Syllabus: COMM 3068 Managerial CommunicationSpring 2022Texts: The New York Times, daily reading, digital subscription free to Baruch students, and
Corporate Communication, 7 th ed.—P. Argenti ISBN 978-0-07-340327-4. Baruch Bookstore
prices, subject to change, range $73.20-$162.65 with rental, purchase, and digital options. See
Blackboard Course Documents for readings, think pieces, etc. that will inform the learning
modules as well as additional policy information and the grading rubric. >>>Please check your
Baruch email each Monday for announcements.
Course Overview and Objectives
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This overview course explores the complexities, challenges, and goals of management
communication, both the personal management of one’s responsibilities and welfare within an
organization and larger communication-management issues. Assignments range from
applications involving individual communication issues as well as organizational-wide strategic
planning and improvement efforts. ***The global goal of the course is to enhance your
understanding of current issues/strategies, to increase your critical-thinking skills, and to
motivate individual and collective commitment to best practices.
Course Requirements and Evaluation
Three learning modules, weighted to count more heavily as we go forward since some of you
will be learning using the case study method for the first time. Your strengths in analysis should
increase as you read, think, write, repeat.
Module 1: Warm Up
Responses to case and chapter questions/analysis assignments, news responses, other
applications. Topics will include the changing environment for business; strategy, including
issues of branding, identity, image; and an overview of the corporate communication function.
You’ll include in your module submission a statement indicating that all work is your own. ^Due
by email, sent from your Baruch email address, in one file Feb. 28th: 20%
***Tips: Get started early. Chunk it—standard counsel for any large project, paper, etc. Divide
the project into chunks (done for you here), and knock off one chunk at a time. ^When you
submit, everything on ONE file, be sure to put MC Module One. Please put MC in the subject
line whenever you email me. I will save everything you send so if there’s anything missing at the
end of the term, I can do a quick lookup IF you are also sending using your Baruch email. So
please use that format.
1. A set of seven responses to NYT and/or PBS Newshour segments of your choice. Write a
paragraph about each one that is not a summary of the piece but rather your
comments/question about it. Include the headline and/or segment title and its date. No need to
include links. Read pieces in various sections of the NYT to get a feel for the range of
information and entertainment there. See News Responses Guide, a separate course doc.
Note: This will be the first section of Modules 2 & 3 as well, but don’t do these early as Module 2
should include news that we access in October and Module 3 news responses should include
news we access in November and December.
2. As a first current-case analysis, write a paragraph in response to the 1.22.21 CBS Sunday
Morning segment re: the inventor of the cellphone. Here is an interesting look at some business
history as well as some musings about the future:
And if you want to watch the whole episode—take note of the striking artistic depictions of the
sun which punctuate the close of most segments—search CBS SUNDAY MORNING with the
episode date. This is a most interesting pleasurable program and was quite good on January
23rd.
3. As another current-issue analysis, write 2-3 paragraphs in response to these “Brief But
Spectacular” segments on PBS Newshour. To find others to watch on your own, just search with
those terms. From well-known NYU professor, Scot Galloway:
4. In this course, we traditionally watch some part of Seabiscuit. Just make note and see it
when you can. For entry 4, just tell me you have found a small notebook and will use it wisely
and well to make note of resources, ideas, impressions, etc. books, films you want to get to . . .
things that come to mind as you’re reading that you might want to include in responses. Again,
your public library is likely open now, and Seabiscuit is certainly available through your system
as well as on Netflix. It’s on a list of 100 most inspirational films. The first hour of the film brings
the business history in chapter one to life in a most unforgettable manner. When I first saw the
film in a theater years ago, I thought my heart would burst during a high-stakes racing scene.
The PBS series, “American Experience,” also brings a lot of business and social history to life.
5. At the end of Chapter 1, Changing Environment, you’ll find the Google/China case study and
case questions at the end of the case study. This is an overview case study and is challenging.
So you will need to allow some time and, again, move away from the idea that there is a single
right answer for each of the questions. You should let the takeaway points of the chapter guide
you here. ^Write a fully developed paragraph in response to each question, not just a shortanswer response. This analysis will be evaluated more generously since it’s the first you do and
is a tough one. But as we go—the next one is not difficult but does take a very close
look/think—I’ll be expecting more depth in each analysis. Note: This is a comms course so
we’re all about the messages. When this textbook is used in MBA programs, those students
would likely do more with the numbers-story part of the case. This time, focus on the messages,
those in actions as well as those in words.
^Find a current article on similar issues facing Big Tech today—for example, Facebook is much
in the news for not doing enough on the disinformation front—and write a paragraph or two.
*Also recommended ahead, AN UGLY TRUTH, the title of which comes from a former FB
executive’s email expressing concerns.
6. At the end of Chapter 2, the case study is Carson Container Company (Galen—same case,
names changed in earlier editions). This is a short case to read but it’s quite important. This time
don’t do the case questions but rather do this instead: ^Make a list of management/comms
problems (small, medium, and large) just in bullet-list format. Though this is the only time I’ll ask
you to submit your problems list, this is a good way to begin any case/issue analysis—in a
course, also in life. ^Next, do a very close reading of both messages exchanged and analyze
the effectiveness/ineffectiveness of each element of the messages. This case is in large part
about communication channels (see the related course doc that will post), courtesy, and
common sense. And sad to say, courtesy and common sense too often of late seem to be in
short supply. That needs to change.