This developmental article presents a case for narrative inquiry, and fiction in particular, to be considered as an important pedagogic mode that informs business communication pedagogy. The article uses two illustrative exemplars from Herman Melville and Chinua Achebe. Informed by the frame of critical pedagogy, signature pedagogy, and narrative medicine, this developmental article argues that fiction expands the narrative imagination of learners of business communication, enabling sensitive and compassionate managers for the future. The article seeks to demonstrate the strength of narrative, especially fiction, for students of management as essentially shaping future managers into holistically developed, ethically conscious, empathic managers with competency for emotional self-regulation. As a move toward sustaining business communication on the fulcrum of a humanities philosophy, this article will demonstrate the advantages of the terrain of narrative inquiry in business classrooms as enabling life skills like compassion, empathy, and altruism, all central tenets of being human. With an increased significance attributed to skills like empathy, resilience, and flexibility as future competencies to be built, we argue that a conscious interjection of narrative ethics in an emphatic manner into business communication curriculum can expand learners’ narrative imagination competency. To this effect, the paper also proposes an instructional framework that serves to advance DELTAs (Distinct Elements of Talent) through the use of fiction that covers significant units of a Business Communication course.

The purpose of this article is to share teaching strategies within business and professional communication that assisted students in developing a job portfolio, potentially enhancing students’ ability to secure an internship or job after course completion. This article details the application of these strategies over the course of three semesters in 2018 and 2019 at Monmouth University. Student comments suggested these strategies enhanced their chances of employment success. Using course curriculum to put students in position to secure employment should be a goal of the course and curriculum should be adjusted periodically to meet this goal.

This study presents a systematic review of the last decade of research published in Business and Professional Communication Quarterly , using PRISMA guidelines and bibliometric analysis. The review analyzes publication and citation trends, key contributors, and emerging themes. The research highlights how the field has evolved in response to global crises, technological advancements, and shifts in social dynamics. By exploring key themes such as virtual team communication, social presence in online learning, and the integration of emerging technologies, the study provides a comprehensive assessment of the journal’s contributions from 2014 to 2024. It also identifies future research directions.

This article presents a curated collection of eight teaching innovations presented at the Association for Business Communication 89th conference Tulsa, Oklahoma, as well as online, in October 2024. These MFA presenters demonstrated teaching ideas specifically on improving students’ writing skills, and this My Favorite Assignment 32nd edition introduces readers to these classroom approaches in teaching business writing. Teaching support materials—instructions to students, stimulus materials, slides, rubrics, frequently asked questions, links, and sample student projects—are downloadable from the Association for Business Communication website.

As businesses begin utilizing generative AI to assist with written communications, professionals will need to have the skills to get the results employers demand. A working strategy to assist students on how to best collaborate with generative AI to create traditional business writing pieces is essential as we move to this new integrated workplace.

Emerging consensus suggests faculty should teach students to use large language models (LLMs) rather than ban them, but it is not clear that students need detailed AI-related instruction. To investigate, we conducted two studies: Study 1 used survey and focus group methods to assess how such instruction influenced students’ perceptions, while Study 2 used rater evaluation to examine how AI use affected message quality. Study 1 found no meaningful impact on perceptions. Study 2 found that instruction did not affect ratings, but genAI use did—messages composed with LLM assistance received higher evaluations than those without it. We conclude with recommendations for genAI-focused classroom instruction.

