Norman B. Sigband

How Effectively Does the "New" Accountant Communicate? Perceptions by Practitioners and Academics

The authors surveyed accounting department chairpersons in AACSB-accredited universities and the managing partners of the largest accounting firms in the country to determine their perceptions of how new accountants communicate and the perceptions of available instructional methodologies. The results reveal a strong dissatisfaction with both skills and training.

Topics for Business Communication Research

*Members of the Subcommittee were: John D. Pettit, Jr., Chair; Joel P. Bowman; Bernadine Branchaw; Howard Greenbaum; Leah Grubb; James M. Lahiff; John M. Penrose; William Sharbrough; Norman B. Sigband; Gretchen N. Vik; Morris P. Wolf; Mohan Limaye; Robert Insley; Lamar Reinsch; and Larry Smeltzer. This report combines efforts of the 1985, 1986, and 1987 Committees. ORGANIZATIONAL/MANAGERIAL COMMUNICATION

Research Notes: Organizational Communication--an Analysis Based on Empirical Data

The article discusses a study conducted by the University of California Research Institute for Business and Economics. The study analyzed the communication practices of an aerospace company in the ...

Book Reviews : IMPACT: A Guide to Business Communication. Margot Northey. Scarborough, Ontario: Prentice-Hall Canada, 1986. 173 pages, paper

texts or publish Canadian editions of them-but neither approach is wholly satisfactory: while they are obviously good, American imports are expensive and do not provide a Canadian perspective. As well, since Canadianization normally involves simply localizing places and names, revising the spelling, changing monetary and measurement figures, incorporating Canadian sources, and rewriting any sections on legal aspects of business communication, the resulting text can occasionally seem contrived. Hence, when a publisher announces a new work that is &dquo;authored, printed and bound in Canada,&dquo; Canadians-especially instructors-will want to read it. This is the case with Margot Northey’s IMPACT: A Guide to Business Communication. Apart from being a welcome arrival, this book is slim and paperback-two definite pluses for the cost-conscious instructor. Divided into fourteen chapters, its organization is conventional:

Book Reviews : Organizational Communication. Gerald L. Wilson, H. Lloyd Goodall, Jr., and Christopher L. Waagen. NY: Harper and Row, Publishers, 1985, 322 pages

process, human behavior, communication between persons and in groups, communication assessment and audit programs, and related topics. Perhaps one of the most valuable segments of the book for some readers will be Chapter 10, &dquo;Designing Successful Communication Training Programs.&dquo; In this section, the authors explain their Wilson/Goodall/Waagen Assessment Instruction Plan. This provides a step-by-step method for analyzing and designing a communication skills training program for organizations. Many individuals who have conducted programs of their own design may find material in Chapter 10 to add to their own techniques and certainly material to criticize. However, the authors do base their recommendations on their own experiences. I personally found many of their concepts and suggestions in this chapter valid and worthwhile. This brief book of 11 chapters will serve the instructor very well in a one semester course. The writing style is clear and concise and the organization of the book logical. Frequent boldface headings and adequate white space make reading easy. The student will find the summaries at the conclusion

Book Reviews : Communicating in Business 2d ed. (with student workbook and instruictor's manual), Norman B. Sigband and David N. Bateman. Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman and Company, 1985. 590 pages

own book. For this reason, I was surprised, pleased, and a little apprehensive when Norm Sigband, the usual book reviewer for the Summer issue of the journal, asked me to review the second edition of Communicating in Bre.sirres.s. Because my own book (co-written by Bernadine P. Branchaw) is currently between publishers and printings, I agreed. And I’m glad that I did. The complete package-including the textbook, the student workbook, and instructor’s manual-is every bit as professional as you would expect from a couple of &dquo;old pros&dquo; like Sigband and Bateman. Also, Scott, Foresman and Company has done an exceptionally fine job with book design and production. The package is extremely attractive, and business communication instructors would do well to examine the package before deciding on a text. Because of the difficulty of some of the readings, the text seems most suitable for upper-level students, but the text is sufficiently readable to be appropriate for lower-division students as well, and the workbook would be especially helpful for freshmen and sophomores. The first edition of Communicating in Business claickly became one of the market leaders for good reason. The second edition will doubtless appeal to an even wider audience. The book and ancillaries have a number of good features, but they also display a number of characteristics that I believe are

Book Reviews : Clear Technical Reports, second edition. William A. Damerst. New York: HBJ Media Systems, 1982

Since its publication in 1972, Damerst’s book has had many admirers and deserved more. We welcome this second edition, especially for its additions of helpful models, shrewd strategies, and superb cases. The book has always been mis-titled, of course: Clear Technical Reports fails to suggest the many topics treated in the book’s 325 pages. With varying degrees of thoroughness, Damerst treats letters, memos, proposals, speeches, r6sum6s, follow-up letters, and even articles intended for publication. In short, the book in its present edition

Book Reviews : The Technology of Text. David H. Jonassen, ed. Education Technol ogy Publications, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1982. 478 pages

Professor Jonassen, of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, has brought together 22 essays (of which he wrote six) in this new hardbound book. The title requires brief explication. Simply put, technology of text refers to &dquo;sequencing, structuring, designing, and laying out of the printed page, whether ... on paper or in electronic signals....&dquo; Text itself is defined as any written discourse in printed form. Thus the book explores the problem of how written discourse

Book Reviews : Writing Communications in Business and Industry. Nelda R. Lawrence and Elizabeth Tebeaux, 3rd Edition, Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1982

The authors proclaim in their preface that this workbook has been significantly restructured to better reflect the realities of present day business communication. They have achieved this goal. In particular, teachers who are interested in placing more stress on the impact of word processing than on the business communication process will find this workbook very useful. The writing samples have been updated and are more representative of what actually goes on in a business office. In general, those who have used this workbook before and found it a useful ad-

Book Reviews : How to Write for the World of Work. Thomas E. Pearsall and Donald G. Cunningham, New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Win ston, 1978, 369 pages:

Part I, on business letters, gives the reader a good overview of the various types of correspondence. The discussions and explanations are brief and should serve a good purpose for the junior college student or the office employee. Part II reviews reports. It also contains a very good discussion of writing descriptions, instructions, and proposals. The single chapter on oral reports is also helpful to the reader. Annex A is quite a complete reference guide to punctuation, capitalization, pronoun use, sentence structure, and other aspects of grammar and rhetoric. The other annexes, concerned with a sample formal report, library research sources, and a metric conversion table, will also prove helpful to the reader.