Management perception of business communication : a transdisciplinary perspective

Effective communication is key for organisations: it facilitates processes and cohesion within the organisation, and fosters relationships with stakeholders and customers outside the organisation. To continuously improve communication skills and professional literacy, management sends employees to communication seminars, writing coaching sessions and mandatory online business communication courses ((Perrin, 2013)). In most cases, management is exempt from these courses and training for general sta:. Management either refuses to participate in ongoing business communication training, or prefers settings where only management is coached. From the perspective of management, mixed groups of employees and managers do not o:er any advantages. ((Whitehouse, 2023)). As a review of the state-of-the-art research reveals, there are no contextual studies, informed by both theoretical and practical knowledge, that provide an in-depth analysis of how this separation impacts the effectiveness of communication of organisations. This is the gap that my transdisciplinary research on the need to link business communication and management aims to close. In the presentation, I define the key concepts of professional literacy and transdisciplinarity (part 1). The analysis is based on a long-term qualitative data corpus consisting of interviews with more than 250 employees and managers from organisations in different sectors who participated in business communication coaching and training sessions in separate and joint settings between 2012 and 2024 (part 2). I use a multi-method approach to explain the advantages and disadvantages of each setting and the impact on internal and external communication (part 3). The results suggest that joint business communication coaching and training sessions for management and employees strengthen mutual understanding within the organisation and lead to jointly identified practical, sustainable solutions for effective communication of the organisation (part 4). Finally, I outline measures that can bridge the gap between business communication and management (part 5).