Teachers, students, and professionals widely use ChatGPT for business communication. Recent studies have explored predictors driving its adoption, predominantly from a general education perspective. To address this gap, this study examines predictors and barriers encountered by English for Specific Purposes (ESP) learners in India, a developing market with a significant number of ChatGPT users enrolled in business communication (BC) courses. A model based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2) was proposed, incorporating seven predictors to assess their influence on the intention to use ChatGPT. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was performed on 526 students’ responses from two reputed Indian private universities, yielding a good model fit (minimum discrepancy by degree of freedom = 2.95, goodness of fit index [GFI] = 0.945, root mean square error of approximation [RMSEA] = 0.043). Further, the results identified five significant predictors: perceived usefulness (β = 0.234, p < 0.001), academic integrity (β = 0.291, p = 0.003), perceived ease of participation (β = 0.174, p = 0.013), privacy concerns (β = 0.224, p = 0.004), and perceived ease of participation’s effect on perceived usefulness (β = 0.354, p < 0.001). However, peer behavior (β = −0.032, p = 0.769) and security concerns (β = −0.059, p = 0.434) were found to be insignificant predictors. The findings suggest that ChatGPT adoption is shaped by perceived functionality, ethical confidence, ease of use, and privacy assurance, while peer behavior and security concerns play a limited role, likely due to the tool’s early-stage adoption and individualistic usage patterns. This study highlights the importance of addressing barriers through targeted training, transparent policies, and AI literacy initiatives to ensure responsible and effective integration of ChatGPT in academic and professional contexts.

This study compares AI-generated (ChatGPT and Gemini) and human-written business refusal texts. A genre analysis found that AI-generated texts are formulaic and less nuanced than human-written texts. Applying a rating of professional writing quality, inferential statistics revealed no significant difference in scores between Gemini and human-written texts, but revealed ChatGPT as lower. Human assessors identified authorship of AI-generated texts with an accuracy rate of 68.1%, and human-written texts with 86% accuracy. Key concerns for assessors were tone, relationship, language choice, content, and structure. The findings inform four key areas of focus for teaching business writing in the AI age.

This ethnographic case study provides authentic insights into the intertextual negotiation processes for a particular merger-and-acquisition (M&A) transaction in the context of international legal practice, involving interdisciplinary legal and business professionals. Using genre and discourse analytical methodology, this study focuses on the interactional discourse practices and textual products used for negotiation of the primary sale and purchase agreement. By providing sociolinguistic insights into the M&A negotiation process, these research findings can promote a better understanding of the professional discourse activities and interactional role behaviors for this very important area of international business law practice.

As part of the Association for Business Communication Student Case Competition, this article features a case study written by ABC member Rachel Dolechek. The case was blind reviewed and selected by the ABC Student Competition Committee. ABC membership utilized the case in their classrooms throughout 2024 and submitted top student examples for the 2024 Case Writing Competition. A submission from Addie Hileman, sponsored by Kelley O’Brien, was selected as the top student case writer after evaluation by the ABC Student Competition Committee and a marketing business professional. The student’s message serves as a teaching example within this article.

This article discusses interdisciplinary approaches to help students overcome communication barriers by integrating performing arts in Business Communication courses. Companies emphasize a workforce with solid soft skills to succeed. International Business employs English; thus, practical communication skills in English provide access to jobs in international scenarios. However, in Puerto Rico, second-language speakers of English feel intimidated when speaking it. The emotional barriers students endure while developing intercultural and communication skills in English is a topic worth researching. Performing arts provide strategies to raise body awareness and increase self-confidence. These elements will lead to a confident and effective communicator.

This article presents a curated collection of nine teaching innovations presented at the Association for Business Communication 89th conference in the “oil capital of the world,” Tulsa, Oklahoma, as well as online, in October 2024. Many of the MFA presenters demonstrated how AI can be used, integrated, and analyzed in business communication classes. This My Favorite Assignment 35th edition introduces readers to a wide variety of classroom-ready ideas that integrate AI. Teaching support materials—instructions to students, stimulus materials, slides, rubrics, frequently asked questions, links, and sample student projects—are downloadable from the Association for Business Communication website.

This study examines the impact of traditional lectures and guest speaker sessions on developing business communication skills in supply chain education. Focusing on green supply chain management practices (GSCMP) and sustainable development (SD), the research highlights the complementary strengths of these teaching methods. Traditional lectures excel in enhancing written communication and theoretical knowledge, while guest speaker sessions significantly improve verbal communication and practical skills. The findings provide actionable insights for educators to design balanced curricula that align with the dynamic communication needs of modern supply chain management professionals.

