Reflections on the Ins and Outs of Business and Professional Discourse Research

Abstract

This book presents a collection of original chapters focusing on what, for lack of a more precise term, we have come to call the “INs and OUTs” of business and professional discourse research. Put simply, this means that we zoom in on the two extreme ends of the scholarly process investigating written, oral, non-verbal and digital communication in business and professional settings. On the one hand, the volume includes a number of chapters that deal with issues of gaining access to and collecting data, and addresses questions like: how can we convince practitioners to let us observe, record, interview, survey? What counts as data? How much data do we need? What shape and form can the data take? How does our research interfere with the professional practices we study? On the other hand, there are a number of chapters that look at issues of feeding results back in the form of recommendations to practitioners. Questions here include: how can professional discourse research be applied to help shape practice? How do we translate our methods and concepts for the communities that we investigate, including industry, government and non-profit organizations?