William J. Seiler

Communication skills needed by persons in business organizations

While there exists a great deal of information regarding the importance of oral communication in the business organization, little has been written in recent years to identify those communication skills that are important for different organizational positions. This article reports the results of a study designed to identify those communication skills being used by college graduates who have been in a business organization for five years or less. This information can be used by educators in speech communication to deal with subject matter relevancy issues and provide some guidance for student career planning and training.

Interaction Analysis in Collective Bargaining: An Alternative Approach to the Prediction of Negotiated Outcomes.

Communication interaction has been ignored or treated as an extraneous variable in most bargaining research. The basic assumption underlying this study is that communication interaction is the essence of bargaining. The theoretical rationale underlying this study established communication interaction as the dependent variable. An interaction model based upon a systems approach to small group communication behavior was used to observe, record, and quantify communication by means of a category system. The hypothesized difference in terms of communication interaction between consensus and impasse sessions was supported. The results of the study suggest that interaction analysis can be used to predict negotiation outcomes. A bargaining research model that views negotiations as a form of small group problem-solving and focuses on communication interaction appears to provide insight into bargaining behavior.

Developing the personalized system of instruction for the basic speech communication course

This manuscript discusses the planning and development required to use the Personalized System of Instruction in the basic speech communication course. Implementation of Personalized System Instruction Components and course management are explained.

PSI: An attractive alternative for the basic speech communication course

This paper examines the Personalized System of Instruction as an alternative method of instruction in the basic speech communication course. Discussion covers what PSI is, how it can be used in the basic speech communication course, why it is an attractive alternative method of instruction, and what its limitations are as an alternative method of instruction in the basic course.

The Comparative Effectiveness of Systematic Desensitization and an Integrative Approach in Treating Public Speaking Anxiety: A Literature Review and a Preliminary Investigation

An analysis of the literature related to public speaking anxiety (PSA) and various treatments of it are discussed. PSA is a state or situational type of anxiety which can have tremendous effects on those who suffer from it. Two of the major treatments–systematic desensitization (SD) and the integrative approach (IA) are reviewed and then experimentally tested to determine which is the more effective in treating PSA. The results are somewhat inclusive but there is strong evidence to suggest that both SD and IA reduce trait and state anxiety. It was, however, found that IA is more effective in decreasing the symptoms associated with PSA.

Serious Illness Conversations With Doctors: Patients Using Information Obtained From Sources Other Than Their Doctors

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to examine how people with serious illnesses communicate information they have acquired about their illness from the Internet and social or mass media to their doctors. Twenty-two in-depth interviews of patients with serious or life-threatening illnesses were conducted and analyzed. Street’s ecological perspective of communication was used to understand the processes that influence when and how patients bring information that they obtained from external sources to their doctors. The reactions patients received from their doctors affected their future communication with them. Results indicate doctors who have a dominant communication style often discourage patients from bringing outside information to them, and in some cases this results in patients changing doctors. On the other hand, doctors who are more attentive make patients feel more comfortable about bringing outside information to them, and this leads to more meaningful and beneficial conversations.

The influence of differing administrative instructions on student ratings of instructors

Sections taught by ten graduate teaching assistants were randomly assigned to one of three treatment conditions consisting of instructions about how student raitngs of their instructional effectiveness would be used: for administrative purposes, to fulfill a regulation (proforma), or for self‐improvement. While students were more harsh in their assessment of their instructors’ effectiveness when instructions suggested an administrative use of the ratings, these differences were not large—accounting for, at most, less than three percent of the variance.

Audiovisual Materials in Classroom Instruction: A Theoretical Approach.

The purpose of this paper was to synthesize appropriate literature in current learning concepts, current audiovisual research, and current speech textbooks in order to provide theoretical guidelines for the efficient and effective design and use of audiovisual materials in classroom instruction. In order to discover general theoretical guidelines the following categories were evolved: motivation, stimulus‐response, reinforcement, practice, reasoning and understanding, interference and transfer, and retention. These selected learning concepts permitted parallel examination of the literature within each area.