This article examines how Aristotelian rhetorical principles— ethos, pathos, and logos—can help manage social media outrage in complaint handling by translating them into defensive and accommodative response strategies commonly used in service recovery. Two online experiments evaluated four strategies for their effects on complainants’ moods: (a) blame-shifting; (b) promising action; (c) apologizing; and (d) a combination of empathy, apology, and promise. The results showed that accommodative strategies were more effective than defensive ones, with the combination of empathy, apology, and promise as the most effective. The findings suggest incorporating rhetorical training in business communication to enhance response efficacy.

In a cross-institutional study, this article shares research findings about business student perceptions and experiences using an automated writing assistant program based on traditional artificial intelligence. Using a mixed-methods approach, we share student responses to Grammarly’s suggested revisions and provide insight into students’ confidence levels and correctness in workplace written communication. Finally, this study concludes with a discussion of the implications of this work related to business communication education and research, as well as possibilities for the future.

The purpose of this article is to review over three decades of research supporting the organizational communication management theory known as the Theory of Independent-Mindedness. The theory is especially productive in assessing superior-subordinate communication for organizations located within individualistic cultures. The article synthesizes extant research on the Theory of Independent-Mindedness. The research reviewed in this article provides empirical support for the theory’s premises in that cultural congruity must be present between the macro-culture (larger culture within which the organization operates) and the micro-culture (the culture developed within the specific organization). Several studies clearly indicate that independent-minded employees report being more satisfied and committed to their organization, and advocate communication skills training for organizational members at all levels.

This collection of 10 My Favorite Assignments (MFA) was first presented at the 2023 Association for Business Communication Annual International Conference held Denver, Colorado, USA. Instructors can see innovative ideas for teaching current social issues, oral communication techniques, and methods to lead students to greater personal and professional development.

Drawing upon a framework of “assemblage thinking,” this article offers an approach to considering artificial intelligence (AI) and ethics that seeks to think relationally across the positions occupied as educators and students at a business school. To complement discussions of assemblage and examinations of ethics in the AI era, we draw upon the perspectives of a relatively understudied population in this conversation—students themselves navigating AI and writing within a business-focused context—and extend assemblage thinking to capture important thought toward the future of business communication, pedagogy, ethics, and AI.

The public release of ChatGPT in 2022 ushered in a new era, affirming the present reality of AI-assisted writing and the critical role business instructors play in preparing students. This study presents the results of a pedagogical experiment. Specifically, it evaluates strategies for integrating and teaching about AI in the business communication classroom, focusing on the impact of generative AI on students’ understanding of business writing principles and how different levels of engagement with AI influence students’ critical AI literacy and attitudes toward AI-assisted writing in the workplace.

This article presents a conceptual framework for enhancing business writing skills through social media integration in business communication education. By embedding platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter, the framework promotes essential competencies such as clarity, audience awareness, and professional tone. Five core principles—constructivist learning, digital literacy, ethical writing practices, real-time feedback, and collaborative writing—underpin this framework, emphasizing experiential learning that bridges informal and formal communication styles. This approach offers educators a structured method for developing students’ adaptability and writing proficiency, aligning pedagogical practices with the evolving needs of modern business communication.

I recommend that teachers of professional communication (e.g., business communication) incorporate into their courses the Giving Voice to Values (GVV) curriculum developed by Mary Gentile. Adding GVV materials to a course in professional communication would add an ethical emphasis to the course or supplement an existing one. GVV materials also provide communication teachers with excellent opportunities to introduce (or expand) attention to rhetorical decision making. Furthermore, GVV materials provide an opportunity for cross-disciplinary cooperation among teachers of business communication and other business disciplines.

This research aimed to determine whether employees’ digital leadership perceptions were related to their attitude toward using AI-powered business communication tools, whether their AI awareness had a mediating role, and whether their motivation to learn had a moderating role in this process. This cross-sectional research collected data from 354 white-collar employees from a telecommunication company through a questionnaire survey. Results indicated that participants’ digital leadership perceptions resulted in a positive attitude toward using AI-powered business communication tools. Participants’ AI awareness mediated this relationship, and their motivation to learn moderated the relationship between digital leadership perceptions and AI awareness.

