Directions for thought leadership in discourse and communication: a commentary on Jian et al.

Abstract

State of the art articles such as this serve as an essential stocktaking of an academic field and, thus become good places for us to pause and consider what we are doing and why we are doing it. From a strategy perspective, such articles create an effective method for us to consider the value that we, as discourse/ communication scholars of organizations, are creating right now and how we ought to create that value on into the future. In particular, their article pushes us to consider the directions and opportunities for effective thought leadership for our field in both the short and long terms. With that thought in mind, Jian et al.’s assessment of where we are right now points us toward three very sticky and difficult thought leadership issues that we must effectively engage if we are to create the value we need to create. The first issue is also the most readily apparent in their article: ‘Is it communication, or is it discourse, or is it Discourse?’