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The purpose of this study is to examine the interrelationships between leaders' communication competence, mindfulness, self-compassion and job satisfaction. Barge and Hirokawa's (1989) communication-centered theoretical approach of leadership and Gilbert's (2005) social mentality offered frameworks to examine mindfulness and self-compassion as co-mediators of the relationship between business leaders' communication competence and job satisfaction.

A cross-sectional online survey was conducted with 219 business leaders in the USA via snowball sampling.

The results showed that communication competence served as an antecedent of mindfulness and self-compassion. Additionally, self-compassion served as a significant mediator between the positive relationship between communication competence and job satisfaction.

Managers and business leaders may gain insights about the benefit of developing self-compassion and communication competence skills to enhance their job satisfaction via courses, workshops and certifications.

This study is the first to examine the effect of two well-being constructs (self-compassion and mindfulness) on the relationship between leaders' communication competence and job satisfaction.

This chapter focusses on the contribution of health professionals' communication competences to patients. We propose a model of communication to be used in the therapeutic relationship, supported by a literature review. The methodology is qualitative. Four focus groups (FGs) composed of Portuguese health professionals (N = 25), such as medical doctors, nurses and professors in health fields, were conducted during 2017 and 2018. All the participants of FGs validated a three-factor aggregated and interdependent model, which is composed of assertiveness, clear language and positivity (ACP model). The factors reinforce the therapeutic relationship and improve health literacy, thus reinforcing the patient's health and well-being. The argument is that health is wealth, so if the communication can improve health, then this has positive social implications. The study is a response to the lack of consensus in the literature on what specific and operative communication competences the health professional should perform in clinical encounters with the patients, and how these competences can improve, in the final instance, their health and well-being.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the informational behavior of a group of future professionals in the field of social sciences (SS), in terms of their competence in the communication–dissemination of information.

The IL-HUMASS, EVALCI/KN and EVALCI/SK tests regarding the affective (attitudes, motivations) and cognitive (knowledge, skills) dimensions are distributed to a stratified sample of five universities and eight degree courses in Spain. Infographics and non-parametric methods allow to compare the disciplinary profiles with regard to gender, academic course and academic degrees. An Information Literacy Communication synthetic indicator based on structural equation modeling includes the subjective and effective dimensions to measure the holistic learning outcomes in communication–dissemination of information.

Significant differences regarding the informational behavior of future professionals in SS are discovered. The synthetic indicator allows academic degrees to be ranked in order to identify those in need of initiatives aimed at improving communication–dissemination competence.

Findings must be taken into account to design effective learning programs. This methodological approach can be expanded to scientific and academic environments.

The paper puts forward the first evidence-based study on communication–dissemination competence among future SS professionals, as no similar research has been found in the scientific literature. It is also the first time that the definition of a predictive performance indicator, based on a powerful statistical methodology, has been proposed.

Emerged from a theoretical contradiction, the purpose of this paper is to investigate whether perceptions and behaviors toward new brands depend on the priority assigned to promote the company’s intentions (warmth) vs its abilities (competence).

The research uses a two-level single factor experiment to test the effects of launch communication strategy (warmth-competence vs competence-warmth) on people’s perceptions and behavioral intents, and applies partial least squares structural equation modeling to explore the collected data.

Results offer valuable insights into the usage of communication strategy with a view to favor brand perception, referrals, and sales, laying stress on the underlying mechanisms. Research finds that warmth-competence communication strategy has a higher positive influence on brand perception than the reversed strategy. Revealing people’s proneness to promote the new companies perceived as warm and competent, results indicate that perception of warmth mediates word-of-mouth propensity.

The present study brings novel insights for corporate communication, showing that people’s propensity to advocate on behalf of new brands is driven by the perception of company’s warmth. Explaining connections between communication strategy, brand perception, and WOM propensity (supportive or denigrating), the current study adds contributions to the previous findings on warmth and competence stereotypes applied to consumer-brand interactions.

From a managerial perspective, findings offer practical hints about how to use launch communication to improve brand perception and consumer supportive behaviors.

The present study brings novel insights for corporate communication, showing that people’s propensity to advocate on behalf of new brands is driven by the perception of company’s warmth. Explaining connections between communication strategy, brand perception, and word-of-mouth propensity, the current study adds contributions to the previous findings on warmth and competence stereotypes applied to consumer-brand interactions.

Recently, ethical leadership has become a widely studied research topic. Simultaneously, many studies have begun to emphasise the role of interpersonal communication competence (ICC) in successful leadership. However, there has been little discussion on the links between ethical leadership and leaders’ ICC. To address this research gap, this study aims to compare and combine the research traditions of ethical leadership and leaders’ ICC. The study is based on two literature reviews examining (a) ethical leadership (substudy 1; N = 27) and (b) leaders’ ICC (substudy 2; N = 18). The research questions are as follows: (a) How are the requirements of leaders’ ICC noticed in the literature of ethical leadership? (substudy 1) (b) How are the requirements of ethical leadership noticed in the literature of leaders’ ICC? (substudy 2) The findings reveal that (a) studies in ethical leadership rarely pay attention to leaders’ ICC and (b) studies in leaders’ ICC do not often discuss ethical aspects of ICC, at least explicitly. While a larger sample would have been preferred, the study contributes to previous research by addressing a research gap between ethical leadership and leaders’ ICC and suggests integrating these research traditions to better understand the nature of ethics and ICC in leadership. By promoting novel interdisciplinary research perspectives, the study provides a foundation for further research and development of (a) a competence-based approach to ethical leadership and (b) an ethics-focused approach to competent leadership communication.

