Abstract
Forman's translation metaphor provides a powerful lens for examining business communication as a discipline. However, its focus on a uni-directional transla tion from one language into another by an individual scholar, with too little consideration for the influences, expectations, and entanglements of culture, proves problematic. The present essay envisions translation as a bi-directional, dynamically negotiated process that occurs within and between communities of scholars and that transforms the language, the person of the translator, the communities involved, and the cultural expectations. This conception of transla tion as a dynamic process in which business communication scholars partici pate predicts a balance of trade between business communication and other disciplines, situates language use in place and time, and helps to articulate and develop international cultural expectations for transforming business communi cation and the Association for Business Communication.
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