Business ‘Communications’ Courses
Industry surveys show that employers consider communication skills to be amongst the Top-10 attributes they seek in employees. Yet, business communicative skills are often addressed at university in a fragmented way as part of mainstream subjects, separate learning support, and/or foundation units. Although the quotation below is derived from the discipline of law, it could well be transferred to the discipline of business.
In theory, remedial writing should not need to be part of a law school curriculum. But if our students have not learned these skills in middle school, high school, or college, who will teach these necessary skills to our law students if we do not?... Also, what is the point of trying to teach them how to write cogent legal analysis when they lack the rudimentary building blocks from which to craft their analysis?.... [like] building a brick house upon a straw foundation. (Nowak, 2012, p. 1370)
In agreement with Thomas (1994) and also Nowak (2012) as cited above, ‘[g]iven the complaints of employers that graduates have very weak writing mechanics… If business writing instructors do not re-address the basics with detail and repetition, who will? (p. 14). The importance of basic writing skills in the practice of management cannot be underestimated and it seems prudent that business schools acknowledge the pervasiveness of their students’ writing deficiencies and attempt to remediate the problem at an institutional-level (Nowak, 2012), rather than on an ad hoc basis by individual instructors.
Of particular concern is the tension between balancing the development of business students’ intellectual abilities versus development of the practical skills they will likely use in the workplace. According to McGowen (2005a, p. 54; 2005b, p. 291), some instructors may claim that their primary concern is that of ‘content’ and that they are not ‘language’ teachers. That is, assisting students ‘linguistically’ is beyond the scope of their role (Bretag, 2007). In consideration of workload demands, the additional work involved in providing complex and ‘time-consuming’ language focus (Plutsky & Wilson, 2001, p. 38). Nevertheless, the content of disciplines is inextricably bound to the language and the manner in which it is communicated. As described by Nagy and Townsend (2012, p. 97), ‘[d]iscipline-specific words can be technical or abstract, and understanding them is essential to building conceptual knowledge’. Thus, developing knowledge of technical vocabulary needs to occur while simultaneously developing knowledge of the overall register of the discipline (Velliaris & Breen, 2016).
School of Business
Comprising the Schools of Commerce, Management, Marketing, and Law; one Australian Higher Education Institution (HEI) is the nation’s premier business school. One of nine business schools nationally with European Quality Improvement System (EQUIS) accreditation awarded by the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD) Quality Improvement System and Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) ‘Five Star’™ rating, places it in the ‘Top 1%’ of business schools globally. Both under- and postgraduate degree programs are internationally recognized for developing business professionals and leaders in the areas of [alphabetical]: Accounting; Economics; Events; Finance; Human Resources (HR); Law; Management; Marketing; Property; Sports; and Tourism.
Within the Business School, ‘undergraduate’ degree programs include for example: Bachelor of Applied Finance; Bachelor of Business (International Business, Finance and Trade); Bachelor of Business (Property); Bachelor of Business Administration; and Bachelor of Commerce. Within the School of Management, undergraduate degree programs include: Bachelor of Management (Human Resource Management); Bachelor of Management (Logistics and Supply Chain Management); Bachelor of Management (Marketing); Bachelor of Sport and Recreation Management; and Bachelor of Tourism and Event Management.