Crises are inevitable in today's corporate world. This paper outlines a crisis leadership exercise to help business students understand the complexities of external corporate communications. This exercise is suited to class sizes of approximately 30 students, but variations can be used for larger classes. Students are placed into groups and use a…

We analyze the self-rated writing skills of graduating business majors and perceptions on how much these skills changed during college. Subjective skill measures may be good proxies of objective skills, and affect outcomes such as career goals, job applications, and graduate school enrollment. The sample includes 436,370 students from 619…

This qualitative study reviewed student application of self-regulated learning (SRL) processes in self-paced graduate business communication courses. It was preceded by a quantitative analysis of the same courses. In both studies, researchers sought to understand student experience in a self-paced learning environment, and how this experience…

Communicating clearly about their socially responsible activities is becoming increasingly important for companies, as a growing number of stakeholders with different goals, knowledge, and language skills seek information on corporate social responsibility (CSR). Furthermore, the ability to communicate clearly is particularly appreciated in the…

Although many global MBA programs teach intercultural communication, what happens when the method for teaching that concept becomes mostly experiential? To answer that question, the authors took two very similar classes, both composed of working adults, a Business Communications course in Germany and a Managerial Communications course in the…

Virtual teams have been adopted by organizations and studied for decades. However, the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of technology-supported collaboration more than ever. This growing importance of virtual teamwork suggests that business education related to virtual team collaboration and communication is critical for students…

This article explicates the operationalization of a theoretically robust framework in the teaching of business communication at an institute of higher learning. This article reimagines the design of a business communication course that focuses on the coalescence of both decoding and encoding processes of messages as a unified pedagogical approach…

Grounded in self-expansion theory, the Senior Business Consultant Project addresses the gap between career competencies possessed by business graduates and those expected by employers. The project took place in a virtual environment to mirror future business settings. Fourth-year consulting students worked in teams of two to provide guidance to…

Ancient Greeks such as Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle realized the need for combining intellectual, theoretical learning with practical, real-world experiences. Modern educational theorists continue to make similar pleas for the need of a more holistic and experiential view of education. To promote experiential learning in business communication,…

Instructors and administrators in business and technical communication (BTC) programs argue that assessment eportfolios can play a vital role in the success of BTC graduates on the job market. This study explores the use of assessment eportfolios by students, alumni, and employers in BTC. Nineteen interviews were conducted and analyzed for common…

This article examines the effectiveness and impact of the AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) persuasive strategy versus more direct rhetorical strategies. Approximately 142 individuals in the 18 to 25 age range participated in this study, which compared the persuasiveness of pairs of fundraising messages. Our preliminary findings indicate…

Previous studies compare quantitative feedback ratings of student peers and instructors, but new presentation-feedback technologies enable qualitative-feedback comparison. This study extends previous research by comparing qualitative feedback and business professionals' feedback. Compared to the professionals, the instructors provided similar…

Despite academia's best efforts there still remains a gap in communication skills desired by business practitioners and those delivered by new graduates. The authors suggest that this may be the result of practitioners demanding outcome-based skills and academia teaching basic non-business-specific fundamentals of communications. An examination of…

This paper examines the use of linguistic devices in a Chairman's Statement to foreground a positive self-image and background references to financial shortcomings in times of financial distress. Drawing on impression management theory and critical discourse analysis, we reveal the systematic use of language to portray an organization as a…

Globalization has been one of the most important movements in business since the end of World War II. The business education establishment, as represented by the AACSB accreditation agency, has been struggling to get its member schools to properly prepare their graduates for this new global business environment. It has generally been conceded that…