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From Text to Context: An Open Systems Approach to Research in Written Business Communication

The Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, CA

Ron Dulek

The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa

This article examines open systems thinking as a new lens for the field's researchers to use when exploring written business communication. The transfer or conduit model that the field has traditionally used to describe how communi cation occurs has, of course, determined what the field knows. An open systems model provides a new way of looking at the field, a lens that integrates concepts such as task, organizational structure, control, and technology into the analysis of written business messages. The article explores the influences these subsys tems have on written communication and then develops these systems and subsystems into a series of business communication system maps. These maps or models can serve as springboards for additional research of on-the-job writing situations.

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