Mary L. Tucker

Training Tomorrow's Leaders: Enhancing the Emotional Intelligence of Business Graduates

Abstract Educational institutions have traditionally focused primarily on the importance of IQ with less attention given to other types of intelligence. Yet many reserchers are begining to argue that intrapersonal and interpersonal competencies, or emotional intelligence, may be more important for success in life than IQ. It is important, then, for business schools to consider ways to incorporare emotional intelligence skills into each students “toolbox” for enhanced career success. This article reviews the developing literature on emotional intelligence and discusses a model for incorporating emotional intelligence into the curriculum through the use of assessment tools and experiential exercises.

Organizational Communication: Development of Internal Strategic Competitive Advantage

Many organizations are experimenting with structures (new organization forms) that are designed to facilitate empowered cross-functional communication. The challenge is to become more efficient or competitive by reducing barriers to com munication and to eliminate boundaries which impede the understanding of end-to-end workflows and better performance on strategic goals. Horizontal organization processes such as cross-functional teamwork and empowered decision making at lower organization levels are based on more participative management styles (new management technologies). This paper builds a theo retical model and provides propositions showing how knowledge creation and communication are the foundations of the new organization forms. An organiza tions capability for creating and communicating knowledge is seen as a resource which can create global strategic competitive advantage. A longitudinal research program is proposed to study the progress of experiments by organiza tions utilizing the new organization forms and management technologies (NFMT).

Community Service Learning Increases Communication Skills across the Business Curriculum.

Community service learning offers a unique and rewarding way for business students to reinforce communication capabilities while developing lifelong career and social skills. This article defines community service learning, dis cusses its importance to business as well as higher education, and describes three community service learning projects. Students in these projects taught elementary students, designed a computer system for a community nonprofit, and developed accounting systems for university divisions. In doing so, they enhanced their understanding of classroom theories and communication skills through service-learning.

Development and Construct Validity of Scores on the Community Service Attitudes Scale

This study reports the multistage development of the Community Service Attitudes Scale (CSAS), an instrument for measuring college students’attitudes about community service. The CSAS was developed based on Schwartz’s helping behavior model. Scores on the scales of the CSAS yielded strong reliability evidence (coefficient alphas ranging from .72 to .93). Principal components analysis yielded results consistent with the Schwartz model. In addition, the CSAS scale scores were positively correlated with gender, college major, community service experience, and intentions to engage in community service. The CSAS will be useful to researchers for conducting further research on the effects of service learning and community service experiences for students.

Encouraging community service through service learning

Increasingly, faculty members are incorporating service-learning projects into their courses, resulting in enhanced student learning and development. However, does service learning encourage subsequent student involvement in the community? This study investigates the effect faculty professionals can have through service learning on their students’intentions to participate in community service. A modified version of the Solomon four-group design analysis as well as a hierarchical regression were used to assess the change in student intentions after exposure to three service-learning treatments. Findings indicate that service learning has a significant impact on students’intentions to participate in community service. In particular, by adding a lecture to the standard service-learning format, faculty members can increase student intentions to participate in community service.

Student attitudes toward service-learning : Implications for implementation

Are there student-based barriers that instructors must overcome in integrating service-learning into their courses? This article seeks to provide a starting point for implementing service-learning by describing student attitudes toward community service. The constructs of self-efficacy, helping behavior, and cost/benefit are used to assess student perceptions of community service and service-learning. Implications for structuring service-learning projects and coordinating service-learning initiatives at the college and university levels are discussed.

Qualitative Research in Business Communication: A Review and Analysis:

Communication researchers, concerned with gathering complete, valid, and reproducible results, are being encouraged to use a group of qualitative research methods for studying business communication. The question that intuitively arises, then, is whether qualitative methods are increasingly utilized in pub lished business communication research. This paper addresses the call for qualitative research in business communication, describes qualitative research methods with examples of business communication articles in which qualitative and qualitative/quantitative methods were used effectively, and presents an analysis of research methods used in articles published in three business com munication journals during the last four years. The paper concludes with recommendations for business communication research.

Increasing Awareness of Emotional Intelligence in a Business Curriculum

IN TODAY’S GLOBAL, “bigger is better” business environment, theneed for intrapersonal awareness and interpersonal communicationskills is greater than ever. Business schools are being asked to addressthisneed byincreasing attentiontocommunication coursework inthebusiness curricula. In fact, the Management Education Task Force ofthe Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB)issuedareportinApril2002thatcalledforanincreaseofinstructionincommunication,leadership,andinterpersonalskillstomakecurriculamore relevant to “today’s global workplace” (Doria, Rozanski, &Cohen, 2003). Furthermore, as a response to feedback from employ-ers,alumni,andexecutiveadvisors,businessschoolsacrossthecountryareaddressingtheneedforanincreasedemphasison“peopleskills”byteaching business students the soft skills that set exemplary managersapart from their typical peers (Alsop, 2002, p. R11) and that enhancetheir ability to negotiate the “interpersonal dimension” of work life(Muir, 2004).Whereastheabilitytogather,interpret,analyze,andrespondtodatamaybeafunctionoftechnicalcompetency,theabilitytoreceive, inter-pret, analyze, and respond to messages, both external and internal, isregulated by one’s emotional intelligence (EI). EI is “a type of socialintelligence that involves the ability to monitor one’s own and others’

Examining Intercultural Growth for Business Students in Short-Term Study Abroad Programs: Too Good to Be True?

Changes in ethnocentrism, intercultural communication apprehension, international awareness and activities were examined in business students participating in a 16-day consulting program abroad and compared to a control group of students at the home university. Anticipated changes in the study abroad students were found; however, when compared to the control group, the changes had little significance. Study abroad students had higher ethnocentrism, intercultural communication apprehension and lower intercultural awareness prior to going abroad; thus, the study abroad experience brought the STSA participants to the post-test levels of the control group. Implications for STSA programs and directions for future research are discussed.

Women and men politicians: are some of the best leaders dissatisfied?

Today’s political arena calls for strong leadership. As technology facilitates information sharing, constituents are becoming more vocal in governmental affairs. Legislators are now expected to be transformational leaders who envision the future needs of constituents and are capable of negotiating, mediating, and championing these causes in an effective and credible manner. Using transformational leadership theory, this article examines the perceived leadership styles among state‐level legislators in the United States as well as the relationship between leadership style and perceptions of extra effort, effectiveness, and satisfaction. Leaders in this study described their style as transformational and perceived high extra effort from their followers. Yet, compared to women, male politicians had more positive perceptions of effectiveness and satisfaction with their leadership style. This substantiates research that women in male‐dominated careers report less self‐confidence. Future research might verify th...