Bridging Cultures

Abstract

This introduction to articles by David Carlone and Laurie K. Lewis et al. argues that the communication advice given by management gurus and in popular press books may reflect the values and practices of the workplace culture, a culture which has contexts and exigencies quite different fromthose 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.