Abstract
It has long been commonly accepted that employers expect candidates to have strong communication skills regardless of the field. The National Association of Colleges and Employers each year in its annual Job Outlook has ranked communication skills in the top five of important attributes (National Association of Colleges and Employers, 2020). But communication covers a lot of territory, and it would be useful to know which kinds of communication skills employers value most. Some research has suggested that in the top levels of organizations interpersonal communication has been regarded as more important than oral, with writing of less importance than in the past (Reinsch & Gardner, 2014). The authors of our lead article have delved into this issue in some detail. Using a thematic analysis of interviews with 22 employers, they have developed a classification of communication skills intoexemplaryandunacceptable. In the exemplary category are relatability, documentation, and audience awareness/adaptation, whereas deception, verbal aggression, and defensive communication are seen as unacceptable. This research, then, has implications for what instructors might want to emphasize in business and professional communication courses, and it also contributes to scholarly conversations about anticipatory socialization.
Our second article focuses on another communication skill considered in demand by employers: working productively in teams. The author argues that diverse perspectives can be a powerful means of encouraging innovation, but ideational tools traditionally used may not work as intended. The study reported in this article examined how workplace teams at a biotech company used discourse to innovate, in a rhetorical practice that has been defined asdifference-driven inquiry(Flower, 2016). An approach based on difference-driven has immediate applications in business and professional classes where teams play a prominent role.
This issue also includes an article on decoding decisions for what to include in résumés, and two surveys of Association for Business Communication (ABC) members. The author of the résumé article conducted a study of study of 63 students, 20 advisors, and 24 employers and identified eight reasons used by both employers and students to justify their decisions in constructing or evaluating résumés. The first survey addresses the academic environment, including factors such as job satisfaction, institutional and collegial support, academic rank, physical teaching environment, teaching and learning resources, and student issues. The second examines course delivery, course outlook, topics and depth of coverage, social media and technology coverage, diversity coverage, critical thinking, and accessibility.
With this issue we bring Volume 83 to a close, so it is time to thank all those who have contributed to our success. I would like to thank, in particular, Martha Avtandilian (Publisher), Neha Jaiswal (Production Editor), Mark Hannah and Chris Lam (Associate Editors), Charity Fox and Alicia Remolde (Editorial Assistants), Joel Whalen (Convener and Editor of the My Favorite Assignment collections), and ABC headquarters staff. I also want to express my appreciation for the outstanding work of both our Editorial Review Board members and ad hoc reviewers, who provide the superb feedback for whichBusiness and Professional Communication Quarterly(BPCQ) is known. Finally, I want to offer congratulations to Jeremy Rosselot-Merritt and Janel Bloch, who won the award for this year’s outstanding article inBPCQ: “Mentoring in Business and Professional Communication: Case Study of a Multiyear Dynamic.” The award was announced at ABC’s virtual conference in October.