Volume 7 - Issue 3

EJKM
Volume 7 Issue 3

Faculty Perceptions of Business Communication Skills and Needs of Management Students
Shailja Agarwal and Jaya Chintranshi
Jaipuria Institute of Management, Lucknow, India

It is unanimously agreed that a business communication curriculum plays an important role in preparing students for the workforce in the corporate (Pittenger, Khushwant K. S.; Miller, Mary C. and Allison, Jesse, 2006; Zhao, Jensen J. & Alexander, Melody W., 2004). In this scenario, it becomes extremely important to analyze how the faculty teaching business management students perceive the course of business communication and students’ possession of business communication skills (Plutsky, Susan & Wilson, Barbara A., 1996), especially in a country like India, where English is a non-native language. What are the areas of business communication curriculum which faculty perceives as important? What are those areas of business communication in which faculty feel students are more competent? Should something be added to the curriculum to make it more effective? This study enters this discussion by presenting a small empirical study of faculty’s perception of the business communication needs of students. A sample of 93 faculty members, teaching with AICTE accredited management institutions in India have expressed their opinion on the issue by way of questionnaires.

The results reveal a significant difference between the perceived important components of communication skills for students and their possession amongst them. The skills which were considered to be more important were less on the possession scale while the skills which were considered to be comparatively less important by the faculty were high on the possession scale. Possession of written communication skills was found to be lower than the possession of the same components in the oral skills, which is consistent with the previous research (Pittenger, Miller, and Allison, 2006). The study also identifies that the business management teaching community feels that the course of business communication should be taught in either two or four semesters as opposed to the course presently being taught in one semester in most B- schools. Based on the conclusions, the study offers some recommendations to business communication instructors towards improvement in the course.

Keywords: business communication, oral skills, written skills, topics covered, knowledge dissemination, faculty perceptions

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