personal, reflective writing in business communication and management

understand better how personal, reflective writing exercises are used in business communication as well as in its affecting discipline of management, this dissertation project has three

PERSONAL, REFLECTIVE WRITING IN BUSINESS COMMUNICATION AND MANAGEMENT

3275795 2007

UMI Microform Copyright

All rights reserved This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code.

ProQuest Information and Learning Company

300 North Zeeb Road P.O Box 1346 Ann Arbor, MI 48106-1346

by ProQuest Information and Learning Company

© Copyright by Pamela H Lawrence 2007

All Rights Reserved

PERSONAL, REFLECTIVE WRITING IN BUSINESS COMMUNICATION AND MANAGEMENT

A Dissertation Presented

By PAMELA H LAWRENCE

Approved as to style and content by:

DEDICATION

To my amazing family without whose support I would not have

completed this dissertation

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank my chair, Anne Herrington, who has carefully and

thoughtfully guided me through this tremendous test of strength I also must thank my committee member Charles Moran, who always made it possible for me to give him yet another draft And to my third committee member Linda LaDuc, many thanks for

providing me both the time and encouragement I needed to get this dissertation behind

me

I also want to thank all of my colleagues who participated in this project, those I surveyed and interviewed as well as those who offered professional and scholarly insight

An additional thanks to my colleagues in the Isenberg School’s Business

Communication Program for continuing to cheer me on And to my colleague Sharon Desmond Paradiso, thank you for the hand holding, pedagogical and intellectual debates, and the many laughs over the years

To my family and friends, I cannot cover here how much help and support I have gotten from each of you You have made completing this dissertation a reality To each of you I owe a special and loving thanks To my husband, Terry, to my children, Isabelle, Spencer, and James and to my parents, my big brother, and my dear friend Heather, thank you

ABSTRACT PERSONAL, REFLECTIVE WRITING IN BUSINESS COMMUNICAITON AND MANAGEMENT

MAY 2007 PAMELA H LAWRENCE, B.A., GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY M.A., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Ph.D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST

Directed by: Professor Anne Herrington

This project is designed to examine and, therefore, hopefully understand how and

why personal, reflective writing is used in business communication classes Personal,

reflective writing is treated differently in business communication classes than it is in management classes, yet management theory is greatly influential in the development of business communication as an academic field In management courses, mostly those with

a leadership focus, personal, reflective writing is used as a way to help students identify personal values and goals and then connect those personal discoveries to professional values and goals In leadership textbooks especially, evidence of personal, reflective writing exercises, such as the personal mission statement, is extensive, suggesting that personal development is integral to professional development, to becoming a manager and leader Trade books designed to help readers improve and grow as managers and leaders also confirm this, as most books from the genre include personal, reflective

writing exercises that are similar to those found in textbooks However, in business communication textbooks personal, reflective writing exercises are different To

understand better how personal, reflective writing exercises are used in business

communication as well as in its affecting discipline of management, this dissertation project has three research foci They are: a content analysis of business communication and management textbook and business/leadership trade book personal, reflective writing exercises; a brief survey of Association of Business Communication members about their uses of using personal, reflective writing exercises in their classes; and, last, interviews with instructors of management in the Isenberg School of Management at the University

of Massachusetts about their uses of personal, reflective writing in their classes Results

