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The paper aims to improve students' job placements, higher education institutions invest considerable resources and their students spend considerable time in academic clubs. Yet, quantitative findings on the effect of students' academic club involvement on job placements are mixed. This paper aims to help resolve ambiguity regarding the effect of academic clubs on job placements.

The authors conducted two studies. The first developed an inductive theoretical model by interviewing recruiters and managers and extending status characteristics theory. The second study is an experiment that tested the first study's inductive model and increased the model's generalizability.

The results of both studies show that executive board membership, but not general membership, increases perceptions of applicants' emotional control and public speaking ability, and thereby increases applicants' chances of getting an interview.

Administrators should consider shifting resources away from academic clubs that only benefit a few students and toward programs that help more students develop transferable skills. Students should prioritize joining clubs in which students think students can become executive board members. Academic clubs should require general members to have responsibilities that help members develop transferable skills. Industry may need to make more competitive offers to hire executive board members.

The two studies contribute to research on academic clubs by suggesting that the results of previous academic club membership studies are mixed, because only executive board members are more likely to get interviews. The results also highlight the importance of applying status characteristics theory to future academic club research.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the concept of effective public speaking (EPS), and its antecedents and effects to provide a conceptual framework for the study of EPS in the field of corporate communication.

This is a conceptual paper whose analytical approach draws heavily on theoretical evidence published mainly in the corporate-communication literature.

Public speaking means communicating with rather than to the audience: it does not denote a one-way broadcasting of information but a conversation between the speaker and audience. Strong arguments (logos) presented in a credible (ethos) and exciting (pathos) manner form the basis of EPS. Delivering an interesting, appealing and engaging presentation (i.e. the antecedents of EPS) requires that public speakers combine skills of logic (i.e. public speaking as science) with an “outside-the-box” approach (i.e. public speaking as art). EPS produces positive effects in the professional growth of an organisation’s human resources, trust in corporate leadership, corporate-change process, motivation of human resources and corporate reputation.

Underestimating the importance of the preparation phase is a critical mistake in EPS performance. Communicating from the heart ensures the speaker achieves the objective to be heard and remembered by the audience. Developing storytelling skill helps to persuade listeners more effectively because they feel more involved in the discourse. It is important to remember that perfection is artificial and imperfection is natural. EPS requires a training oriented towards personal exploration. As such, companies should invest in public speaking courses that adopt techniques such as experiential theatre.

This paper proposes a conceptual framework which can be considered a first step towards compensating for the lack of studies of EPS because, although it does not claim to be thorough in any way, it should encourage future researchers to explore this area in greater depth.

Existing methods of enhancing-based public speaking efficacy are based on the deficit-based model. On the other hand, public speaking is an ability that has a potential to produce anxiety, fear of negative evaluation. The purpose of this paper was to explore the use of strength-based learning pedagogy, i.e. appreciative inquiry to work upon enhancing public speaking skills of engineers.

An appreciative inquiry was conducted on 15 engineers using 4D model. The data were gathered using narrative analysis and grounded theory.

Participants shared their stories of past, present and future to derive meaningful insights that have potential to bring development.

The study has an underpinning in Deci and Ryan’s self-determination theory. As practitioners of self-determination theory open the positive space for individuals to learn, appreciative inquiry aids in opening such positive space so that learners can experiment openly without any fear of negative evaluation. It prepares them by enhancing intrinsic and extrinsic motivation.

The study motivated engineers to focus on effortless delivery of their speeches and eliminate other associated fear. The study can be used as a classroom pedagogy.

As public speaking is associated with fear of negative evaluation and anxiety, it has a potential to affect self-confidence and self-image adversely. As appreciative inquiry fosters one’s confidence positively through constructionism, the appreciative inquiry can be a choice of pedagogy and has positive implications for learners at the social level.

The study presents a fairly novel approach as it focuses on encouraging engineers to improve their presentation skills and to focus on what they do well (rather than what their weaknesses are) so they can build their confidence.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a formative assessment framework to expose individual student's cognitive learning difficulties in English public speaking. The paper aims to provide student feedback and information during the teaching and learning process. A grey student-construct (S-C) chart is developed to represent the students’ cognitive mapping of the speech difficulties in relation to their overall speech conceptualization. This grey S-C chart can facilitate the instructors to ameliorate the classroom teaching and learning performance in English public speaking.