The concept of speaker credibility is proposed as mitigation to address two issues of confidence and anxiety, and gender differences, gathered from anecdotal feedback of business communication students. This article reviews the definition of speaker credibility and draws on two components—presentation skills and power—from Kenton’s source credibility model. It then discusses the two issues of confidence and anxiety, and gender differences. A speaker credibility framework is outlined from reviewing research on three specific presentation skills and proposing power from Janks’s critical literacy. Limitations and future research include testing the framework’s validity discussed at the end.

In this article, I study how a Deaf-owned company, Convo Communications, builds on accessibility as the baseline from which members contribute to more inclusive workspaces through innovative technologies and communication practices. I analyze the company’s website, blog posts, and videos to demonstrate how this organization embodies the value of accessible communication and a collective vision, how the members design more accessible ways to connect and use their expertise to educate other businesses and professionals, and the organizational commitment to communication diversity and accessible conversations. The findings lead to implications for even more inclusive business and professional communication practices.

What characterizes the language choices of untrained student peer reviewers? Undergraduate students ( N = 83) were randomly assigned to provide peer feedback on persuasive presentation manuscripts to three peers from their same and/or different course section. A total of 233 peer reviews were analyzed in terms of politeness, quality, and valence. Content and statistical analyses revealed similar politeness levels and quality regardless of the assessors’ identified gender or section of the assessee. However, students produced significantly more positively valenced reviews for same-section classmates, suggesting that students soften feedback through warmer language for peers with whom they have frequent interaction.

Employee disclosure refers to the process of revealing personal information about oneself with others in a workplace setting. This type of disclosure also greatly influences organizational culture, policies, and workplace interactions. Modeling such disclosure scenarios using an organizational economics approach addresses communication challenges faced by businesses dealing with the respective disclosure(s). Further, it allows for uncovering the most effective ways to communicate disclosure procedures and policies to employees and employers. This, in turn, will lead to (a) improved corporate training practices for employee disclosure in business communication settings and (b) increased overall productivity measures for organizational members.

This study reports an investigative study with 55 English-major participants in a Chinese university about using simulation in business English correspondence teaching. The study found that participants had strong needs in practical skills development and learning business English correspondence writing. The simulation approach was perceived to be effective and had positive learning outcomes in business communication skills development, motivation, confidence and vocabulary growth, business and language knowledge improvement, and more understanding about the business practice. The constraint factors in simulation included lack of business knowledge and vocabulary, ineffective group cooperation, and lack of understanding about the real-world business background.

Through the guidance of social presence theory, this study sought to understand how instructors’ affirming messages and social presence behaviors affect students’ writing apprehension in online business communication courses. The data were consistent with two models, both of which indicate that instructor affirming messages indirectly affect students’ writing apprehension in the business communication classroom. Both models also indicate that students’ burnout mediates that indirect effect. The results show how important it is for instructors to take the time to leave affirming message feedback when teaching business communication online.

Innovative classroom-tested approaches to cross-cultural communication—diversity, equity, and inclusion—and personal and professional development are featured. Readers can explore 10 teaching creations debuted at the 2023 My Favorite Assignment sessions at the Association for Business Communication Annual International Conference held in Denver, Colorado, USA.

This article presents a conceptual framework for integrating AI-enabled business communication in higher education. Drawing on established theories from business communication and educational technology, the framework provides comprehensive guidance for designing engaging learning experiences. It emphasizes the significance of social presence, cognitive load management, and constructivist learning principles. The framework is exemplified through various tasks, including role-playing with AI chatbots, analyzing nonverbal cues, communication simulations, interactive presentation assessments, and collaborative AI-supported projects. Practical considerations for implementation, including technological infrastructure, faculty training, ethics, curriculum integration, and assessment strategies, are discussed. Future directions and implications for business communication education are also explored.

Preparing students to communicate in business has often been an overlooked area within literacy studies. With current calls by Cardon et al. (2024) to focus on core competencies in the business communication classroom with the emergence of generative AI, it is more important than ever to remember Berkenkotter and Huckin’s (1994) explanation that students will always learn in a form of “situated cognition embedded in disciplinary activities” (p. 3). This project, as a result, provides a framework to explore student experiences with business communication before students arrive on a college campus to better inform higher education stakeholders.

