Communicative Practices in Workplaces and the Professions: Cultural Perspectives on the Regulation of Discourse and Organizations (Zachry, M. and Thralls, C.) [Book review]

This book consists of essays related to the issues of regulation of communication. The chapters present different facets of the question of how officials control, "regulation," and informal social and cultural constraint of communication, "regularization," impact the processes of communication on the professional and workplace setting. Some of the topics covered include: the regularized communications forms used in the healthcare profession; the impact of the PowerPoint software application as a regulator or "regularizer" of professional presentations; the regulatory practices of academic writing; the use of discourse to challenge the status quo and to work for change; the nature of power in the workplace; and the discourse form used in public hearings and inquiries. The text achieves the editors' objective in providing the reader with a sound picture of the state of current study and with a framework of ideas and perspectives to prompt future research.