Business and Professional Communication Quarterly Dec 2025

Designing Business Communications in a Disrupted Workplace

Deborah C. Andrews University of Delaware

Abstract

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.

Journal
Business and Professional Communication Quarterly
Published
2025-12-01
DOI
10.1177/23294906231203370
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Topics
rhetorical criticism collaborative writing professional writing multimodality
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (2)

  1. Tham (2025)
    Design Thinking in Business and Professional Communication Pedagogy: A Review o…
    Business and Professional Communication Quarterly
  2. Tabane (2025)
    The Cure for Talking: Transactional Analysis and AI to Optimize Executive Commu…
    Business and Professional Communication Quarterly

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