Practicing What We Teach

Abstract

The authors investigate the importance of instructor communication behaviors in a course on business communication, arguing that alignment between instructor behaviors and the precepts of the discipline has a pronounced effect on perceived instructor credibility in this field. Student evaluations were analyzed qualitatively for their comments on instructor communication behaviors and quantitatively for the ratings students gave their instructors. This suggests a relationship between the two. The authors outline two classroom exercises to help students develop best practice in business communication, while also enhancing instructors’ credibility by showing how they apply best practice in their own documents.