Business and Professional Communication Quarterly Dec 2025

Designing Business Communications in a Disrupted Workplace

Deborah C. Andrews

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
CompPile
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Topics
multimodality voice and style affect and writing

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

Cites in this index (8)

  1. Stephens et al. (2020)
    Story mapping and sea level rise
    Communication Design Quarterly
  2. Purdy (2014)
    What Can Design Thinking Offer Writing Studies?
    College Composition and Communication
  3. Lauer et al. (2011)
    Visuospatial Thinking in the Professional Writing Classroom
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  4. Brumberger (2007)
    Making the Strange Familiar
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  5. Johnson (1997)
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    Computers and Composition
Show all 8 →
  1. Lunsford et al. (1996)
    Representing Audience: "Successful" Discourse and Disciplinary Critique
    College Composition and Communication
  2. Kostelnick (1989)
    Process Paradigms in Design and Composition: Affinities and Directions
    College Composition and Communication
  3. Ede et al. (1984)
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    College Composition and Communication
Also cites 4 works outside this index ↓
  1. Andrews D. (2022). Commentary: A space for place in business communication research updated. International Jo…
     ↗
  2. Buchanan R. (2001). Design and the new rhetoric: Productive arts in the philosophy of culture. Philosophy & R…
     ↗
  3. Gruber M. de Leon N. George G. Thompson P. (2015). From the editors: Managing by design. The Academy of Manag…
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     ↗
CrossRef global citation count: 2 View in citation network →

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