Communication Training in Corporate Settings: Lessons and Opportunities for the Academe

Today, communication skills are among the most popular content areas in employee training. This survey of training managers examined the status of communication training in businesses and identified the lessons and opportunities for business communication faculty. Results indicated that communication training in businesses tend to focus on managerial and interpersonal communication including teamwork, problem solving, effective meetings,and motivating people. Supervisors and customer service personnel received communication training most frequently. Training managers felt that course development,teaching, and evaluation strategies used in communication training can be applied to undergraduate business communication courses. Also, communication training in businesses offers opportunities for business communication faculty to expose students to real‐world problems, do joint planning and evaluation of courses, and provide continuing education to trainers.