How should academics who work in the field of business communication (or management, professional, or technical communication) think of their work? I propose that business communication should be understood as a sentinel discipline and a designer discipline. By sentinel discipline I mean a community that continually monitors (and responds to) changes in business practice. By designer discipline I mean a community that understands the instructional task as shaping the ways in which graduates will shape (and reshape) business organizations through their communicative behavior.

Virtual reality (VR) has emerged as a promising technology for training oral communication skills (OCS), resulting in a rapidly growing body of research. We conducted a systematic review of 57 studies (2013–2025) mapping OCS types, communication contexts, and key variables, and introduce a conceptual model to guide future research and practice. Findings reveal that current VR-based OCS training captures only a small part of oral communication. Expanding the Cognitive Affective Model of Immersive Learning (CAMIL), we highlight the need for stronger theoretical and pedagogical foundations by exploring cognitive-affective mediators (e.g., cognitive load) and learner-related moderators (e.g., learning styles).

Purpose: Writing has been identified as an important skill. Business writing refers to the form of writing that is used to communicate in formal settings in various corporations and organizations. A number of research studies have identified writing as a crucial skill that needs to be developed by students. The purpose of the study is therefore to understand how an experiential learning module on business writing can improve the email-writing and report-writing skills of management postgraduates. Design/Methodology/Approach: The study uses an experimental research methodology based on experiential learning pedagogy to obtain the results of the intervention on the business writing skills of the management postgraduate students. The module was developed by the researcher and then was taught to the students through the online platform Zoom. Pretest, posttest, and delayed posttest analysis was conducted to find the impact of the intervention. The students were evaluated by an industry expert to avoid bias as they were trained by the researcher. Findings: The results of the study indicated that the intervention had a significant impact on the business writing skills of the participants. The results of the component analysis also indicated a large effect on the content, persuasive abilities, lateral thinking abilities, and the interpersonal skills of the participants in written communication. The analysis of the test scores revealed that an initial training based on the experiential learning methods can have a long-term impact on the improvement of the skills of the students, as the delayed posttest results were more than the posttest results. Originality/value: The study will be beneficial to educators, trainers, as well as students in understanding how experiential learning can impact the business writing skills of the students.

This article looks at how I successfully redesigned a business communication course to support the development of students’ interpersonal and team communication as well as negotiation skills through a strong focus on positive communication and improvisation. The article demonstrates that building a course around Mirivel’s (2014) positive communication model and using improvisational techniques in learning activities can effectively support students’ business communication skills development. The article provides instructors with concrete course modules and activities that can be used in similar courses.

This study evaluates a “feedback-only,” constrained-generative AI tool designed to support revision without generating or rewriting student text. StoryCoach was developed for a business communication elective and grounded in cognitive apprenticeship with principles of feedback literacy. The tool generated structured feedback: one strength, one opportunity, and one reflective question per submission. Analysis of 57 paired drafts showed significant gains in feature-specific rhetorical execution, with vividness as the primary quantitative indicator (Cohen’s d  = 1.39), supported by independent reader judgments and student reflections. Findings demonstrate that constrained-generative AI can function as a pedagogical partner that strengthens rhetorical awareness and preserves authorship integrity.

This conceptual article develops a model of positive LinkedIn communication, arguing that responsive, affirming, and authentic interaction—organized into two higher-order behavioral dimensions—strengthens perceived support and trust, thereby shaping professional outcomes (e.g., recruitment, collaboration, and commercial opportunities). By shifting attention from static profile signals to communicative behaviors enacted in posts, comments, and messages, the framework advances testable propositions and specifies mechanisms, boundary conditions, and potential trade-offs that invite empirical evaluation across organizational and cultural contexts.

