Rethinking Soft Skills Through Front-Stage and Back-Stage Genres

Abstract

Nearly every business communication textbook includes an explanation of “hard” and “soft” skills. Indeed, most business professionals understand the importance of honing interpersonal competencies as well as technical proficiencies. However, measuring the importance of soft skills and how they are used in an organization is often a difficult task. Therefore, the focus of this article is on rethinking the conversation by applying front-stage and back-stage communication theory to the genres in the case study example of Samsung surrounding its Galaxy Note 7 recall.