Purpose –– This chapter shows the connection between the reality of intercultural communication training and its importance to the development of intercultural communication competence, symbolised by the Rainbow Model of Intercultural Communication Competence.

Methodology/approach –– 405 useable questionnaires (response rate=19.4%) were used from 56 German MNEs in a convenience sample of companies in the high-tech industry that are suppliers for the automotive, aviation, optical and chemical industry.

Findings –– German MNCs provide traditional intercultural communication training sparingly to expatriates, but with adjustments depending on the target country. Only 41% of training recipients deemed the training helpful for their mission. Non-traditional training methods are administered more consistently.

Practical implications –– The Rainbow Model of Intercultural Communication Competence should guide the implementation of customised intercultural communication training efforts.

Social implications –– Assisting expatriates in their development of intercultural communication competence via intercultural communication training fulfils the social responsibility of multinational enterprises.

Originality/value of chapter –– This chapter provides guidance to human resource specialists in the international arena to design and implement customisable intercultural communication training programmes for expatriates.

Cross‐cultural communication competence is a key issue in teaching in international schools. Cultural awareness issues are likely to play a role in how effectively the expat teachers in international schools are able to teach. This research examines communication competence, cultural awareness, and communication apprehension of UK teachers in a British curriculum international school in Bangkok, Thailand. Generally, the respondents have a high level of self‐reported communication competence, high levels of cultural awareness, and low communication apprehension. Although the sample size in this pilot work is small, the data do seem to show that intercultural awareness is related to communication competence, and that it is also related to communication apprehension, which itself relates to communication competence. This is an important issue for future research.

The widespread use of communication technologies and social media platforms such as the #ME TOO movement has amplified the importance for business leaders to demonstrate high standards of ethical behavior for career success. Although the concept of ethical leadership has been widely investigated, a theoretical framework from a career perspective does not yet exist.

This study draws from sensemaking theory to argue that career identity salience shapes leaders' communication behavior to influence the extent to which they are perceived to be ethical by subordinates. We test our hypotheses using multisource data with a sample (n = 337) of business managers.

The results show that career identity salience has positive influence on communication competence, which positively influences ethical leadership. We further find that communication frequency positively moderates the relationship between communication competence and ethical leadership.

The theoretical and practical implications that, motivated by their career identity, career-ambitious leaders can manipulate subordinates' perceptions of their ethical behavior are discussed along with suggestions for future research.

To our knowledge, this is the first research to provide a career perspective on ethical leadership.

The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of rural superintendent’s talk on the perceived outcomes of principal communication competence and organizational communication satisfaction. More specifically, this study explored whether the source credibility dimensions of goodwill, competency and trustworthiness had a greater impact on the perceived outcomes when mediated by motivating language (ML) than not.

Direct and indirect paths between superintendent and principal communication were modeled, analyzed and evaluated using descriptive and inferential methods, including R version 3.6.1 with the lavaan package and the Sobel mediation test.

Research findings indicated the importance of superintendent talk and motivating language theory (MLT) that, when combined, constitute the medium of superintendent practice and enable a superintendent to execute their roles and duties. Additionally, the authors found the dimensions of goodwill and competency had the most significant impact on the two outcomes mediated by ML. This finding indicates that principals are calling for a more empathetic and interactive form of credibility than the long-established form of credibility based on expertise and stewardship. Finally, as the authors call for an expanded role from the community in research, scholarship and implementation of MLT, they suggest due to the lack of significance in trustworthiness mediated by ML, future research into trustworthiness and trust.

This study’s value is to increase understanding of educational administration scholars of MLT and its power to influence employee and organizational outcomes and highlight a reframing of superintendent credibility away from say and do agreement and expertise and stewardship.

The big challenge for communication management is to encourage and enable line managers to improve the quality of their day‐to‐day communication. Communication is a core management competence. In the flat, devolved, team‐based organisation structures, which are fast becoming the norm, good mangement is synonymous with good communication. The role of central communication departments such as Corporate Communication or Internal Communication has to expand to meet this challenge. Traditionally, communication has focused on the production, packaging, targeting and distribution of messages — using skills which are borrowed from journalism and marketing. This skill set needs to be extended so that the centre can facilitate and support the communication of local line managers. As a first step, the centre must make managers around the organisation accept their responsibility for communicating with their staff. Developing an open and communicative style often requires a major shift of behviour for mamnagers. Organisations try to encourage this shift by broadcasting ‘open communication’ as one of their values. Including communication as a key performance indicator in the appraisal process increases managers' accountability for their daily communication with staff. Performance evaluation can be designed to make managers accept that they need to improve their communication. These are new areas for communication managers. What is clear is that unless they find effective ways to address the real issue of line managers' communication, they will miss a huge opportunity and find themselves increasingly relegated to the management side lines.