of each study and their implications are discussed

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS v

ABSTRACT vi

CHAPTER I PERSONAL, REFLECTIVE WRITING IN BUSINESS COMMUNICATION AND MANAGEMENT 1

Defining Personal Reflective Writing 4

Negotiating the Field of Business Communication 5

The Discipline of Management 10

The Relationship of Management and Leadership 12

What I Meant by Effectiveness 15

Personal, Reflective Writing in the Classroom 19

Organization of Chapters 23

II SCHOLARSHIP AND PERSONAL, REFLECTIVE WRITING 27

Introduction 27

Management and Leadership Scholarship 27

Experiential Learning Theories 28

Humanistic Psychology 32

Personal, Reflective Writing 34

Composition Scholarship 36

Humanistic Psychology and Expressivism 37

Experiential Learning and Reflection 41

Business Communication Scholarship 45

Using Personal Experience and Personal Knowledge 46

An Outcomes-based Approach 47

Critical Pedagogy 49

Conclusion 56

III APPROACH TO RESEARCH 57

Introduction 57

Qualitative Methodology 58

Analyzing Survey and Interview Data 59

Data Management 60

Methods and Processes for Textbook and Trade Selection 61

Shared Review Criteria of Textbooks 61

Selection of Business Communication Textbooks 62

Narrowed Results 64

Selection of Management/Leadership Textbooks 67

Making Final Selections 68

Selection of Business/Management Trade Books 71

Methods of Survey Study 76

Rationale for Email Survey-based Study 76

Benefits and Complications of Emailed Survey 77

Survey Participant Information 77

Descriptive Data 79

Organizing Survey Data 80

Methods for Interview Study 81

Rationale for Interview-based Study 81

Interview Participant Information 82

Organization of Interview Data 84

Role as Researcher 85

IV ANALYSIS OF EXERCISES IN TEXTBOOKS AND TRADE BOOKS 88

Introduction 88

Exercises in Business Communication Textbooks 88

Common Findings 89

Analysis of Exercises and Pedagogical Purpose 91

A Scaffolding Exercise 92

A Journal Writing Exercise 94

Freewriting 95

Document-Specific Exercises 97

Exercises in Management/Leadership Textbooks 103

Common Findings 105

Analysis of Exercises and Pedagogical Purpose 106

Exercises in Business/Management Trade Books 110

Common Findings 113

Analysis of Exercises and Their Purposes 114

General Discussion and Conclusion 118

Role of Audience 120

Credibility and Voice 122

Agency and Social Action 123

V PERSPECTIVES OF BUSINESS COMMUNICATION INSTRUCTORS 125

Introduction 125

Descriptive Data 126

Characteristics of Survey Participants 126

Survey Findings 128

Discussion of Participant Perspectives 130

On Using Personal, Reflective Writing Exercises 132

On Not Using Personal, Reflective Writing Exercises 140

Personal, Reflective Writing Exercises in the Literature 144

VI PERSPECTIVES OF MANAGEMENT INSTRUCTORS 147

Introduction 147

Interview Findings 147

Personal, Reflective Writing Exercises and Assignments 150

Student Audience 154

Pedagogy 159

What the Data Mean 162

VII CONCLUSION AND FUTURE RESEARCH QUESTIONS 163

Theoretical Overlaps 163

Summary of Content Analysis Findings 165

Summary of Survey Findings 166

Summary of Interview Findings 167

Gaps and Remaining Questions 169

Future Research Questions 170

APPENDICES A SURVEY QUESTIONAIRE 173

B PLEASE READ AND SIGN THE FOLLOWING AGREEMENT ON PARTICIPATION IN THIS RESEARCH STUDY 176

C QUESTIONS USED IN INTERVIEWS WITH MANAGEMENT FACULTY OF THE ISENBERG SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AT AMHERST 178

BIBLIOGRAPHY 179

Something I discuss with colleagues? Why is personal, reflective writing

apparently so important to me?

These are some of the questions that have intrigued me as I have drafted and drafted this introduction Interestingly, these are questions I did not even realize I had or knew how to articulate until I got feedback on drafts from readers and until I engaged in some personal, reflective writing of my own Yet these questions run throughout this dissertation because what business communication is and how something like personal, reflective writing fits into a business communication curriculum and into business

re-communication research is at the heart of my project

This dissertation project is designed to examine and, therefore, hopefully

understand how and why personal, reflective writing is used in business communication

classes Questions about personal, reflective writing began for me when I realized that I was using personal, reflective writing exercises in my business communication classes in

a way that was consistent with management and specifically leadership pedagogy yet was

not necessarily consistent with pedagogical practices in business communication. 1 In management courses, mostly those with a leadership focus, personal, reflective writing is used as a way to help students identify personal values and goals and then connect those personal discoveries to professional values and goals In leadership textbooks especially, evidence of personal, reflective writing exercises, such as the personal mission statement,

is extensive, suggesting that personal development is integral to professional

development, to becoming a manager and leader Trade books designed to help readers improve and grow as managers and leaders also confirm this, as most books from the genre include personal, reflective writing exercises that are similar to those found in textbooks The fact that these textbooks and trade books include exercises like the ones I use with my students has validated for me my use of such writing exercises in business communication courses, courses that are also designed to help students develop

professionally, to become effective communicators as a means for becoming effective managers and leaders

Because instructors of business communication and management share a common educational objective, to prepare students to assume roles as managers and leaders of organizations, it follows we share some teaching practices for reaching that objective. 2 In addition, because business communication is an interdisciplinary field influenced by

