Department Chairs' Perceptions of the Importance of Business Communication Skills

The purpose of this investigation was to determine business department chairs' rat ings of topics typically covered in the business communication course. A sample of 280 chairs provided administrative information about the business communication courses at their institutions, rated the importance of 34 topics typically covered in the course, and assessed the need for the course in their programs. Results indicate that department chairs perceive writing skills to be more important to business communication courses than other communication skills, such as speaking, tech nology-mediated communication, interpersonal communication, team/group com munication, listening, and cultural literacy skills. Implications for business com munication curriculum and research are offered.