This article is a case study dealing with virtual communication experiences of the Indian executives engaged in remote work using online media during the pandemic phase. The author employs qualitative research methodology of ethnography by using a questionnaire circulated online to garner descriptive data regarding virtual communication from Indian executives in various corporate roles who had to take recourse to full-time virtual communication channels to continue their work. The data obtained from a longitudinal study of 12 months spanning from March 2021 to March 2022 was coded with an objective to plot the experiential spectrum of corporate managers using media richness theory and a psychobiological model, as online communication became a singular medium to process all kinds of conversations ranging from routine to negative and persuasive. It became the only tool for leadership execution as well as leadership enhancement compelling corporate heads to improvise media customization methods expeditiously to overcome the limiting constraints of its intrinsic lean outlet. After analyzing the data, the author concludes that virtual communication has now become an integral part of contemporary corporate communication ecosystem owing to the ‘best practices’ that managers invented during their ‘remote work only’ period when they were thrown into the virtual space with its insular gamut of applicability. Remote work also coerced executives to discover the latent potential of this communication channel, which was not apparent when this medium existed only as an elective channel in the ‘plurally channelled’ pre-pandemic work environments. The study provides a comprehensive repository of virtual communication techniques not just for the consumption of management classroom embedding industry inputs into the theoretical curriculum but also for corporate executives who began their careers in an environment of ‘channel sovereignty’ in the post-pandemic setups. The case study, thus, acts as a communication lab presenting online communication pathology and its incubation in industry environments. The author posits that the communication experimentation done during the remote work phase of the pandemic has changed the status of this medium in the realm of management communication from debilitating to dynamic irreversibly.

Large Language Models (LLMs) have ignited discourse within the Technical and Professional Communications (TPC) community in relation to authorship and accountability. This article employs a qualitative synthesis of current and theoretical scholarship regarding authorship theory and LLMs. This analysis argues that while LLMs provide assistance to improve human-generated text, LLMs are unable to participate in authorship, as they cannot be held accountable for their outputs, participate in reciprocity, or demonstrate rhetorical awareness regarding audience and context. The analysis urges professors and professionals to consider concrete guidelines surrounding LLM usage to create transparency in the classroom and workplace.

This study aims to explore the significance and relationship between soft skills of students and entry-level career success in the Malaysian logistics industry. Utilizing a descriptive and correlational research methodology, data were collected from 381 logistics students, educators, and industry professionals. Quantitative analysis using SPSS V 26 and structural equation modeling revealed that communication, problem solving, teamwork, and adaptability positively affect career success, while leadership showed no significant impact on entry-level career success. The study recommends experiential learning, workshops, and mentorship to address soft skills deficits and enhance employability in the evolving logistics industry.

This mixed-methods study investigates the development of intercultural communicative competence (ICC) among Bangladeshi university students through the creation of online advertisements for products like tea, kettles, and mango drinks. Grounded in the frameworks of Ertay and Gilanlioglu’s multidimensional ICC scale, Kress and van Leeuwen’s social semiotics, and Dooly’s asynchronous interculturality, the research examines how student-made ads serve as cultural texts that manifest evolving ICC. Quantitative results from 90 participants revealed significant disparities in self-assessed ICC, with Attitude scoring highest (71%) and Awareness lowest (54%). Longitudinal analysis of 60 students showed Language Appropriateness improved most (37%, p  < 0.01), while Visual Cultural Cues showed minimal gains (18%, p  = 0.08), indicating a cultural bias in visual literacy development. Pedagogically, advertisement creation supported by a structured ICC rubric yielded significantly higher competence gains (29%) than case studies or ad creation alone. Qualitative findings illuminated the challenges students faced in negotiating “glocal” identities and the emotional labor of cultural mediation. The study concludes that student-generated advertisements are potent pedagogical artifacts for ICC development but require tailored, critically reflective scaffolding to address contextual biases and effectively prepare students for the demands of global digital business communication.

This study investigates how the linguistic style of CEO digital communication influences audience engagement. Using an NLP pipeline with a panel regression model on a data set of 19,566 tweets from CEOs, this study reveals that linguistic clarity and an on-platform focus are the most robust predictors of engagement; syntactic complexity and the inclusion of external URLs consistently deter engagement metrics. The effects of stylistic choices like emojis and hashtags are less consistent and depend on the type of engagement being measured. These results offer an expanded understanding of digital communication for CEOs and provide direct implications for business communication pedagogy.

This review analyzes 59 studies from 2014 to 2024 examining design thinking integration in professional communication pedagogy across eight disciplinary journals. Design thinking has evolved from experimental use to systematic pedagogical approaches, with assignment-level integration proving most viable for educators. Empathy interviews and user research bridge design thinking principles with communication pedagogy’s audience awareness focus. Students show enhanced empathy, improved collaboration, and increased creative confidence with high motivation levels. Implementation challenges include time constraints, student resistance to ambiguity, and assessment difficulties. The study recommends scaffolded introduction, integration with existing content, and institutional support for desirable implementation in business and professional communication pedagogy.

