Understanding American Business Jargon

In the 1990s, the American workplace is undergoing right-sizing, restructuring, downsizing, empowerment, and paradigm shifts! In other words, fewer people are attempting to do more tasks. Business buzzwords help convey ideas, issues, or responses. Business jargon is communication shorthand, but people need to correctly interpret this shorthand, which requires a common understanding. American business people too frequently assume new individuals in their organization and their professional counterparts around the world understand business jargon. This book is a practical reference for students, managers, and international business people trying to comprehend the fast-paced buzzword-laden language used by business people in the United States. Consider the headline, Blue Chips Hit New High As Fed Rate Session Looms. Any American business person concerned with interest rates would know that it means the stock prices of large, well-established U.S. businesses have risen higher than ever before and the Open Market Committee of the Federal Reserve Board will consider whether to raise interest rates. But would a student or a foreign business person understand the headline? The use of jargon, like any specialized language, excludes people who do not comprehend it. This book helps people to understand the business jargon used in the United States and, in the process, improve business communication.

Business and culture are inextricably linked, each reflecting and reinforcing trends in the other. In Understanding American Business Jargon, W. Davis Folsom captures the essence of both by focusing on the terms and phrases that make up our business vocabulary. From AAA to Zombie Bonds, Folsom takes us on a tour of over 2500 concepts that cover the spectrum of business-speak. In this fully revised, updated, and expanded edition, Folsom captures the spirit of business in the new millennium, with such colorful terms as adhocracy, Dilbert principle, hyperlink, traction, and viral marketing. Each term is succinctly defined and described in context, and many are illustrated with quotations from the popular press. Including slang, acronyms, a bibliography, an introduction that discusses recent trends in business language, and cross-referenced throughout, Understanding American Business Jargon is not only a handy reference for any businessperson, student, or researcher, but an entertaining glimpse into our constantly evolving business culture.