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We collected written critical incidents from young business practitioners entering our MBA program, asking each person to describe a work-related communication episode that had challenged him or her and to answer several questions about the episode. Most often, respondents reported face-to-face oral events that required the respondent to function as an advocate or to manage conflict. Both gender and first language correlated with responses, suggesting that persons of different genders and cultures have differing business experi ences or draw differing conclusions from their experiences. On the basis of these results, we call for management communication courses to give sufficient attention to oral communication events that require spontaneity, persuasion, conflict management, and boundary spanning.

We measured objective and subjective characteristics of 99 memoranda and derived indices of selected message characteristics (positive emphasis and youattitude) and message reinforcers (benefits and threats). Employed business practitioners reacted to the memoranda as though the messages had been received at work and reported perceived message tone, commitment to comply with the message, and reader satisfaction. We used regression analysis to test several relationships predicted from a stimulus-response model.The study (a) provides some of the first empirical support for the concepts of positive emphasis and you-attitude; (b) supports the stimulus-response model developed in the paper, suggesting that it might merit additional research; (c) raises questions about current academic conceptions of positive emphasis and you-attitude; and (d) suggests additional research questions concerning, for example, the virtues of brevity and the effects of message organization.

Most business communication textbooks limit their treatments of persuasion to the classical rhetorical model, motive-goal theories, and psychological organizational structures. Suggesting the need to integrate contemporary persuasion theory into the business communication literature, the author synthesizes a wide range of persuasion theories and relevant research using four theoretical approaches: learning theory, consistency theory, perceptual theory, and functional theory. Where appropriate, the author suggests practical implications of these theories to business communication.THE TRADITIONAL TEXTBOOK PRESENTATION of persuasion to business communication students focuses primarily on prescriptive techniques and formats for writing and speaking. Textbook writers who have tried to integrate findings of persuasion theory into their presentation have faced two major problems.The first problem is that the various theories of persuasion which are to be found largely in the social science literature have not been unified into a coherent framework. As the following discussion will suggest, even the most sophisticated of the new approaches do not integrate the diverse empirical findings on the process of human influence.The second problem has been that business communicators have found little in contemporary persuasion theory that is useful and practical since contemporary research in persuasion has resulted largely in hypotheses about the hows and whys of persuasion (assessment) rather than in what persuaders should do to be effective (intervention).' From a pedagogical perspective, these assessment theories do not provide useful conclusions and implications.Despite problems with integration and practicality, researchers in the business communication field cannot afford to ignore developments in persuasion research; rather, they should identify relevant findings and take the initiative in developing an integrated theoretical framework that supports their principles and techniques. As a first step in that process, this paper will identify and briefly describe the theories of persuasion commonly included or implicit in contemporary business communication texts as a base point for updating the persuasion theory useful for business communicators. Next, the paper will provide a review of alternative theoretical models from persuasion research that are relevant to business communication.°

We asked each student enrolled in a graduate-level management communica tion course to describe in wrzting a work-related communication episode that had challenged him or her. Students reported most difficulties in face-to-face oral events, particularly when required to interact with someone in a different organization or with someone who ranked higher in the organization. Students also identified communication-related needs (for example, improved self-confidence and persuasiveness). Our results indicate that graduate management communication courses should include oral communication and should not conceptualize oral communication exclusively in terms of formal presentations.