In total, 26 students in a class of English Speech and Rhetoric participate in the experiment – each student views the online video segments of a great speaker's speech, and then decides what segments would best support the speaking skill constructs and also reflects on his/her own difficulties in the same constructs. The grey relational analysis (GRA) method is used to analyze the empirical data. The individual student's construct localization grey relation grade values are calculated to rank the grey relation for both students and constructs. Accordingly, a grey S-C matrix is constructed and a grey S-C chart can thus be developed.

The grey S-C chart manifestly displays the cognitive difficulties in sequences of both students and constructs.

According to the grey S-C chart, the instructors may modify teaching strategies to enhance the overall classroom performance. The students may adjust learning strategies to eliminate their specific difficulties. Offering individualized advanced and remedial practices to those largely deviating from the norm is also possible.

The study is the first of its kind to apply the GRA method to expose individual student's cognitive learning difficulties in English public speaking. The grey S-C chart is novel in education literature, which can reveal individual student's learning difficulty patterns.

Collegiate livestock judging is primarily an extracurricular activity that reinforces concepts taught in the classroom. Previous research has determined that participating on a livestock judging team can aid in the development of perceived life skills. Participants of this study indicated that their experience on a collegiate team helped them develop professional public speaking skills, learn the value of hard work and dedication, and be task and goal- oriented.

The purpose of this paper is to examine why theatre‐business links are relevant to management. The focus is on two types of links: using theatre techniques as a training method for managers, and using corporate theatre as a change management tool. The paper seeks to share an experience and tries to explicate the processes involved in order to explain the success of these two kinds of courses, both training theatre and corporate theatre (specifically, action theatre in this case).

This is a case study. Theatre has been taught for ten years at the Grenoble Graduate School of Business under the author's responsibility, and also the corporate theatre method is taught to initial students and to continuing training managers. This paper is based on those teaching experiences. To explain the relevance of both of theatre as a training tool and corporate theatre as a management tool, the author relates to both theories of body memory from neuroscientists and to the catharsis phenomenon.

The goal was to make hypotheses from the above theories which explain the process that takes place inside the manager undergoing training and to open further research.

Main limitations come from the lack of established empirical and relevant measures of the effects of such theatre processes on participants’ management abilities and from the lack of tools to measure the long‐term effects of theatre.

The most important implication is that practitioners could make more relevant use of such techniques when designing training sessions or utilizing corporate theatre interventions.

Social implications come from how the “human” face of theatre can help the personal development of managers, improving or changing their views on the world and other people.

Although theatre and business links are more than 20 years old, nobody has previously tried to understand the inner processes involved.

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to compare traditional and community policing agencies with regard to how individual officers are formally evaluated and to assess organizational goals and objectives in each type of agency. Design/methodology/approach – A 75‐item questionnaire was mailed to 600 municipal and county law enforcement agencies. A total of 11 hypotheses were tested regarding performance evaluation content, the values of police supervisors and organizational objectives. Findings – Community policing agencies have added new output measures but continue to value enforcement statistics as much as their more traditional counterparts. Additionally, many community policing agencies have not updated their formal systems to incorporate community policing concepts. Research limitations/implications – Survey responses were obtained from only one supervisor per agency and the knowledge of each individual was varied. However, if supervisors from traditional and community policing agencies are equally competent, results should be unbiased. Further research is needed to assess the reasons why many agencies have not updated their formal evaluation systems to incorporate community policing concepts. Practical implications – There may be a conflict between police supervisor values and formal evaluation procedures in many community policing agencies. Further assistance or guidance may be needed to aid police administrators in updating and improving their formal systems of officer performance evaluation. Originality/value – This is the first nationwide assessment of police officer performance evaluation during the community policing era.

The main purpose of this chapter is to provide a comprehensive discourse on whether Indian immigrants succumb to the need to fit in, driving them to assimilate, or if they remain true to their identity. The final revelation through this chapter will be fascinating, allowing for a better recognition and awareness of the dynamics of the Indian diaspora in Australia, as well as the complexities of their assimilation into Australian organisational life. The aim is to highlight the need for organisational support and guidance of immigrants, particularly professionals from India. As a result, this book has significant value since it gives a thorough understanding and in-depth explanation of these integration challenges and adds to the body of knowledge on the integration of immigrant Indian professionals in Australia.