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Business and Professional Communication, 3rd edition
Kelly M. Quintanilla, Shawn T. Wahl
Chapter 6: Interpersonal Communication at Work
Chapter Activities
Activities to Illustrate Key Concepts
Activity 1: Role-Play Relationships at Work
Description: This is a small-group role-play/drama activity. The role-play/dramas performed
by class members should stimulate students to think about how interpersonal communication
can break down in the workplace.
Directions:
1. This activity will rely on the information on Exploring Relationship Types at Work in
chapter 6 on how messages are altered. The four ways messages are altered are the use
of gatekeeping, summarization, withholding, and general distortion.
2. Divide the class into groups of two. Assign one person to play the role of the employee
and one person will play the role of the boss.
3. The person assigned to be the employee is to spend 3 or 4 minutes coming up with a
problem situation in the workplace that they have been involved in and share direct
blame. Once the student has determined what the problem is, this student will share
what the problem is without sharing or explaining additional details.
Activity 2: Research Project and Class Debate on Workplace Romance
Description: This is an individual research project and class debate activity. The research will
challenge the individual student to discover the specitics of the pros and cons of workplace
romance.
Directions:
1. This is a two-part activity that will take place over two di/erent class periods.
2. During the 0rst class period, the instructor should assign half of the students to research
the topic of the pros of workplace romance, and the other half of the students are to
research the cons of workplace romance. Each student is to bring in a credible source
article on the topic that will shed some light on the topic. The student should summarize
the article for presentation to the class.
3. During the next class period, students should be divided up with the pros on one side of
the room and the cons on the other side of the room.
4. The teacher should then moderate a debate allowing each side to present a point and
then allowing the other side to use their research to o/er a rebu+al. In the next round,
the second side presents a point and the other side o/ers a rebu+al.
Activity 3: Policy Writing Activity
Description: This is a small-group activity that challenges each small group in the class to
compose a workplace policy on sexual identity in the workplace.
Directions:
1. This writing activity is based on the Communication Privacy Management section of
chapter 6.
2. Divide the class into groups of 3 or 4 students per small group.
3. This assignment for each group is to write a brief (short paragraph) workplace policy to
be included in the company handbook that deals with Communication Privacy
