Spotlight on a Thought Leader in Business Communication: François Cooren

Abstract

When Jackie and Milton Mayfield, the current editors of the International Journal of Business Communication, asked me to write a spotlight on a thought leader in business communication, I immediately thought of François Cooren. My second thought was that the expression “thought leader” focuses on the thinking of an individual academic, whereas in fact “thought leadership” is something that extends beyond the individual and involves colleagues and associates, past and present, who all, to a greater or lesser extent, contribute to the flow of thought that informs the way in which we think about communication and the business world that surrounds us. Therefore, I extend this spotlight beyond the conventional focus on the individual to also include the Montreal School of thought as a loose entity that has grown up in and around Montreal University where François Cooren works. This essay is thus a spotlight on both François Cooren and the Montreal School as thought leaders (plural). François Cooren, originally from Lille, in the North of France, has made his career in North America and Canada. After his initial university education in France, François Cooren moved to Montreal to write a PhD under the supervision of James Taylor. Taylor, a major influence on François Cooren and the Montreal School, is widely known for his work on the communicative constitution of organizations which was crucial for moving ideas about communication away from something which is considered to take place within an organization to something which is constitutive of organizations (Taylor, 1993; Taylor & Van Every, 2000). After completing his PhD, Cooren took up positions at the University of Cincinnati and the University at Albany, SUNY, before returning to Montreal University in 2001 where he is now the head of the Department of Communication. Since his arrival in Montreal, he has also held various