The What, the So What, and the Now What”

The Organizational Communication Department has an "applied" focus in which we translate theory and research into communication practice. The purpose of the "Spotlight Scholar Abstracts" was to examine the empirical and the oretica contributions of select organizational communication scholars. This assignment challenged you to "extract" the main ideas from each article and summarize those under appropriate headings (e.g., literature review, research questions, method, results, etc.). This process of writing article abstracts has helped you further understand

1) What topics organizational communication scholars investigate and

2) How communication research is conducted.

Having written these abstracts, you have answered two questions that I refer to as 1) the "What?" and 2) the "So what?" questions. In other words, 1) "What did the scholar investigate?" and 2) "So what did the scholar find/argue/conclude?" But where is the "communication application" we talk so much about? While some articles make reference to real-world "application", most do not. Scholars write articles for other scholars...not for managers, employees, customers, and leaders needing to improve communication processes/practices. Scholars write scholarship to develop and test communication theory. Don't be surprised when you read an article and say, "Gee, that is nice in theory...but, how can I use it?" Therefore, this is the question you must answer...3)"Now what can I do with this...how can this article be applied to improve organizational communication?"

This is your assignment—translate the findings/conclusions of each article into "real-life" communication application in organizational contexts (e.g., non-profit organizations, hospitals, banks, retail stores, churches, restaurants, government agencies, law, agribusiness, etc.). Here are some questions to consider when you write your application paper:

What communication practices/processes/skills can you improve having read these articles? How can the findings/conclusions of each article be applied to improve communication at your workplace and/or social/volunteer organizations? How can managers, employees, and leaders apply these insights to overcome communication problems/breakdowns? How can these articles be applied to make communication more effective, efficient, and meaningful in organizations? How could the insights of each article be used to develop the communication skills of leaders, managers, employees, etc.? How could they be used to investigate communication issues at work? How can these articles be applied in light of the communication principles and models we've discussed in this class?

The application paper will illustrate your creative, analytical insights into each article. Think hard about these articles and come up with some "real-world" application. While some articles may be more application oriented than others, hp creative!