In this article, we replicate important findings about workplace persuasion (e.g., a preference for face-to-face rather than computer-mediated messages). We extend those findings by including videoconferencing among the available channels and determining that practitioners regard video as less effective than face-to-face and more effective than email. Furthermore, we find that business practitioners prefer multichannel strategies for upwardly directed persuasion, and that some—more women than men in our sample—call on a person to serve as one of the channels. These findings provide insights that teachers can apply in the classroom; they also suggest questions for future research.

We gathered data from business practitioners to learn how they describe successful online business presentations. We found that many—but not all—successful examples were described in terms of classical rhetorical concepts (e.g., source credibility and content). We also found that about 20% of the examples were described as successful because of technology deployment, audience interactivity, or both. We conclude that professors of management communication should teach the online presentation, that such instruction should include classical rhetorical concepts (with some appropriate adjustments), and that instruction should be expanded to include technology and interactivity.

This study offers a comprehensive review of data-based research on the practice of multicommunicating, that is, the behavior of participating in multiple, overlapping conversations. Initial research has occurred in various academic disciplines and described the phenomenon with a variety of terms. The authors begin by defining multicommunication and then identifying and comparing these various other terms. Next, they summarize past research, offer revised versions of five propositions concerning multicommunicating, and identify a new concept, multicommunicator aspirational stress. Finally, they offer suggestions for both pedagogy and future research on multicommunicating.

As technology changes business practices, it becomes even more important that our students—and we ourselves—think rhetorically. Our pedagogy should help students look at (not just through) new media to understand how new media reshape the rhetorical situation (audience, exigency, constraints) and to use them effectively. Furthermore, new digital technologies that capture and preserve business messages create opportunities and raise new research questions. Viewing business practices through the lens of rhetoric can provide a valuable perspective for research and emphasize the community-shaping aspects (and thus an ethical dimension) of business. Therefore, in this commentary, the authors call for a reorientation of the field of business communication.