An MBA Communications Course Designed by Business Executives

Companies that want to improve the communication skills of their managers might look at thefollowing analysis of suggestions from 136 business managers and executives of the enormouslysuccessful and diversified Marmon Group of Companies. Researchers gathered respondentsideas and answers from two questionnaires to produce a quantitative group consensus as to whatconstitutes the most important areas of focus in business communications. By the respondents own choices,the course model focuses not on traditionally taught writingskills such as grammar, diction, and paragraph structure, but rather focuses on issues that, froma business point of view, are more urgent in day to day correspondence. For example, executivesstressed the need for instructors to train people to write logically, clearly, and briefly, and toconcentrate on such judgment skills as audience, tone, relevance, and timeliness. This desire to shift from traditional emphases opens a new approach to teaching businesscommunications. It implies that there is a much greater need to base courses on real life casestudies and to use business people as guest lecturers, since both can illustrate the kind of logicalthinking that is necessary to avoid communication problems.