Discussion: View Thread

I suggest that if you are relying on Speech Communication depts. to teach
your business students communication to keep in mind that we are also
likely to be teaching engineers, physicists, education majors, etc. in the
same class.

I always get the eerie sense that when a business person says, "We need to
work on communication," what they are really saying is, "If we could
communicate better, you would agree with me." This comes from my personal
experience of statements like "You studied communication--you should be
easy to get along with."

These statements and others like them make me a bit skittish because
people also forget that Speech Communication depts., in many cases, also
teach argumentation and debate, and rhetoric. Both of these skills are
valuable to the business person, but they are not what Public Speaking
courses are designed to accomplish.

Communication does not equal agreement. (my motto)

______________________
Great Optimism,

Dutch Driver
Dept. of Communication
McMurry University
Abilene, TX
ddriver@cs1.mcm.edu

At 05:53 PM 1/24/97 -0600, Dutch wrote(in part):
>I suggest that if you are relying on Speech Communication depts. to teach
>your business students communication to keep in mind that we are also
>likely to be teaching engineers, physicists, education majors, etc. in the
>same class.

Exactly right! That's really my point. My background is based in
Communication - only
in my doctoral program did I begin to move into OB. It is unreasonable to
expect the
Comm departments to cater to one field only. So that was my point. I'm
glad we agree.

>
>Communication does not equal agreement. (my motto)
>
Absolutely correct. But I don't believe that the communication skills
being demanded
of business students today are in that realm. If they are, then those
demands are short
sighted and doomed to failure.


--------------------------------------------
Dr. Bill Snavely
Miami University - Department of Management
SNAVELwb@MUOhio.edu
http://MIAvx1.MUOhio.edu/~SNAVELwb/