Abstract
IT’S TIME TO CLOSE out this volume of Business Communication Quarterly (BCQ). I would say year-end, but with our production schedule, it’s actually only September, and so it’s not quite the end of the year yet. In the northern hemisphere, we’re entering autumn and the new academic year has just begun. In the southern hemisphere it’s time for spring and summer.
Our first article argues that the merger and acquisition process provides an excellent way for students to learn about business communication and decision making from an upper management perspective. The author presents a strategic analysis project specifically designed for adult learners to facilitate group communication, critical thinking, and consensus-building competencies.
This volume of BCQ has also seen the transition of our columns into themed sections, and in this issue we have two. In the first one, we continue our focus on communicating business ethics, with the second part of this series. The authors grapple with the tensions inherent in the concept of corporate social responsibility, recognizing that conflicts between and among stakeholders and constituencies is fundamental to “communicating business ethics.”
In the second, we see that social networking has now permanently entered the academy, as colleges and universities and their faculty members consider how to use this new technology. As the articles in this section demonstrate, social networking has dramatically changed how, when, and with what channel we communicate. This themed section is the first of two parts; the second will appear in the March 2012 issue.
At volume’s end, I would also like to thank everyone who has contributed to making this year a success—Section Editors Marilyn Dyrud, Sam DeKay, Joel Whalen, and Rebecca Worley; Editorial Assistant Jim Maciukenas; Book Review Editor Patty Keefe Durso; Association for Business Communication officers and members of the Publications Board; and the SAGE production editors Molly Lower, Sara Sarver, and Erin Walsh and SAGETrack specialist Jennifer Stephenson. I would also like to offer special thanks to the many, many reviewers who have worked long hours and with an ever increasing number of manuscripts to provide our authors with the exceptional feedback for which BCQ is known.