Business Communication Research Class 3 : Business Communication (BC) as a discipline Leena Louhiala-Salminen, Spring 2013

BC: discipline or field ? Defining a discipline : –Shared goal for research –Common sites, i.e. professional organizations and journals, to share knowledge and make it public –Institutional status = departments, programs, professorships, degrees –Shared object of study –Shared research methods

BC as a discipline (1) BC studies draw from many fields: e.g. management studies, rhetoric, linguistics, psychology, cultural studies, organizational studies, sociology, marketing US tradition : established and organized; the role of The Association for Business Communication (ABC) and the leading journals (e.g. JBC, MCQ) important; traditional focus on rhetoric and teaching

BC as a discipline (2) European tradition: more diverse; based on the multicultural and multilingual reality ; emphasis on foreign language learning and research : Business English (BE), English for Specific Purposes (ESP) ; focus on the language and discourse of business events, communication flows and systems, language acquisition and language learning

”Four neighbors” “Subdisciplines at the crossroads between communication and organizational life: management communication organizational communication corporate communication business communication” Miller 1996

Management Communication goal to develop and disseminate knowledge that increases the effectiveness and efficiency of managers researchers must know the managerial context results should be applicable to practice

Organizational Communication integral part of other organizational studies organizations as social collectives that pose complex communication issues communication phenomena that create problems for people in their attempts to interact successfully analytic and critical skills emphasized in pedagogy, not practical business skills

Corporate Communication developed from PR business function responding to the challenges of the rapidly changing environment includes e.g. corporate image and identity, investor relations, media relations, crisis communication; also ‘internal communication’; advertising? “The corporation’s voice and the images it projects of itself on a world stage populated by its various audiences – constituencies “ (Argenti & Forman 2002) cf. Cornelissen 2011

Corporate communication defined by Cornelissen Corporate communication is a management function that offers a framework for the effective coordination of all internal and external communication with the overall purpose of establishing and maintaining favourable reputations with stakeholder groups upon which the organization is dependent.

Business Communication emerged out of business practice (‘penmanship’) “the scholarly study of the use, adaptation and creation of languages, symbols and signs to conduct activities that satisfy human needs and wants by providing goods and services for private profit” (Reinsch 1996) intellectual content (knowing-about, knowing-why) and effective practice (knowing-how) are combined sub-area of communication? sub-area of business?

BC as an object of study BC an umbrella concept for ‘communication in business’: communication as a business function communication = social interaction through messages communicative needs of a business organization communication competence communication effectiveness communication technologies languages used for communication role of culture in communication

IBC (Aalto BIZ) comprises 1) MACRO, where focus on organization, culture, communication flows, functional operations; 2) MICRO, where focus on language, message, interactional context, practice, communicator in an international (corporate) context.