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.

Nearly every business communication textbook includes an explanation of “hard” and “soft” skills. Indeed, most business professionals understand the importance of honing interpersonal competencies as well as technical proficiencies. However, measuring the importance of soft skills and how they are used in an organization is often a difficult task. Therefore, the focus of this article is on rethinking the conversation by applying front-stage and back-stage communication theory to the genres in the case study example of Samsung surrounding its Galaxy Note 7 recall.