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Despite academia's best efforts there still remains a gap in communication skills desired by business practitioners and those delivered by new graduates. The authors suggest that this may be the result of practitioners demanding outcome-based skills and academia teaching basic non-business-specific fundamentals of communications. An examination of the literature suggested that outcome-motivated skills can be successfully taught, but that comprehensive outcome skills sets do not exist. Thus, the authors conducted a thorough review of the literature to identify those outcome-based communication skills that management experts, leadership theorists, business education professionals, communication skills researchers, and business development writers have stated are in greatest need in business organizations. They conclude with recommendations and implications for business management and education. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Most research into the early telephone system has focused on telephone providers rather than users, and this article begins to address that imbalance. The telephone was initially used to improve internal communications within firms, by connecting offices with warehouses, or by enabling staff working away from the office to report back. With the expansion of exchange networks, the commercial, intermediary and brokering sectors became heavy users of the technology for routine information transfer within business districts. Business elites continued to favour face-to-face contact for strategic business negotiations, however, and delegated telephone use to their employees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an abstract of the article "The Use of Communication to Motivate College Sales Teams," by Theodore E. Zorn and Sarah E. Ruccio, which appeared in the October 1998 issue of the "Journal of Business Communication." Sales managers often are expected to provide motivation to their salespeople, and organizations spend millions every year to train managers in the skills needed to motivate employees. The article presents extensive examples of and analysis of the communication between managers and salespeople, and suggests an alternative theoretical framework for explaining motivational communication. Managers must be aware that any communicative act potentially has multiple functions, multiple implications, and multiple interpretations.