1

So far this introduction has relied on several loaded terms, each of which will be unpacked and discussed

in detail in upcoming sections of this chapter Especially important are definitions of management and leadership, making clear how they are connected yet different Specifically, within the academic discipline

of management, leadership is treated as a subject area or topic and is associated most with the study of leader behavior and the leadership process within organizations Under the disciplinary framework of management, scholars have developed theories on what leadership is, how best to measure it (mostly in terms of effectiveness), and what leaders need to do to develop themselves personally and professionally (Yukl, 1989; Northouse, 2004)

2

This claim about a shared educational objective rests on educational guidelines provided by the

accreditation body for schools and colleges of business, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of

theory and research in management (Shaw, 1993; Locker, 1998; Rogers, 2001), it also follows that business communication instructors might use personal, reflective writing exercises in ways similar to those teaching management courses However, review of recently published business communication scholarship and the field’s textbooks

indicates this is not true, that, in the classroom, business communication handles

personal, reflective writing differently To understand more about the differences – and possible similarities – in the uses of personal, reflective writing exercises in business communication and management courses, this dissertation project includes three parts:

1 Analysis of personal, reflective writing exercises in business

communication and management/leadership textbooks and management/leadership trade books3

2 A survey of business communication instructors about their use of

personal, reflective writing exercises in their courses

3 Interviews with management instructors about their use of personal,

reflective writing exercises in their courses However, before laying out particulars of the studies, this introduction must provide working definitions for key terms it has relied on thus far as well as provide a context for understanding how those terms and the ideas behind them come together

3

For now, I am using management/leadership together to characterize the textbooks and trade books I have

Defining Personal, Reflective Writing

By personal, reflective writing exercises, I mean writing exercises that are reflective, self-referential, or self-expressive in nature – in short, writing about the self Within management/leadership textbooks and trade books, personal, reflective writing exercises may vary in style and format For example, one typical exercise is a self-

self-assessment questionnaire designed to help readers assess their own leadership ability or the abilities of others (Dubrin, 2004, has numerous examples) However, because self-assessments often involve limited writing, I am more interested in exercises, such as the personal mission statement, that require creative exploratory writing Furthermore, my research indicates that production of personal mission statements encourages self-

discovery and validates personal experience and self-reflection as a knowledge source (Waddock, 1999) Personal, reflective writing facilitates personal development through self-discovery, self-revelation, self-reflection, and written articulation of personal

experience, and personal, reflective writing places responsibility on the writer to make her or his own knowledge and further the learning experience In this regard, the way management/leadership scholars and instructors seem to use and understand personal, reflective writing resonates with the way compositionists use and understand personal, reflective writing

For decades, compositionists have touted the benefits of encouraging students to write reflectively, to write about the self, and to engage in personal, reflective writing as a part of the experience of the writing process (Berlin, 2003; Yancey, 1998) To this end, composition scholarship on personal, reflective writing practices provides a helpful theoretical lens for understanding how personal, reflective writing is used in business

communication and management Furthermore, within the management literature – including scholarship, textbooks, and self-help trade books – that addresses or focuses on leadership there is thorough evidence of the use of personal, reflective writing exercises However, there is little discussion about the theory that informs the use of personal, reflective writing exercises Composition theory helps fill this gap and, in fact, indicates theoretical and pedagogical commonalities between the two seemingly disparate

disciplines of management and composition

Negotiating the Field of Business Communication Business communication is an interdisciplinary field that has for several decades tried to identify and distinguish itself as an academic discipline and not as a sub-

discipline of an affecting discipline Disciplines that have affected the theory, research, and pedagogy of business communication include communication, composition,

management, psychology, and rhetoric (Shaw, 1993; Locker, 1998).4 In turn, business communication scholars have relied upon research and tested theories of the affecting disciplines Therefore, using theory and pedagogy from the more established disciplines

of management and composition to analyze and make assertions about the use of

personal, reflective writing in business communication is appropriate Still business communication has a relationship to other fields that also have as a focal point

communication in organizational settings Making clear the complex nature of this

relationship is also important to this dissertation as theory, content, and pedagogy from those fields bear the research affecting this dissertation

4

This dissertation has as its focus the use of personal, reflective writing exercises in business