As social media use proliferates, so does hateful language on such platforms among users. How might product teams be empowered to tackle hateful speech and promote inclusive language proactively among users? We developed an intervention that targets the organizational culture of tech companies and their product teams as a driver for change. More specifically, the intervention aimed to advance inclusive language practices within product teams, while introducing product development frameworks for advancing inclusive language and mitigating hateful language among social media product users. For this study, we partnered with a large U.S.-headquartered tech firm that owns several social media products to develop and pilot the intervention. The intervention was implemented with 238 participants—representing employees of the firm across several global locations, with particular representation from the United States—in seven workshops. Forty participants were tracked semilongitudinally across three surveys—prior to the intervention, immediately after, and 4 months after. Two participants participated in in-depth interviews 6 months after the intervention. Survey data were submitted to ordinal regression models that examined difference in workshop attendees’ confidence levels across the three time periods. Findings reveal positive impacts over time among product teams in regard to enhanced agency in advancing inclusive language and mitigating hateful speech among users. More specifically, confidence levels to guide one’s team in preventing or mitigating harmful language among product users significantly increased by 13.6% ( p  < .0001) from before the intervention to both postworkshop surveys. Confidence levels to guide one’s team in enhancing inclusive language among users significantly increased by 18.1% ( p  < .0001) pre- to postworkshop. Positive correlations are present between the measures. Lastly, qualitative responses in the surveys and interviews express appreciation of learning gained in the workshops, but also the need to continue such interventions as an effort to maintain critical understandings of inclusive language practices.

The present study attempts to understand and establish the interplay between workplace romance and workplace gossip through the lens o McClelland’s theory of need in the context of the Indian hospitality industry. The data were collected from 216 hotel employees using a time-lagged design. PLS-SEM was used to test the hypothesized associations. The results indicated a positive association between workplace romance and workplace gossip. The study discusses several motives for people to engage in romance, resulting in increased gossip. Workplace romance emerged as a significant mediator between the antecedents (love, loneliness, career growth, organizational politics) and the consequence (workplace gossip). There is a dearth of studies empirically studying the linkages and antecedents of workplace gossip and workplace romance, especially in the context of the Indian hospitality sector. The present study attempts to address this gap by understanding the hypothesized associations.

Personality testing is an elementary part of recruitment. The test results are increasingly considered a necessary means of obtaining information about candidates’ personalities and suitability. This has raised questions about who has the right to define a candidate’s personality in recruitment interviews. Here, we use conversation analysis to describe two strategies through which recruiters evaluate candidates’ personalities based on the personality test results and show how these methods are linked to different interactional affordances. We recommend the candidate-driven strategy that attends to the candidates’ fundamental right to define their personality in a situation where their career is at stake.

This study examines whether a leader’s motivating language use cultivates individual follower gratitude and ultimately, work engagement and empowerment in both the USA and India. It also seeks to discover if the proposed model shows significant differences between the two national contexts. We examined our model by distributing questionnaires to a wide range of full-time employees using MTurk. Results reveal that in both countries motivating language has positive relationships with an employee’s state-based gratitude, engagement, and psychological empowerment. As predicted, gratitude partially mediates the relationships between ML and the two outcomes. However, the strengths of these relationships differ between both samples.

Advanced technologies and other rapid changes in the global business environment, especially following the pandemic of 2020, have fundamentally disrupted how, when, and where we work. Through design thinking, business communicators can reenvision the affordance of traditional rhetoric to thrive in this new workplace. The article opens with a scenario based on the postpandemic problem of accommodating a hybrid style of work and then describes how the mindset and method of design thinking transform traditional rhetoric. Grounded in empathetic collaboration, design thinking positions rhetoric as a recursive, nonlinear, and nimble process and provides new perspectives on rhetoric’s time-tested persuasive appeals.

The current study aims to evaluate the impact of Facebook integration on student engagement and academic performance on a business communication course taught in an Indian private university in an online teaching environment. A direct relationship was established between Facebook usage in an online learning environment and student engagement—both situational and personal factors. A quantitative data analysis using structured equation modeling was conducted to test the validity of the conceptualized model. The study reports that integration of contemporary social media tools in academia fosters communication, collaboration, and participation in online learning environment to develop discussion-oriented learning and cocreation.

This article examines the often-overlooked role played by classical dialectics in managerial discourse, highlighting its enduring relevance in business communication instruction. Through comparative analysis, the article shows how Peter F. Drucker’s management theories draw on classical dialectics and how an applied liberal arts approach can inform interpersonal workplace dialogue and strengthen managerial effectiveness. The analysis suggests that, through the Druckerian lens, classical dialectic effectively bridges practical wisdom ( phronesis ) and action ( praxis ) in management. The article concludes that incorporating classical dialectics into business communication curricula and training can enhance modern management education.

