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...organizations from manufacturing service jobs, expand their operations overseas, manage "talent" more strategically, and alter traditional bureaucratic structures, business communication is becoming increasingly intercultural, virtual, horizontal, strategic, and change focused. Yet it is not clear that the business communication literature is keeping pace. Examples of Thomas's work in interagency collaboration, electronic mail overload, and strategic communication demonstrate possibilities for gaining access and studying communication dilemmas that face practicing managers. Bridging the academic-practitioner gap is a way to build face validity in the business world as well as help academics to develop better theories about workplace communication.
Keywords: globalization; electronic communication; intercultural communication; horizontal communication; strategic communication; change communication; interagency collaboration
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Significant research is an outcome of investigator involvement in the physical and social world of organizations. The implications for scholars are clear: Make contacts. Leave your office door open. Look for wide exposure and diverse experiences. Go into organizations.... Listen to managers. Activity and exposure are important because significant research often results from chance convergence of ideas and activities from several sources.
Campbell, Daft, & Hulin (1982, p. 107)
Over the years, various academics have raised concerns about the gap between organizational research and business practice (Rynes, Bartunek, & Daft, 2001; Smeltzer, 1993; Suchan & Charles, 2006; Thomas & Tymon, 1982). In fact, several studies have shown that managers rarely turn to academics or research to inform their practice (Abrahamson, 1996; Mowday, 1997, Rynes, Colbert, & Brown, 2002; Smeltzer, 1993).
In 1992, Larry Smeltzer addressed the academic-practitioner gap in business communication when he gave the Association for Business Communication's (ABC) first Outstanding Researcher plenary speech. After querying practitioners and academics about their preference for research knowledge and then analyzing articles during a 15-year span from Journal of Business Communication, he found limited overlap in research topics. Among the three sources--practitioners, academics, and JBC--written communication was the only common topic. Smeltzer concluded that academics needed to become intimately aware of the needs of business people or risk becoming irrelevant.
You may wonder why this gap exists. Some say it's because managers and researchers work from very different frames of reference. Others say it's because academics and practitioners have different purposes and operate within different discourse communities (Johns, 1993; Rynes et al., 2001; Shrivastava & Mitroff, 1984). Whatever the reason, if academics talk only to themselves, they risk becoming inwardly focused and out of touch with the business world (Gergen, 1995, Zimbardo, 2002). In a world that seems increasingly volatile, it seems more important than ever that academics attempt to bridge this gap by venturing out into organizations and collaborating with practitioners. The reasons for this seem clear. First, business people can benefit from the knowledge that academics have to share. Second, academics are more likely to have a stronger impact in their classrooms if they demonstrate an understanding of the contemporary and future dilemmas in the world of work. And third, bridging this gap is likely to increase our credibility with the business community.
The purpose of this article is to provide a brief overview of forces that are shaping the environment, including the changes that are manifesting themselves in the workplace. I primarily draw from two recent sources for this overview: Friedman's (2005) The World is Flat and O'Toole and Lawler's (2006) The New American Workplace. I then demonstrate the implications of these forces for business communication research, including examples from studies I have conducted over the past years.
THREE ERAS OF GLOBALIZATION
Friedman (2005) claims that globalization has reached a tipping point and is moving to a new level. In his often-cited book, The World is Flat, he describes the progression of Globalization 1.0 to Globalization 3.0.
According to Friedman, Globalization 1.0 was the first era of globalization. It began in 1492, when Columbus opened trade between the Old World and the New World, and lasted until about 1800. Wind power, steam power, and brawn propelled this era. Often inspired by religion or imperialism, countries and governments crossed boundaries and globalized. As Friedman says, "it shrank the world from a size large to a size medium" (p. 9).
The second era, Globalization 2.0, lasted roughly from 1800 to 2000 and...
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