Generative AI could disrupt professional writing instruction, but banning AI tools seems unproductive. This article outlines a rhetorical approach for adapting business writing instruction for the AI age: It suggests AI use cases that align with the rhetorical canons, illustrates each with real-world business examples, and ends with suggestions for using AI to build students’ critical genre awareness. This approach should prove useful for business writing instructors who want to ground their AI-related instruction in enduring pedagogical theory.

In a case study involving three asynchronous online professional writing courses, this research investigates students’ abilities to establish a social presence and build team cohesion via collaborative, team-based writing projects. Using the Community of Inquiry (COI) framework, this study is situated in the understanding that teaching and learning in higher education are not about the mere transmission of knowledge but that “teaching and learning are inherently interactive” as the terms of “community” and “inquiry” used in the framework suggest. Prior researchers have also established a clear connection between one element of the COI framework— social presence and student satisfaction in online courses. Findings from this study indicate participation in collaborative team assignments contributes to team cohesion and positively affects students’ ability to establish their social presence within online environments as well as transfer their knowledge to other contexts.

In this discussion, we consider how the use of scenario-based assessment (SBA) can provide students with a way of developing the digital communication skills that business communication research has found they will need for the workplace, alongside other aspects of professional competence. This is because SBA can be employed to engage learners in the same types of authentic performance tasks in a situated context that they will likely encounter in their professional lives. In addition, SBA can also be used to maximize the integrity of an assignment by harnessing the positive effects of using generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools, while simultaneously mitigating against the misappropriation of AI by students. SBA allows learners to practice both their digital, and other, communication skills as well as contributing to their understanding of professional practice, and it also provides instructors with a powerful form of formative assessment. Our aim is to put forward a motivating and effective way of helping our students to develop the skills that they will need to become successful communicators in a postpandemic professional world.

This My Favorite Assignment (MFA) article features 11 teaching innovations first presented at the 2023 Association for Business Communication Annual International Conference held Denver, Colorado, USA. These assignments are designed to boost students’ writing, persuasion, crisis management skills, and personal and professional development.

Many experts project generative AI will impact the types of competencies that are valued among working professionals. This is the first known academic study to explore the views of business practitioners about the impacts of generative AI on skill sets. This survey of 692 business practitioners showed that business practitioners widely use generative AI, with the most common uses involving research and ideation, drafting of business messages and reports, and summarizing and revising text. Business practitioners report that character-based traits such as integrity and soft skills will become more important. Implications for teaching business communication are discussed.

The article discusses the impact of text-generative AI in business communication pedagogy. The onset of open AI, such as ChatGPT, has the potential to transform the way faculty and students approach oral and written professional business communication. Through focus group discussions and netnography, the study employs content analysis to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) of integrating AI in the teaching-learning process of business communication in a postgraduate management program. The article strives to reimagine the pedagogical tools and techniques regarding pre-reading assistance, classroom materials, assignments, evaluation, and other learning aids of business communication courses in response to the developments in text-generative AI.

First-aid personnel who engage in initial dialogues with injured combatants on the front lines become participants in interprofessional communication and need training courses that address their requirements for effective communication and dialogic interaction in combat environments. The primary objective of this research is to integrate emotional co-construction strategies into the training curriculum for First Aid Services (FAS). The study explores various emotional language devices and communication strategies that impact the trauma resolution process. The practical aim of this research is to offer insights for the development of workplace communication courses for FAS, fostering dialogues that contribute to personal stabilization, resilience, resistance, and relief for the combatant.

This study captured the perspectives of 887 working adults to explore views of professionalism, authenticity, and effectiveness of AI-generated messages. With a 3 (message type) × 2 (disclosed vs. undisclosed) × 2 (ChatGPT-generated vs. Google-generated AI messages) design, professionals generally view AI-generated content favorably in all conditions. Across all messages, professionals consistently rated the AI-generated messages as professional, effective, efficient, confident, and direct. They rate sincerity and caring slightly lower in some disclosed conditions, particularly for ChatGPT-generated messages, suggesting the importance of tool selection when using generative AI for workplace writing. Those professionals who use AI more frequently for work are more likely to view AI-assisted writing as authentic, effective, and confidence-building. Implications for teaching business communication, including the need to address AI literacy, and suggestions for future research are provided.