Purpose: This study offers an in-depth review of the body of research articles on the topic of boundary spanning and the dynamic nature of different actors to provide a more comprehensive knowledge on different boundary spanning activities and their effects on performance, flexibility, and resilience in educational institutions. Design/methodology/approach: To address the limited research on boundary-spanning functions in education, this study employed a two-round systematic literature review (SLR). The first round, which included an analysis of 338 research studies, sought to identify boundary-spanning functions and their activities. Using data from 39 studies, the second round sought to examine the boundary-spanning function and the critical role that information transfer plays in enabling boundary spanning in education. Findings: This review of literature led researchers to draw the main variables/strategies that facilitate boundary spanning in education (leadership and instructional strategies; collaboration and networking; training and development; teamwork; and revised pedagogical approaches). Also, the review highlighted the importance of knowledge transfer in facilitating boundary-spanning functions. Originality/value: Researchers, practitioners, and decision makers looking to improve boundary-spanning activities by utilizing networks and knowledge transfer might use this systematic review as a source. It also provides various strategies of how boundary spanners and leaders can support and facilitate the function of boundary spanning in educational institutions.

Based on the foundations of femininity-masculinity and assertiveness-responsiveness, this study investigates the interplay between gender roles and social styles in managerial behavior and its impact on employee voice and engagement in a fully remote work setting. The research gathered data from 542 Information Technology (IT) professionals with a two-wave survey design. The results suggest a potential linkage between gender roles and social styles. Managers with androgynous gender roles are more likely to exhibit expressive social style than any other style; masculine gender roles exhibit driver social style, while managers with undifferentiated gender roles are likelier to demonstrate analytical social style. The findings further indicate that managers exhibiting higher levels of femininity within their gender role (androgynous and feminine) positively impact employee voice and engagement. In contrast, lower levels of femininity (masculine and undifferentiated) seem to correspond with diminished employee voice and engagement. This pattern also extends to social styles.

The research combines explanatory and predictive modeling to examine the impact of annual report tone in predicting publicly traded companies’ profitability in Vietnam, an emerging Southeast Asian market. SGMM regression shows that this year’s narrative tone affects next year’s profitability. The study also used Scikit-learn Python machine learning algorithms to forecast profitability. The tone-based forecasting model that incorporates the company’s general and financial features predicts profitability is the most effective model. This study provides stakeholders such as investors and creditors with an approach to predict future profitability based on the narrative tone and expands theoretical understanding of its predictive power. JEL codes: D21, G33, M40, M41

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.

Meetings are an essential part of organizational life everywhere. Although research has shown that meeting styles differ among cultures, studies focusing on a broad set of data to compare the prevalent meeting styles systematically are rare, partly because of the high academic standards required by researchers. There is, however, much informal data on meeting styles aimed at practitioners, which despite its shortcomings, can be useful. The information provided is largely based on the experiences made by internationally active businesspeople. Under the author’s supervision, students of the author’s business school analyzed a great number of descriptions of meeting practices to investigate in what respects meetings differ. The results were combined with earlier research and general situational context models to come to a meeting-specific model that enables a systematic comparison of meeting practices. This model can be applied for educational as well as for practical purposes.

This article presents “The Cure for Talking,” a pioneering conceptual framework that blends Transactional Analysis (TA) with Artificial Intelligence (AI), to produce a TA-AI Bot designed to optimize executive communication. Here, the medium of interest is written emails. The TA-AI Bot aims to change behavior through the reinforcement mechanism of repetition. The feedback system of the TA-AI Bot is designed to enhance users’ self-awareness and communication quality, that is, identification and shifting of ego states to approximate better communication; and recognition of rhetorical appeals that typify their exchanges with others. Validation of “The Cure for Talking” will require iterative research.

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.

In the crowded social media platforms, brands need diverse strategies to engage users with their branding content. The research uses a communicative persuasive matrix in an experimental design to understand the multilayered social media persuasion with factors like message sources (celebrity vs. social media influencer), message strategy and message receivers’ attributes. The impact of these variables is tested on the intent to like and share the branding message in the case of a health and fitness product. The results indicated that different users prefer to like and share branding messages with different message sources and message strategies.