Of the questions “What is business communication?” and “How is business communication related to management communication and organizational

communication?,” Lamar Reinsch (1991b, p.305) offers, “Business communication, management communication, and organizational communication have so much in

common that an effort to definitionally circumscribe one of the fields is likely to include most of the other two” (p 306) Still, in the face of recognizable commonalities among the fields, Reinsch (1996) and others (Smeltzer, 1996; Mumby & Stohl, 1996; Reardon, 1996) establish difference among them by: defining key terms, such as business,

manager, and organization (Reinsch, 1991b, 1996; Smeltzer, 1996); analyzing research produced under the name of each field and in each field’s journals (Mumby & Stohl, 1996; Reardon, 1996); and linking each field to an affecting discipline (Mumby & Stohl, 1996; Smeltzer, 1996;)

The trend – to grapple with the identities of the fields of business communication, corporate communication, management communication, organizational communication, professional communication, and technical communication – is especially widespread in business communication-related journals during the 1990s Discussion can be found

mostly in The Journal of Business Communication, The Journal of Business and

Technical Communication, Management Communication Quarterly, and Technical Communication Quarterly To this end, special issues of The Journal of Business

Communication (1993) and Management Communication Quarterly (1996) are dedicated

to defining and delineating these fields – fields that share common theory, research, and pedagogical interest in communication in organizational settings Furthermore, a search

in academic databases indicates that within other connected fields – specifically

professional and technical communication – similar grappling with identity takes place (Faber, 2002; Shirk & Smith, 2002)

Reinsch (1991b) points out that each of the fields has “one or more scholarly journals” and, because research interests and methods overlap, scholars “publish in each other’s journals” (Reinsch, 1991b, p 305) This claim is still true today Simple database searches confirm that, across the overlapping or connected fields, scholars of professional communication, technical communication, organizational communication, business communication, management communication, intercultural communication, and

corporate communication publish in academic journals that span these fields as well as journals from communication, composition, and management.5 Additionally, scholars from the fields often cross-identify themselves Smeltzer (1996) demonstrates this by pointing to Annette Shelby’s scholarship in business communication, her title of

professor of management communication at Georgetown University, and her doctorate in speech communication We also see this in former Association for Business

Communication (ABC) president Mary Munter’s 1983 article on the rise of management communication courses in US graduate programs in which Munter uses the terms

management communication and business communication interchangeably and in a 2000 article by Rentz who argues for a separation of professional communication from

composition.6

5

Although discussion of disciplinary definition and identity is less prominent in communication,

composition, and management journals, the overlap among the fields also presents itself in other academic

journals such as College Composition and Communication, College English, Journal of Advanced

Composition, The Journal of the Academy of Management, and Written Communication Publications

within these journals further solidify that business communication-related research is varied and does not neatly fit a single disciplinary venue

6

Rentz’ primary concern here is that, in the attempt among scholars to distinguish composition from

In short, establishing identity or “disciplinary distinction,” as Priscilla Rogers (1996) puts it, among the fields has existed for decades, and within the last five years, Rogers (2001), Ryan (2001), and Locker (2003) each has published on the challenges of being a scholar within the interdisciplinary, business communication-related fields

Locker’s 2003 article is interesting in this regard as it calls for a thorough

examination of the terms technical communication, professional communication, and business communication; additionally, she expresses deep concern that the term

professional communication is used in a way that hybridizes business communication to near extinction She vehemently argues against the US trend to lump together business and technical communication under the term professional communication and goes on to claim that business communication and technical communication are distinctly different because the business communicator’s primary concern is to persuade and the technical communicator’s is to inform To support her assertion, Locker writes, “The archetypal problem in technical communication is represented by blinking 12:00s on VCRs across America” (p 129) In response to the problem, the technical writer explains to the VCR owner how to set the time Locker goes on, “The archetypal problem in business

communication, in contrast, is how to convince people to turn off the lights when they leave office” (p 129)

Although Locker’s argument about the primary difference between technical and business communication is somewhat reductionist, her claims are at least tangentially supported by management and leadership scholars who discuss the importance of

managers’ and leaders’ abilities to persuade and motivate others (Kotter, 1990; Fairhurst

& Sarr, 1996; Conger, 1998; Williams, 2002) In this regard, students of the business

disciplines – students who typically take business communication courses – are expected

to know how to persuade as a means for satisfying their management and leadership responsibilities Furthermore, Locker asserts that students who take technical

communication classes are not necessarily on the same career path as students from business disciplines are Those taking technical communication, she argues, are typically from non-business disciplines, such as engineering, or are students who expect to become technical communicators professionally

What is most striking about Locker’s article is her concern over the possibility of losing business communication, as a field, to technical communication, and her article stands as testimony to the continued struggle over identification and distinction

