Business and Professional Communication Quarterly

Chinese businesspersons are extremely sensitive to protecting and enhancing face. The Chinese sensitivity to face is a result of their emphasis on enduring relation ships and social networks. The hundreds of phrases in the Chinese language describing face demonstrate the sophistication of the Chinese conceptualization of face and related behaviors. For the businessperson, saving face and giving face are the most important face-related skills. Chinese businesspersons use various com munication strategies in order to save face and give face, including indirectness, intermediaries, praising, requests, and shaming. Western businesspersons can pre pare to operate effectively in the Chinese business environment by learning about the Chinese conceptualization of face and related communication strategies.

The use of sports metaphors to convey business lessons both within and outside the classroom is a common phenomenon. The sports metaphor, however, is prone to misuse and can often inadvertently exclude large segments of the student popula tion. To address these issues, we put forth an innovative and novel pedagogical approach that attempts to capitalize better on the shared meanings between athlet ics and certain business practices. Using the sports of tennis and basketball, we demonstrate how sports metaphors can he responsibly used to aid in the under standing of business lessons, such as managerial decision making.