This study examines translation accuracy, challenges, and improvement strategies in Indonesian-to-English translations by university students, specifically analyzing Goenawan Muhammad’s essay “Nama.” A descriptive mixed-methods design was employed, combining qualitative thematic analysis with quantitative statistical methods. The study involved a sample of 406 students, with translations evaluated based on accuracy, readability, and cultural competence. Statistical analyses, including correlation and logistic regression, revealed significant positive relationships between cultural references, cultural competence, and translation accuracy. Key findings show that cultural competence training improves translation accuracy (coefficient of 0.75), acceptability (average rating of 4.0), and readability (average rating of 4.1). The analysis also found that students with higher cultural competence demonstrated better handling of cultural references in the text, resulting in more accurate and contextually appropriate translations. The novelty of this study lies in its emphasis on the interplay between cultural references and competence in translation accuracy, filling a gap in existing research. The findings contribute to the development of translation training programs by highlighting the critical role of cultural awareness in enhancing translation quality. This study provides practical recommendations for improving translator training through focused cultural competence development, ensuring more accurate and readable translations in both academic and professional contexts.

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 article features a grounded theory study that explored communication in online Master of Business Administration (MBA) group work, with an emphasis on skills transferable to remote professional collaboration after graduation. Data were collected from nine online MBA students through individual reflection documents and a focus group discussion. These data were analyzed and revealed themes about the importance of agreeing on not just norms and resources but also normative actions to facilitate online collaboration. Findings led to recommendations for designing online group assignments that enhance communication skills during online collaboration—skills that are becoming increasingly integral to professional success.

This study examines the use of persuasive language by male and female entrepreneurs in high-stakes negotiation settings, focusing on gendered communication strategies. With a particular emphasis on Aristotle’s modes of persuasion (Ethos, Pathos, and Logos), the research analyzes 44 negotiation conversations from Shark Tank US , Season 11, using a quantitative approach. Data were processed with SPSS to assess gender differences in persuasive strategies. The findings reveal significant gendered patterns: male entrepreneurs predominantly used Logos as a way to emphasize on logical reasoning and evidence to persuade investors, while female entrepreneurs more often employed Pathos, sparking emotional appeals to build empathy and engagement. These differences are discussed in light of social constructivist theories of language, which suggest that gendered communication reflects broader societal power dynamics. The study highlights the challenges women face in balancing authority with warmth in negotiations, a double bind identified in earlier research. This research contributes to our understanding of how gender influences persuasive strategies in entrepreneurial contexts and offers implications for promoting more equitable communication in business settings. It also suggests that future research should further explore how these findings can be applied to support female entrepreneurs in overcoming communication barriers and achieving greater success in negotiation and leadership roles.

An innovative communication exercise is presented that develops students’ ability to craft responses to behavioral-based job interview questions that assess whether a candidate’s personality is a fit with the job and company values. Synthesized from a range of historical biographical models, the techniques discussed furnish students with a critical skill: By tactfully employing anecdotes and vignettes in response to questions regarding personality, personal interests, and professional attitudes, students are taught how to add character and dimension to their credentials, direct the flow and direction of the interview, and vividly bolster their arguments for differentiation and selection.

Delineating a nuanced distinction between high-pressure and high-stakes scenarios, this study introduces the Measure of Interpersonal Apprehensions in High-Stakes Situations (MIPHSS), a sophisticated assessment instrument designed to comprehensively evaluate the direct, and mediating, effects of interpersonal apprehension (IpA) on the behavior (BA) and performance apprehension (PA) of professionals operating in high-stakes contexts. Additionally, the study explores the moderating effects of gender and behavioral and communication training (B&CT ) on these relationships. The hypotheses were empirically tested using SmartPLS-3, employing a sample of 210 professionals operating within high-stakes environments. The findings show a direct positive impact of interpersonal apprehension on both behavioral and performance apprehension, with behavioral apprehension identified as a mediating factor in the relationship between interpersonal and performance apprehension. Notably, the moderating effect of gender was statistically insignificant. Conversely, B&CT exhibited a moderately significant impact on mitigating performance apprehension in professions characterized by heightened stakes.

Recent workplace transformations have heightened the importance of soft skills, yet validated instruments for measuring these competencies remain limited. This study validates a comprehensive instrument measuring contemporary business soft skills using data from 294 participants representing 38 nationalities. Factor analysis revealed a robust 10-factor structure explaining 62.4% of the variance, with reliability coefficients ranging from .775 to .877. Results indicate the integration of traditionally distinct competencies and the emergence of new factorial combinations. The validated instrument provides a reliable tool for assessing soft skills in modern workplace contexts, particularly valuable for virtual and cross-cultural environments. The findings support more precise soft skills communication between employees, employers, educators, and students.