However, in her article Locker calls for creating boundaries; whereas, others in business communication celebrate hybridization, call for a blurring of boundaries, and ask that researchers acknowledge the benefit of hybridization as it allows for points of

“convergence and commonality” (Rogers, 2001)

Disciplinary debates aside, for this study I must settle on an umbrella term The term is a necessity not only for making the dissertation easy to read but also for making

my survey useable For example, it would simply be too clunky and cumbersome to ask survey participants, members of the ABC, if they use personal, reflective writing in their business communication, corporate communication, intercultural communication,

management communication, organizational communication, professional

communication, or technical communication classes Instead, I have settled on the term business communication The literature review of the disciplinary debates indicates that, because of the hybridized nature of the overlapping fields, my respondents would indeed

know what I mean by business communication – that I mean the overlapping fields of communication in organizational settings.7 They know that discussing teaching and research in technical communication, for example, is fair game, and as I show in later chapters, they do discuss a variety of classes that they teach and that fall within the

business communication framework Additionally, because the primary organization of the field is the Association for Business Communication, home to scholars across the overlapping fields, settling on the term business communication makes further good sense To that end, I use the term business communication inclusively; however, when I report on findings that appear specific to or more apparent in one of the overlapping fields, I note and discuss the distinction.8

In short, this dissertation is concerned with the use of personal, reflective writing exercises to teach business communication Scholarship, textbook sources, and survey results from across the overlapping fields of communication in organizational settings contribute to my discussion of the use of personal, reflective writing exercises in business communication

The Discipline of Management According to Koontz (1961), “management is the art of getting things done

through and with people in formally organized groups, the art of creating an environment

in such an organized group where people can perform as individuals and yet cooperate toward attainment of group goals, the art of removing blocks to such performance, the art

7

Indeed, my results confirm this as participants move easily from business communication to technical communication and other terms in their responses

of optimizing efficiency in effectively reaching goals” (p 186) Koontz offered his

seminal Journal of the Academy of Management article “The Management Theory

Jungle” in an attempt “to analyze the management process and look for some theoretical underpinnings to help improve research, teaching, and practice” (p 174) and to define the “major ‘schools’ of management theory” (p 175) His article is written in response to the growth of the field as an academic discipline during the first half of the 20th century and articulates attempts at reconciling differences among the theory, research, and

pedagogy of academic management and the practice of management as a function within organizational settings Theory and research in management, Koontz argues, should be established in the academy and then made useful and understandable to the practitioner

In turn, management theory and research is generally derived from the study of

organizations and their practitioners

By 1968, Meinhart, among others (Charnes and Cooper, 1966; Dantzig, 1967), defines management by offering an educational focus, discussing two competing types of management courses, those which emphasize management theory and research and those which emphasize “the practical affairs of business management” (p 307) In this regard, the discipline struggled for several decades – distinguishing its research and theory from other affecting disciplines; establishing differences of formal, academic study of

organizations and practitioners from informal, practitioner-oriented knowledge derived from workplace-based experience (Koontz, 1961; Meinhart, 1968; Yukl, 1989)

Today, courses in management do both – teach theory and research (the content of the discipline of management) as well as prepare and train business students for

managerial challenges in their careers Business students from across business disciplines

are educated in management because they are expected to assume managerial roles

(www.aacsb.edu) The mission of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), accreditation body of schools and colleges of business is “to advance quality management education worldwide through accreditation and thought leadership” (www.aacsb.edu).9 Through its mission and academic guidelines the AACSB makes plain that the teaching of any business discipline is a function of management education

For this dissertation management is recognized as an academic discipline as well

as a term used to describe the work of practitioners (primarily managers and leaders) within organizational settings Academic courses in management offer theory and content from the discipline as well as practitioner-based knowledge (Yukl, 1989), and, like other business courses, fall within the management education curriculum framework AACSB guidelines include as “general knowledge and skills” courses which advance

“communication abilities” of business students; in this regard, business communication courses are also part of the management education curriculum

The Relationship of Management and Leadership Within organizational settings, management, as a structure or system, was

established to provide order in an otherwise chaotic organizational body (Northouse, 2004) Fayol (1916, 1957), an experienced management practitioner, first documented the

of schools of management and business as “organization-related professions” (p 24, Second Working Draft

functions of organizational management as planning, organizing, staffing, and

controlling, and Fayol’s work set in motion the academic study of organizational

management (Koontz, 1961) Drucker (1954; 1964) established the role of manager as someone within organizations who is empowered to make decisions

