Writing and other communication standards in undergraduate business education: a study of...

In the last several years, communication faculty in business schools have feared that the International Association for Management Education's (AACSB) "50% rule," mandating that no more than half the courses for an undergraduate business degree can be taught in the business school itself, would

eliminate their programs in the face of more powerful departments like finance, accounting, and marketing. Happily for the profession, the study discussed in this article suggests these fears are ungrounded. Business communication is thriving and is more likely than not to be a required core course in business schools. Specifically, the study examined current writing and communication standards in top-ranked undergraduate business schools. It aimed to identify existing practices, including the kinds of requirements in effect, the number of courses involved, the institutional home of these courses (whether in the business school or in a liberal arts department), and major skills stressed. This information is presented mainly in tabular form in this article. The discussion section identifies some trends that emerge from the study.

Method

The study sample reflects the most recent, or rather only, ranking of the Top 50 undergraduate programs by U.S. News and World Report (1996) (available on the Web page: www4.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/rankings/catl2spc.htm). Such rankings are, of course, a potentially flawed source that may ignore many excellent schools. But the ranking helps to identify benchmark institutions for curricular redesign because students, faculty, administrators, alumni, and the larger business community take rankings seriously. Tied scores mean that the sample actually includes 52 schools. All these schools are accredited by the AACSB, another important factor in determining a useful sample, and they also represent a good geographical mix.

My original focus on "writing" shifted to reflect the realities of professional management education, which often includes oral communication; so oral communication requirements are also noted. To further examine the 50 percent rule, I recorded the institutional home of the business communication courses and related that to lower-division (often in the liberal arts) and upper-division courses.

Official Web sites of the 52 institutions provided the information for my study, with follow-up verification by e-mail. While Web sites are not always up to date, they provided an excellent starting point for gathering policies as well as course listings and syllabi. I often had to work my way through much contradictory information. Some universities did not include current catalogues, usually the most reliable source for current standards, at all; some of those that did used infuriatingly slow formats that could not be downloaded or copied. Some schools designed their sites more for promotional and marketing purposes than as workplaces for students, faculty, and staff to gain and verify important information about major and degree requirements. Despite its problems, the Web was a much more reliable and efficient source than a print survey for answering specific research questions. When data seemed confusing or contradictory, I followed up with direct contact via e-mail (about half the schools). An added benefit of such follow-up was finding out which programs were undergoing curricular revision and in what direction. Some administrators (typically deans or program directors) were also pleased to learn what parts of their Web sites needed revision. In two cases, I never received an official school response, so I used data from the official sites (omissions or instances of incomplete data are noted in the tables) that portray information directed to public audiences.

Results

Tables 1, 2, and 3 summarize the results of the study. Table 1 records lower-division requirements in writing and oral communication. Table 2, which summarizes the data on upper-division courses, arranges the data by the courses' institutional homes. The number of courses reflects the minimum standard and does not account for any of the various means used to exempt students from writing requirements, such as the substitution of a one-semester honors course for a two-semester writing sequence, writing placement exam results, or AP, CLEP, or SAT scores; only a few schools offer exemption procedures for a lower-division oral communication requirement. The course name gives a clue to the content, and I also collected, but do not include here, course descriptions and, in some cases, sample syllabi.

Most lower-division communication requirements consist of a course in public speaking; a few schools have a communication requirement that is not simply public speaking or presentation skills, but rather includes small group interaction, interpersonal communication, or organizational communication. Table 3 provides a partial listing of elective communication courses.

Discussion

All 52 schools studied have writing and communication standards in place in their undergraduate business programs. All but one, Babson College, have formal requirements for writing; Babson, the exception, considers communication a "core competency," and as such it is apparently integrated throughout the curriculum. A total of 50 schools have formal writing requirements in place at the freshman level (the exception being the University of Colorado). About a third of the schools, or 17 in all, have formal lower-division oral communication requirements, excluding Babson and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, which primarily follow an integration model. Quite a number of schools provide course integration in addition to formal communication requirements; for instance, upper-division courses at the University of South Carolina are expected to include writing and speaking, and at the University of Virginia, a course in international business includes presentation skills training provided by the communication faculty. Babson and RPI primarily do course integration, in place of standalone communication courses, although RPI does have a lower-division writing requirement.

In terms of upper-division communication requirements, 36 schools, or more than two-thirds, have formal writing requirements. Within that group, 19, or more than half of the total with an upper-division writing requirement, offer courses that fulfill the requirement through the business school with courses entitled "business," "management," "professional," or "organizational" communication, which also include presentation skills. Thirteen of the 36 schools require an upper-division writing course met by courses in liberal arts departments, but 2 of those 13 also require an upper-division writing course in the business school. Not a single school in the sample has a separate upper-division oral communication requirement; such a requirement seems to apply only in the lower division, though some schools, as mentioned, do integrate oral communication in required or elective business courses.

Another statistic to note is that 25 of the 36 schools that have an upper-division writing requirement offer courses that fulfill the requirement through the business school itself. Thus, almost half of the schools in the sample require communication instruction as a formal part of professional management education. Of those 25 schools, 7 do so as part of a university-wide requirement for writing-intensive courses in the major. One school, the University of Minnesota, requires both a business communication course and an additional writing-intensive course in the business school. One program requiring a writing-intensive course, Ohio State University, also includes oral communication as part of the course work, so a total of 20 schools require courses in both written and oral communication in the business schools themselves.

Several organizational models thus emerge: schools with lower-division writing requirements only (10 schools, excluding the 2 that follow the course integration model); schools with lower-division writing and oral requirements but no upper-division communication requirements of any kind (4 schools); and schools that require upper-division work in writing (36 schools) and in writing and oral communication (20 schools).

