Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/59979
Your Turn Closing the Gap in Communications An enormous gap exists between how much business managers and recruiters value communications training and what business schools are doing to provide students with communica- tions skills. While managers and recruiters rate communications skills as some of the top attributes they look for in new hires, many business schools give only cursory attention to communications training. The importance of communication skills to employers is clear. Surveys and studies on the topic have pro- duced consistent and striking results: s In 1997, three management professors at the University of South Alabama surveyed 365 business man- agers on the top five skills they looked for in potential hires. Even then, communications skills made the top five. sMore recently, the Wall Street Journal rankings of business schools asked recruiters to rank the attributes they were looking for in business school graduates. Out of more than 40 attributes, business communica- tion skills made the top three. s In the fall of 2004, administra- tors at the University of Missouri- Kansas City's Bloch School of Business surveyed employers, including large corporations such as Sprint, Hallmark, and H&R Block. Those employers indicated that the lack of communication skills in busi- ness school graduates was becoming a source of growing concern and frustration. s The Journal of Financial Engineering conducted what may be the most telling study. It asked finan- 52 BizEd NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2005 by Al Page cial executives what their business school training had most lacked. At the top of the list? Communication skills. As one executive explained, "If you can't communicate your findings to upper management, all the techni- cal skills in the world won't help you be effective." Yet, in spite of such evidence, the vast majority of the 300-plus AACSB- accredited business schools have few, if any, professors of business commu- nications on their staffs. The jobs advertised in publications such as BizEd or The Chronicle ofHigher Education rarely, if ever, include posi- tions for communications professors. At best, business schools are relying on service courses taught by uninter- ested professors from English or communications departments. The exceptions are the dozen or so top- tierMBA programs that hire non- tenure track professionals to staff a communications course or two. What accounts for this wide gap between what employers want and what approximately 90 percent of accredited business schools supply? A clear lack of incentive. First, there are few jobs in the business communica- tion industry—as opposed to, say, finance, accounting, or information technology. Thus, even large univer- sities have little or no incentive to offer a major in business communica- tions or hire a large group of Ph.D.s in that subject area. Second, commu- nications professors do not conduct the type of research that garners attention—most research in business communications is looked down upon by other business professors. Finally, business school accredita- tion standards provide few incentives for business schools to mount a strong business communications WHILE MANAGERS AND RECRUITERS RATE COMMUNICATIONS SKILLS AS SOME OF THE TOP ATTRIBUTES THEY LOOK FOR IN NEW HIRES, MANY BUSINESS SCHOOLS GIVE ONLY CURSORY ATTENTION TO COMMU- NICATIONS TRAINING.