In 1990, John Kotter further codified the differences between management and leadership Building on Fayol’s work, Kotter argues that within organizations

management’s primary function is to provide order and consistency whereas the primary role of leadership is to seek productive change Other scholars of management and

leadership concur with Kotter, and historically some have gone so far as to argue that managers and leaders are, inherently, different types of people (Zaleznik, 1977) Bennis and Nanus (1983) further accentuate this point in this oft-cited statement, “Managers are people who do things right, and leaders are people who do the right thing” (p 221)

Northouse (2004) offers this definition of leadership: “a process whereby an individual influences a group of individuals to achieve a common goal” (p 3)

Furthermore, he claims that the core of his definition – “that leadership is an influence process that assists groups of individuals toward goal attainment” (p.11) – is consistent with most understandings of leadership (p 10) Interestingly, this broad definition of leadership resembles Koontz’ broad 1961 definition of management Because of its breadth and positive emphasis on goals, Northouse’s definition of leadership is what this dissertation relies on for understanding leadership in an organizational context and as a subject area of the discipline of management

Despite the research on and claims about the differences between management and leadership, Yukl (1989) notes considerable overlap between the two, and indeed

Kotter (1990b) argues that management complements leadership, that managers are often called upon to be leaders, and that organizations must cultivate “a leadership-centered culture” (p 111) in order to train and mentor leaders of the future Indeed, today, it is widely understood that managers are asked to assume leadership responsibilities and that leadership can be learned As Northouse (2004) puts it, “When managers are involved in influencing a group to meet its goals, they are involved in leadership When leaders are involved in planning, organizing, staffing, and controlling, they are involved in

management Both processes involve influencing a group of individuals toward goal attainment” (p 10)

Some scholars of management focus their research on leadership and the

leadership process (for example, Bennis, Kotter, Nanus, and Manz) and are, therefore, thought of or referred to as leadership scholars However, these scholars are not always identified as leadership scholars and, instead, are often identified as professors of

management or of management’s sub-field organizational behavior For this dissertation, scholars whose research focuses on leadership and the study of leaders in organizations will be referred to as leadership scholars Identifying scholars and their work in terms of their focus (rather than in terms of their umbrella discipline of management) is important

in this dissertation as one of the key features of the writing under discussion (personal, reflective writing) is often used as an educational tool in management courses that focus

on or contain a leadership component Furthermore, as is discussed in upcoming chapters, leadership scholars are also authors of textbooks and trade books that have a leadership focus

What Is Meant by Effectiveness Scholars in the fields and subjects under discussion in this dissertation often refer

to aspects of effectiveness; as example, Koontz includes in his 1961 definition of

management “the art of… effectively reaching goals” (p 186) Defining effectiveness in managers and leaders has for decades intrigued scholars in management and leadership (Northouse, 2004) Popular techniques for measuring managerial and leadership

effectiveness include a “person-process-product” model based on the manager’s (the person’s) traits and abilities, her/his behaviors and activities in the workplace (the

process), and the results or outcomes (the product) (Campbell, Dunnette, Lawler, and Weick, 1970; Morse and Wagner, 1978) and skills-based assessment in which effective skills or core competencies are quantified and interpreted (Katz, 1955; Mumford & Connelly, 1991; Mumford, Zaccaro, Harding, et al, 2000) Although scholarly techniques for measuring effectiveness vary, most rely on studies of practitioners (Northouse, 2004) That is, scholars who study managerial and leadership effectiveness devise studies that attempt to measure the effectiveness of managers and leaders on the job and, therefore, within an organizational context

Also, determinations about leadership effectiveness are often extrapolations from research on managerial effectiveness For example, Katz (1955) introduced the idea of three basic managerial skill sets: technical (defined as the knowledge of the work

associated with a job), human (ability to work well with people), and conceptual (ability

to work with and understand ideas and concepts) (p 34) According to Katz, there are three levels of management – supervisory (requiring high levels of technical skill and low level of conceptual skills), middle (requiring equal levels of technical and conceptual

skill), and top (requiring high levels of conceptual skill and low levels of technical skills); each level of management requires the same level of what he calls human skills Notably,

it is within the top level that high levels of conceptual skills are required Katz found, and others have confirmed (Mumford et al, 2000), that executive leaders, such as CEOs, have and need the highest level of conceptual skills to make them effective

