightful observation, Lewis et al. (2006) further speculate that the alignment of principles may be "due to more practice-oriented authors having drawn similar conclusions as scholars based on different types of evidence."

On the other hand, although they see alignment, Lewis et al. (2006) also find that some of the advice in the...

NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.



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