Job interviews require applicants to demonstrate two things: experience with direct value to the company and a fit with the team and company culture. A technique is detailed demonstrating how to develop this argument based on aligning credentials with corporate interests, developing advocacy-based themes, and synthesizing material into a convenient study guide. Designed for instruction in either the college classroom or corporate training center, the approach provides professional communication students with a unique, practical, and personally meaningful learning exercise assessing rhetorical situations, examining rhetorical constructs, and delivering persuasive arguments.

Artificial intelligence assignments lead this article’s 11 teaching innovations selected from the My Favorite Assignments presented at the 2023 Association for Business Communication’s Annual International Conference held in Denver, Colorado. USA. Pedagogy presented here also includes ideas to enhance student engagement and techniques to transform learning via gamification.

Using an evaluative approach within a professional communication service course, we used student documents and instructor feedback to uncover how students and instructors were understanding the rhetoric student learning outcome (SLO). Because rhetoric is central to the course, our driving questions were, Can we locate language that actualizes the rhetoric SLO in student documents? How does faculty feedback articulate the rhetoric SLO to facilitate effective revision? Overall, we found that whether identifying rhetoric in student documents or instructor feedback, the interpretation was varied and opens up room in pedagogical practices. We offer three implications for teaching: enhancing attention to teaching rhetoric, improving assignment design, and focusing on professional development for faculty.

Currently, the analysis of rhetorical moves is extensively applied to business genre conventions. This paper adopts a corpus-assisted genre approach to compare three major rhetorical moves in corpora of students’ and professionals’ project proposal abstracts to elicit evidence-based recommendations for the pedagogy of business communication. The findings indicate that, while overall features in the proposal abstracts written by actual business professionals and those by students of business vary quantitatively but not qualitatively, students focus more on the aim of the project, and professionals tend to evenly highlight all sides of the project and position it within the context.

Studies of the grant proposal tend to conflate academic research grant proposals with other kinds of nonprofit grant proposal genres, even though research and nonprofit grant proposals have different audiences and goals. To address this gap, this study draws on the Aristotelian concept of topoi (or typical arguments) and uses corpus analysis, interview, and coding methods to answer the question, what topoi distinguish the academic research and nonprofit grant proposal genres? Findings suggest key differences in the topoi that research and nonprofit proposals use to advocate for problems and outcomes, set goals, and establish credibility.

This essay discusses the need and the value of explicitly integrating rhetoric within the business classroom setting; introduces basic rhetorical structures that enhance the workplace skill set; identifies the significance of topoi in the business and professional communication classroom pedagogy; and provides an example of the practical application of using topoi as a pedagogical construct in the business and professional communication classroom.

Business and professional communication courses hold special opportunities to contribute to students’ development of entrepreneurial mindsets through the use and extension of classical rhetorical theory and praxis. We situate pedagogical activities within the context of the entrepreneurial venture pitch by using Rhetorical Canons of invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery to develop oral discourse while recognizing and developing entrepreneurial mindsets. We utilize elements of entrepreneurial mindset development presented by Kuratko et al. and Daspit et al. to introduce business and professional communication instructors to cognitive, behavioral, and emotional aspects contributing to the establishment of entrepreneurial mindsets.

Accent bias, a type of linguistic bias that is based on a speaker’s pronunciation, is a source of partiality in hiring and retention decisions. This study sought to understand perspectives on linguistic diversity and accent bias among university instructors and students in undergraduate human resource management programs. Results point to a lack of coverage alongside stereotypical views about accents and accent bias among instructors and a desire for accent bias training among all participants. The discussion addresses misconceptions that arose, argues for greater focus on accent bias in business communication, and provides guidance for the development of accent bias training.