In keeping with the skills approach, Mumford, Zaccaro, Harding, Owen, and Fleishman (2000) reached the conclusion that leaders have three core competencies: problem-solving skills, social judgment skills, and conceptual knowledge The three competencies provide frameworks into which less quantifiable aspects of leadership can fit, for example, Kotter’s (1990) idea of big-picture, conceptual thinking, such as creating vision, and Kouzes and Posner (2002) claims that effective leaders are perceived as genuine and sincere

According to leadership scholar Pondy (1978), a leader’s effectiveness can be best understood by her or his ability to make meaning for others Fellow leadership scholars Pfeffer (1977), Bennis (1979), and Kotter (1990) concur that, for a leader to manage or make meaning effectively for others, he or she must be able to do the same for her or himself Especially relevant to this dissertation is the understanding that personal,

reflective writing helps leaders in make meaning for themselves and, in turn, make

meaning for others; in this way, personal, reflective writing can contribute to a leader’s overall effectiveness

Additionally, underlying Pondy’s, Kotter’s, Northouse’s, and others’ arguments is the idea that leadership is a process that can be learned In this regard, scholars study the experiences of practitioners, create and test theories on managerial and leadership

effectiveness, and offer those results as content that is, in turn, shared with students and learning professionals Additionally, representing effectiveness via skill sets helps turn research-based, theoretical knowledge into digestible, applicable knowledge to be

learned, practiced, and disseminated to students and back to practitioners to employ

Like scholars of management and leadership, scholars working at the crossroads

of communication and organizations also base interpretations of effective communication

on studies of practitioners (Shaw, 1993; Shelby, 1996; Rogers, 2001) Smeltzer (1996) calls this the managerial context – the manager’s role and function within an

organization Combined research in management, leadership, and business

communication confirm the importance of strong communication-based skills and

abilities for achieving effective management and leadership (Katz, 1955; Kotter, 1990; Conger, 1998; Locker, 2003; Northouse, 2004; Clampitt, 2005) However, how

communication-based skills and abilities for managerial and leadership effectiveness are taught and defined in classrooms varies between the related management/leadership and business communication

For example, when discussing how to prepare a business document (of any type) Kolin (2006) asserts that business writing effectiveness is ascertained by answering key questions; he directs students to ask:

1 Who will read what I write? (Identify your audience.)

2 Why should they read what I write? (Establish your purpose.)

3 What do I have to say to them? (Formulate your message.)

4 How can I best communicate? (Select your style and tone.)

(emphasis Kolin’s, p 5)

Kolin’s questions are not atypical of business writing and business

communication instruction in general His approach is practical and asks the student to focus on what the audience needs as a means for addressing how the writer should go about the writing task In this way, the writing task and its corresponding elements of decision making, goal setting, negotiation, interpersonal communication, or persuasion are reduced to clear, seemingly easy-to-follow steps His recommendations are, in fact, issued as directions, that make the writing task appear formulaic and basic, and nuances

of effective communication that may emphasize the writer’s role and the writer’s goal(s) are completely missing For example, Kolin does not ask: why should I write this person?

Or what do I hope to achieve from writing this person? In short, there is no apparent examination

self-In keeping with Kolin’s directives, Munter (2006) argues, “[E]ffective strategic communicators are those who receive their desired response or desired outcome” (p 4)

In her guideline, Munter recognizes more of the communicator’s agency and

recommends that he or she think strategically; however, her focus too is on the audience, with strategic communication meaning gain of a desired response or outcome that is based on reader action Interested largely in outcomes, Munter (2001; 2006) advises analyzing or knowing the audience as a means for effectively meeting a communication objective, the writer’s goal She does not, however, advocate analyzing the writer’s goal Kolin’s and Munter’s claims that effective business communication is audience-based are

in line with those in most business communication textbooks and throughout the

scholarship

In management and leadership discussions of effectiveness, however, there is often more emphasis on the role of the self For instance, Manz and Neck (2004) discuss the value and importance of eliciting and listening to the feedback of followers; they underscore the need for effective managers and leaders to be able to accept and use that feedback to effect personal and professional change and treat this process as a form of self-leadership Discussing the value of self-leadership within an organizational setting or context, Manz (1996) describes it as the influence one exerts over her or himself –

including “self-imposed strategies” for managing performance (p 585) As Yukl (1989) makes clear, the role of the self in relation to effective management and leadership can be found throughout the management and leadership literature – scholarship, textbooks, and trade books This dissertation recognizes personal, reflective writing as a tool in the self-leadership process that contributes to the study and practice of effective management and leadership