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.

Given the prioritization of video format in social networks, the interest of scholars and managers in the elements that determine their effectiveness has increased. This article analyzes image type (product vs. people) and written text’s role in message reinforcement. Three studies are carried out combining conscious and unconscious responses. We contribute to visual rhetoric literature, affirming image-based videos are more liked and shared versus short videos that are based on written text. Specifically, the images related to the content of the message are more liked than the image of a person that explains the content, although attention is greater when a person appears. As for the overwritten text, it favors the willingness to share short videos, but reduces likeability in videos with images related to content. Additionally, the unconscious response through electrodermal activity shows that short videos with persons and overwritten text achieve more emotional activation and avoid that attention wanes. These findings aid in designing effective short video content for brands and individuals that use social media to communicate.

Modern workplace demographics are changing and so too are workplace relationships. This research explores the impact of poor leader relationships on voice behaviors—more specifically, defensive silence. Results indicate a negative relationship between leader-member exchange (LMX) and defensive silence, a positive relationship between communicative anxiety and defensive silence, and a negative relationship between communicative anxiety and LMX. Additionally, a significant interaction is found between age, years of supervisory experience, LMX, and defensive silence. Theoretical and practical implications for workplace relationships are discussed.

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.

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.

This 10-week study investigates the relationships between diversity beliefs, teamwork satisfaction, perceived classroom competitiveness, and attitudes toward project-based activities among 105 marketing students. Findings indicate that diversity beliefs enhance teamwork satisfaction, whereas performance-approach goals reduce it. Classroom competitiveness negatively moderates the impact of teamwork satisfaction on project attitudes, whereas teammate competitiveness has a positive moderating effect. These insights can help educators balance competition and collaboration to optimize learning environments.

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 explores how confidence levels in user prompts affect AI-generated resume text. Using six varied prompts for AI models ChatGPT-3.5, Gemini, and Perplexity, it examines how AI interprets and responds to different confidence levels. The findings reveal significant differences in AI-generated resumes based on prompt confidence, highlighting the need to adapt resume pedagogy for the AI age. Emphasizing the importance of teaching genre conventions and developing critical AI literacies, the study offers practical recommendations for integrating AI tools into resume writing instruction to better prepare students for an increasingly digital world.

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.

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.

Research suggests that the nondisclosure of relationships may cause adverse psychological stress; however, no studies have empirically examined the impact of secret workplace romances (WRs) on employee well-being. This article uses the communication privacy management theory as a framework to test workplace romance nondisclosure on job and life satisfaction. Relationship nondisclosure predicted differences in both projected job and life satisfaction. Additionally, individual differences (i.e., gender, age, work experience, conscientiousnes and emotional stability) were tested as moderators of the relationship between WRs and job and life satisfaction. Implications for practitioners (e.g., communication training) about WRs on employee outcomes are discussed.

The pitch is a central part of accelerator programs commonly presented with a slide presentation, called pitch deck. This study seeks to understand the ways in which pitch decks are structured. A slide-based approach was taken to describe the structure of 96 pitch decks created at the Start-up Chile accelerator program. Results showed that 7 topics were used in more than half of the pitch decks analyzed (company, team, product, problem, achievements, business model, market) and that certain topics formed sequences that were commonly used across the slide presentations.

By adapting methods used to measure anxiety in physical employment interview, this study in the first stage identifies levels of anxiety induced in a computer-mediated interview setting. In the second stage, the study examines the mediating role of practice interview process in reducing interview anxiety and explores the moderating effects of gender and prior work experience on the relationship between remote interview anxiety and performance outcome. It utilizes partial least squares structural equation modeling to test the direct and mediation effect based on 245 responses received from job aspirants. As in a physical interview, anxiety in a remote situation is related to one’s level of preparation and perception of interviewing self-efficacy. The results reveal a significant positive effect of preparation satisfaction on self-efficacy perception of interview performance and significant negative effect of self-efficacy perception and preparation satisfaction on remote interview anxiety. Practice-interview process significantly mediated the performance outcome; however, the moderating effect of gender and work experience was found to be insignificant. Practical implications: Findings from this study have far-reaching implications for educators and professionals working toward mitigating anxiety during the employment selection processes in computer-mediated setting.

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.