Locations, Programs, and Content of Graduate Education in Business Communication

Abstract

Objectives: This study explored locations, programs, and content of graduate education in business communication to provide guidance for prospective graduate students interested in becoming business communication faculty. Methods: The researchers conducted a survey of business communication scholars, drawing on the backgrounds and knowledge of those who currently teach and research business communication. Results: Findings indicate that 93 universities offer programs supporting graduate business communication education. This number dwarfs the 12 previously documented programs. These 93 programs are rarely called "business communication. " More respondents received training in business communication practice in master's programs than in doctoral programs, while more respondents received training in pedagogy and methods during doctoral work than master's work. The majority of respondents reported being employed by business schools despite receiving their degrees from colleges of arts and sciences, communication, or education. Conclusions: Graduate students can use the list of 93 universities to investigate possible graduate programs in business communication. Students will likely need to pursue graduate education outside of business schools, because the majority of respondents did not receive their graduate degrees from business schools. Earning a doctorate will likely give students methodological knowledge that a master's program may not provide. To bolster their experience with the context of business communication, graduate students may need to gain some experience in the practice of business communication via internship or elective business school coursework.

The Disappearance of Business Communication From Professional Communication Programs in English Departments

“…Meloncon, 2009;Yeats and Thompson, 2010). From our perspective, this minimal presence as documented by Carradini et al (2020)-one can study BComm and complete a dissertation linked to BComm, but most if not all of their courses will be in TC-related areas or, more broadly, R&C-is neither in line with the intentions of most of those scholars and teachers who first envisioned the interdisciplinary field of PC nor in our students' or the current field of PC's best interests. Even taking into account the broad, humanistic stance most often associated with doctoral programs in English-one that generates critical perspectives on institutions in society and on society in general-a stance that led Phelps (1988) to consider composition as a human science "that moves out of the laboratory to examine both linguistic and cognitive processes in the natural settings of everyday life" (p. 104), we believe that simply dismissing or "disappearing" the field of BComm from curricula is counterproductive.…”

“…That collapsing, when combined with English departments' long history of teaching TC and, to be quite honest, their faculty's deep suspicion or concern of being associated with "the ideological interests of a dominant self-interested capitalistic or technocratic system" (Sullivan & Porter, 1993, p. 414) resulted in BComm all but being "disappeared" from curricular maps in English departments and, more important, from graduate curricula in PC or R&C and PC. As Carradini et al (2020) documented, and we point out explicitly, the resulting graduate programs that focus on or feature PC are, more or less, programs in TC (by name and domain knowledge).…”

“…Many scholars such as Shelton who are more recent graduates of graduate programs in PC most likely have not been exposed to BComm scholarship (thus, her reliance on JBTC as the primary source for BComm scholarship). Based on scholarship such as Carradini et al's (2020), it is not unreasonable to assume that many scholars have not had a single academic course during their PhD program that focused primarily on BComm research. Equally true, due to what seems to be a lack of focus on the disciplinary history in PhD curricula, many young scholars in English may not have a fully formed picture of the field of PC's historical roots.…”

“…The gradual movement away from BComm as a full partner in PC is most evident today by its lack of presence in English graduate programs in PC. Carradini et al (2020) surveyed where graduate programs in BComm currently exist. They explained that "only four master's programs include the phrase business communication and no doctoral programs include the phrase in their names" (p. 2).…”