Human Communication in Action provides students with a valuable resource that can be used beyond the classroom by bringing together leading innovative scholars of Communication as contributors for this human communication textbook. Each unit presents overarching concepts of communication in an easy-to-read and practical manner. The first unit begins with a discussion of human communication fundamentals, ethics, verbal communication, nonverbal communication, and culture and communication. The second unit is dedicated to the art of public speaking and listening. The third unit addresses several contexts of interpersonal communication including relationship development and maintenance, technology and relationships, and interpersonal conflict management. The fourth unit explores organizational and group communication addressing organizational culture, structure, socialization, conflict management, group development, decision making, and leadership. The final unit treats the study of communication in a variety of contexts. This unit begins with persuasive communication and moves into discussion of deception, ethics and lying, heath communication, and digital literacy. A variety of exercises and group activities corresponding to each unit and section are included to assist in knowledge acquisition.
Chapter 1: Fundamentals of Human Communication
Chapter 2: Communication and Ethics
Chapter 3: Communication and Listening
Chapter 4: Verbal Communication
Chapter 5: Nonverbal Communication
Chapter 6: Public Speaking
Chapter 7: Speech Building
Chapter 8: Delivery and Outlining
Chapter 9: Persuasive Speaking
Chapter 10: Persuasion
Chapter 11: Interpersonal Communication
Chapter 12: Relational Conflict
Chapter 13: Culture and Communication
Chapter 14: Our Identities and Our Communication
Chapter 15: Organizational Communication
Chapter 16: Organizational Communication and Conflict Management: A Focus on Practical Skills
Chapter 17: Leadership Communication
Chapter 18: Small Group Communication
Chapter 19: Strategic Communication and Social Media
Chapter 20: Health Communication
Chapter 21: Deceptive Communication and the Ethics of Lying
Greg G.
Armfield
I am a Professor and Academic Department Head of the Department of Communication Studies at New Mexico State University (NMSU). I studied Advertising and Public Relations at Wichita State University as an undergraduate, graduating with a B.A. in Communication. I later returned to Wichita State to study Organizational Communication, graduating with an M.A. in Communication. I then attended the University of Missouri-Columbia, where I earned a Ph.D. in Communication. I served as the Basic Course Director at NMSU for many years and have taught several undergraduate and graduate Communication courses over my 25-plus-year career. My scholarly research focuses on sports, media, organizational communication, and leadership. In addition to the numerous journal articles and book chapters I have published on sports and organizational culture, I have co-edited multiple editions of this textbook with Eric Morgan, Ph.D., and co-edited two books about ESPN. I commonly teach courses about organizational communication, leadership, and sports, and I enjoy discussing the role of communication in everyday life across multiple contexts. In 2013, I won the Outstanding Faculty Achievement Award for Service and Outreach and the Patricia Christmore Faculty Teaching Award. More recently, in 2023, I won the College of Arts & Sciences Outstanding Department Head Award at New Mexico State University. When I am not working, you can find me enjoying sporting events, the outdoors, doing yard work, spending time with family and friends, or daydreaming about old cars and a few newer ones.
Eric Lee
Morgan
I am an Associate Professor in the College of Agriculture, Consumer, and Environmental Science at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. I teach in the Agricultural Communication concentration in the Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communications program. I am also a member of the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Science. I hold faculty affiliations with the Lemann Center for Brazilian Studies and with the Institute for Genomic Biology in the Infectious Genomics for One Health theme. Furthermore, I am the director of science communication initiatives for the National Science Foundation-Science and Technology Center in Quantitative Cell Biology, housed at the Beckman Institute on the campus of the University of Illinois. Over the years, I have published numerous articles, books, and book chapters, mostly focused on the manner in which culture and communication intersect with environment, agriculture, and science. I have won numerous teaching awards as well as a national book award for a co-edited text on environmental communication pedagogy. Currently, I am researching a diverse range of topics spanning from the ways that community members understand scientific information to trying to better understand how a rural–urban divide causes impacts on the food system to representations of African Americans in agriculture (with a graduate student). In my free time, I enjoy walking in the woods with my family and our dog Luna, reading, exploring, and performing music with friends.