Some General Trends

1. A course title of business or management communication usually indicates that the course is housed in the business school. Further, there appear to be no important distinctions between "business" and "management" communication - a distinction that often was meant to separate undergraduate from graduate business education. "Organizational" communication, however, is rarely the title for a required business school course. "Professional Communication," a label receiving increasing currency among scholars in the field because it so neatly covers a number of disciplines and, in fact, suggests interdisciplinarity, is hardly used at all.

2. Standalone courses in either writing or speaking are usually offered through liberal arts divisions, not through business schools. Once inside a business school, courses usually include the word "communication" in their titles and include presentation skills and other areas besides writing, or they may be writing-intensive courses in the major or as part of a required core of business courses.

3. Curricular revision in general education requirements has led to increasing the writing requirements for courses beyond the traditional freshman composition sequence. More, not less, writing seems to be stressed all across the lower-division curriculum. For instance, when the University of Arizona revised its General Education curriculum, the new courses (a total of 10) must all have a writing-intensive component, and these courses are above and beyond the two required courses in freshman composition and the upper-division requirement for a writing-intensive course in the major.

4. The Writing Across the Curriculum or Writing in the Disciplines movement has had some impact, but not a major one, on requirements in business schools. Business communication courses are not being replaced with writing-intensive courses; in some cases, writing-intensive courses are required in addition to business communication (for example, at the University of Minnesota). As noted previously, seven schools require writing-intensive courses housed in the business schools.

5. Proficiency exams - that is, any sort of required exit or competency exams - seem to be going out of fashion, or at least their presence is not prominently visible in public statements about program objectives and academic standards. Only three schools reported proficiency requirements fulfilled by examination. At the University of California, all students must fulfill the "Subject A" minimum requirement for proficiency in writing; at the University of Georgia, all students must pass the Regents' Test; and at this writing, there is still an upper-division writing proficiency exam at the University of Arizona. The University of Michigan, in contrast, has a totally different approach. Students there are required to submit a portfolio that includes papers they have written in core business courses and a timed sit-down assessment. On the basis of their performance, they may be required to take a course in written business communication, though all students, regardless of their scores, must take a course in communication (their other choice is a course that includes both writing and presentation skills).

6. Certain professional fields, such as accounting, require additional work in communication. Notice the requirement for communication courses for CPA exams. But some schools have simply told students that such courses are required, without building them into core requirements for degrees. Thus, the courses will count toward electives but not as part of a major. Because CPA exams are administered at the state level, the requirements can and do vary from state to state. It will be interesting to see how this issue plays out.

7. Communication is a possible major in undergraduate business education. Two schools, Emory University and the University of Southern California, offer majors in communication through their business schools. While two schools do not constitute a trend, it does suggest the movement of communication studies out of the "soft skills" realm, at least at those schools.

8. Writing and communication standards are higher at the undergraduate level than they are in professional management education. Note that all 52 schools had some sort of writing and communication requirements, and 25 of those schools (or 48 percent) had such requirements housed in the business school. In a recent study I completed on the state of communication in MBA programs, using the top-25 business schools included in the 1996 Business Week survey, I found that 9 of these schools (36 percent) had required communication courses and one additional school integrated communication work with core courses and electives. But consider also the fact that 69 percent of all undergraduate

business schools require upper-division work in writing, regardless of where the courses are housed, and that excludes the 2 schools that follow an integrated model of delivering communication skills. Clearly, undergraduate business schools place a higher value on writing and communication standards than do. MBA programs. (The full results of my MBA study will be available later this year, once the study is updated to reflect the 1998 Business Week survey; the survey is done every two years.)

9. The status of business or management communication in MBA programs has some correlation with undergraduate business programs at the same institutions. Also using the 1996 Business Week survey, four of the schools that had required communication courses for the MBA also required upper-division communication courses in their undergraduate programs. In addition, The University of Michigan and New York University also require courses in their undergraduate programs but have only a proficiency requirement for the MBA degree (which can be fulfilled through performance on an in-house writing assessment); Michigan and NYU, however, have long offered elective communication courses in their MBA programs. Two schools with electives only in their MBA programs (Indiana and North Carolina) require upper-division communication courses for their undergraduate business students, whereas Southern Methodist University and the University of Texas require only lower-division writing courses and offer either electives or no courses at all in their MBA programs.

Conclusion

This study represents a comprehensive report on all communication standards in undergraduate business education. However, it is not possible to say whether the actual requirements are increasing, decreasing, or staying about the same, because there is no extant publication for comparison. But what is clear is that writing and communication standards are taken seriously at most undergraduate business schools. In my discussions with deans and program administrators over the past six months, as I completed research for this project, no plans surfaced to eliminate or discontinue courses in writing. and communication. If anything, the overriding message was that more rigorous requirements were being considered, even if none were yet in place. Schools that had recently revised, or have been in the process of revising, their curricula have tended to raise standards for communication.

At New York University, Organizational Communication will now be a required course for all undergraduate business students; the course has been an elective for many years, but as of the current entering class, the course will now be required. Moreover, NYU has revised its freshman writing sequence, so that the second required course is now jointly administered by the writing program and the business school. At the University of Minnesota, which is making a transition from the quarter to the semester system, undergraduate business students will be required to take a total of four writing courses - two as part of lower-division liberal arts requirements and two upper-division courses housed in the business school itself. The upper-division courses include a new business communication course, as well as a writing-intensive business policy course. These courses significantly increase the amount of communication training students will receive, especially in the business school. Thus, it would seem that business communication is becoming a permanent force in undergraduate business education.

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Address correspondence to the author, William E. Simon Graduate School of Business Administration, University of Rochester, Rochester NY 14627 (e-mail: knight@ssb.rochester.edu).