Fundamental Theories of Business Communication

Laying a Foundation for the Field

Milton Mayfield, Jacqueline Mayfield, Robyn Walker

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9783030577407
• eBook ISBN: 9783030577414
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business Strategy
• Index: Business

This book examines the major business communication theories, delving into their relationships and practical applications. Many business communication studies lack a strong theoretical grounding—a deficit that creates difficulties for researching business communication phenomena and building upon previous studies. The book addresses this issue by cataloging and briefly describing the major business communication theories, as well as giving a typology of these theories to better integrate them. This book provides value to business communication researchers (who can use it to build upon and develop their work), experts in practice (who can apply it to improve business communications), and academics (who can use it to enhance their instructional designs). It also offers insights into new developments on the business communication theory horizon.

© The Author(s) 2020

M. Mayfield et al.Fundamental Theories of Business CommunicationNew Perspectives in Organizational Communicationhttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57741-4_1

Begin Abstract

1. Introduction

Milton Mayfield¹, Jacqueline Mayfield¹ and Robyn Walker²

(1)

Texas A&M International University, Laredo, TX, USA

(2)

Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

Jacqueline Mayfield

Email: [email protected]

Keywords

Business communicationParadigmsResearchTheoryTypology

End Abstract

Tis hard if all is false that I advance. A fool must now and then be right by chance.

—William Cowper, Conversation, Line 96

Business communication needs theories. As a field, business communication exists as a unique intersection of diverse areas, and, as such, must fulfill many expectations. Business communication draws from the broader field of communication research and draws from organizational behavior, public relations, psychology, sociology, neurobiology, and even more areas. This foundation gives business communication a rich set of ideas to build on, but the multiplicity also creates difficulties. Specifically, researchers can find it challenging to choose ideas on which to base their work. Business communication researchers also face another issue—relevance to the business world. Business communication—as indicated by its name—must give value to businesses, employees, and stakeholders.

Unfortunately, business communication researchers can feel lost about how to examine the many questions that confront the business community. Most researchers recognize the issue they want to study—how to improve leader communication, what promotes discussions in meetings, how to make communication more honest and ethical—but they do not see how to grapple with these questions. Even when researchers develop a study framework, it often remains idiosyncratic—a framework that addresses a particular situation, but does not provide a way for other researchers to build upon the findings (Almaney, 1974; Hale, Dulek, & Hale, 2005). This situation simply frustrates everyone. Researchers abandon essential questions because they see no way to study them, quality findings remain isolated because of difficulties in extending the results, business people fail to find consistent advice about how to improve their business situations, and the field of business communication sees only isolated progress toward a common body of knowledge.

However, the field of business communication has the building blocks to become a unified field (M. Mayfield & Mayfield, 2017a, 2017b). We have the tools needed so researchers can find models to examine most business communication phenomena. More so, these tools provide frameworks where researchers can apply their findings to business applications and deliver results which other researchers can further develop. Through many years, the field has generated theories that give researchers what they need to craft quality work. Unfortunately, most business communication researchers—and those in other fields (Miles, 2012; Miner, 2002)—do not know the wide range of theories available to them. Many researchers know only a handful of theories they learned in their doctoral classes and have come to rely on them in their research. They have forgotten, overlooked, or never been exposed to the majority of theories which we have available.

In business communication, our theories mostly remain covert. The catalog of our basic, fundamental theories only exists as tacit knowledge (Allred, 2001; M. Mayfield, Mayfield, & Lunce, 2008), accessible through limited networks of friends, colleagues, and research reports (Eisenberg, Johnson, & Pieterson, 2015; Latour, 2005). Such implicit knowledge needs to be made explicit—a source available to our field’s members for discussion, debate, and change (M. Mayfield, 2010; M. Mayfield & Mayfield, 2012). The very nature of implicit knowledge, however, makes identifying the theories challenging. Different researchers know some theories better than others, various texts are built around diverse research, and business communication experts find certain models more useful than others. Still, other business disciplines—notably organizational behavior (Miner, 2003) and organizational theory (Miles, 2012)—have faced similar challenges and successfully identified core theories relevant to diverse researchers across these fields.

We believe that business communication faces unique difficulties because of its diversity and relative newness (Aritz & Bargiela-Chiappini, 2014; Kuhn, 1996). While business communication has likely existed since our paleolithic ancestors first discussed how to trade bananas for pomegranates, the study of business communication has emerged more recently. Dedicated business communication journals such as the International Journal of Business Communication (founded 1963), Journal of Advertising (founded 1972), and Management Communication Quarterly (founded 1987) have only existed a few short decades. While on a human time scale, this period may seem long, Kuhn (1996) showed developing a field often takes several generations. As such, business communication finds itself fragmented and still searching for an identity. This fragmentation also stunts our field’s growth (Fort, 1975; Kuhn, 1996), hinders our acceptance by other business and social science researchers, and limits how much (financially) universities value business communication professors (Abbott, 2014).

How can we reduce this fragmentation and still preserve our field’s richness? We believe making these divergent perspectives explicit and easily accessible is key. A shared worldview binds people together—be they friends, work colleagues, or members of an academic community (Brodie, 2011; Eisenberg & Riley, 2001). Case in point: Within academic communities, theories help forge members’ identities, even when vast distances and long years separate them (Kuhn, 1996; Latour, 2005). Theory underlies the research we immerse ourselves in and underpins the texts we use to teach. These same theories offer a compass to all members in our community: a guide for researchers seeking robust, well-supported frameworks for examining phenomena in the field; for teachers crafting pedagogy based on useful and well-understood principles; for writers looking to develop texts grounded in our field’s best practices; for consultants trying to benefit the workforce.

To develop such coherence, we need a set of widely recognized theories. While we believe these theories exist, few business communication researchers know more than a handful. (As an aside, part of the reason we started this project was to develop our knowledge of these theories—we wanted this list so we could know the field better.) While researchers do not need an in-depth understanding of all of the major theories in an area, we hope this book helps researchers recognize these theories and gain a general idea of their legitimacy and utility. By distributing such shared knowledge, a field can grow a cohesive speech community with a free exchange of ideas (Boulanger & Gagnon, 2018; Lo, 1999). We hope this book contributes to the development of such a community by bringing to light the foundational blocks the field already possesses.

To facilitate this process, we present the fundamental business communication theories. Knowing these theories will help researchers have a stronger underst...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• 1. Introduction
• 2. How We Selected the Theories
• 3. A Typology of Business Communication Theories
• 4. Theory Classification
• 5. Channels and Barriers
• 6. Cultural Characteristics and Influences
• 7. Flows and Patterns
• 8. Meaning-Making and Discovery
• 9. Motivation and Persuasion
• 10. Organizational Structures
• 11. Reasons and Representations
• 12. Emerging and Noteworthy Theories
• 13. Theory Traditions and Influences
• 14. Why We Need Business Communication Theories
• 15. Conclusion and Future Development
• 16. Recommended Readings
• Back Matter