WCs and Biz Comms

I was struck again, after reading Kinkead’s essay, by the similarities in the history of the writing center organizations and those of business communication. Like WCs and their staffs, business communicators and their departments are often misunderstood and under-appreciated by the organizations they serve. There is also a history of centralization versus decentralization, questions regarding mission, fights over budgets and staffing, and severe growing pains as practitioner/theorists struggle with their individual professional identities as well as those of their profession and professional organizations. And at the center of it all is composition and rhetoric (although Biz Comms don’t use those terms). I guess my point is that we might also consider looking outside the discipline for ideas, theories, best practices, and moral support. While I fully recognize the differences in the “genres,” it is clear there are many similarities that cross the disciplines. I've dealt with many of the issues Kinkead, Boquet and North describe and have never been a part of the WC discipline.