In short, Bennis and Nanus (1985), Conger (1998), Katz (1955), Kolin (2006), Kotter (1990a), Locker (2003), Manz and Neck (2004), Munter (2001, 2006), Rasberry and Lindsay (1994), and Yukl (1989) argue that effective managers and leaders are: decision makers, problem solvers, persuaders, motivators, change initiators, strategic, audience-oriented, self-aware, and able to receive and use feedback

Personal, Reflective Writing in the Classroom

In management courses, principles from theories on reflection, experiential

learning, and humanistic psychology clearly influence the use of personal, reflective writing exercises; personal, reflective writing exercises are, in turn, used to illustrate

course concepts and to help students take charge of their own educational experience (Waddock, 1999) In composition, we see some of these same pedagogical approaches at work In fact, compositionists, such as Gordon Rohman (1965), Donald Stewart (1972), and Miller and Judy (1978), were early adopters of principles of humanistic psychology, and their early adaptations have given rise to lasting personal, reflective writing

techniques designed to foster students’ personal growth and development in a variety of ways In business communication courses personal, reflective writing exercises appear to

be used in different ways Unlike personal, reflective writing exercises or practices in management and composition, business communication’s personal, reflective writing exercises are typically designed for external audiences and, as a result, often meet

stringent objectives and constraints of a prescribed, standard or formal document Given this application of personal, reflective writing, it is not surprising that educational

theories informing the use of personal, reflective writing exercises in composition and management are not widely discussed in the business communication scholarship This difference in the use of personal, reflective writing between business communication and its affecting disciplines of composition and management is a significant part of my

investigation

Scholarship in management and composition indicates educators place high value

on using experiential learning techniques and personal, reflective writing to help students experience greater self-understanding or self-discovery (Rohman, 1965; Waddock, 1999; Manz and Neck, 2004), agency (Yancey, 1998), and individual as well as community-based knowledge construction (Shor, 1980; Prasad and Caproni, 1997) It is, in fact, around personal, reflective writing exercises and the theories that inform personal,

reflective writing that the disciplines of management and composition complement each other most, and, again, as I noted above, it is also around personal, reflective writing that business communication appears most distinct from them

The use of personal, reflective writing exercises, as I have also indicated, is so pervasive in management/leadership that exercises can be found throughout the large genre of management (or, more broadly, business) self-help trade books Such books are typically designed as self-help guides for managers and leaders and are categorized as management, leadership, or business.10 For this dissertation, I borrow from trade book terminology and refer to these books as business/management trade books Although this dissertation is largely interested in those trade books which emphasize or focus on

leadership, most relevant trade books are categorized as business or management first The purpose of looking at trade books in this category is to shed light on the extent to which personal, reflective writing exercises are used to teach management and leadership concepts outside the academy and, therefore, further contextualize the use of personal, reflective writing both in and outside the academy

As noted earlier in this chapter, to find out more about the differences and

similarities of personal, reflective writing exercises in management and business

communication courses, I have devised the following three-part study: analysis of

personal, reflective writing exercises in business communication and management

textbooks and also in business/management trade books; analysis of surveys administered

to business communication educators about their use of personal, reflective writing exercises; and analysis of interviews with management educators about their use of

personal, reflective writing exercises Because use of personal, reflective writing

exercises is established in composition studies, theories from composition are helpful to analyzing personal, reflective writing exercises in business communication and

management textbooks and in business/management trade books Furthermore, because discussion of personal, reflective writing exercises is limited in business communication and management, theories from composition on the pedagogy of personal, reflective writing exercises are helpful to understanding the uses of personal, reflective writing exercises in business communication and management.11

This study is designed to shed light on the use of personal, reflective writing exercises in business communication and management courses, focusing on how and why educators from the two fields use personal, reflective writing This study attempts to answer the following primary research questions:

• What are the pedagogical purposes of personal, reflective writing exercises in

business communication and management courses?

• How are personal, reflective writing exercises in business communication

different from those in management? How are they alike?

• What theories influence the use of personal, reflective writing exercises?

• What theoretical constructs from composition and management are helpful in

analyzing the exercises as well as the pedagogy?

11

It is important to distinguish and note that although discussion of the act of engaging in personal,

reflective writing exercises is limited in business communication and management, the discussion of theories informing the use of personal, reflective writing does exist, especially in management scholarship Such scholarly discussion is, as I have already noted, a pronounced point of overlap between composition and management scholarship Moving from a theoretical overlap into more detailed discussion of the

Organization of Chapters This dissertation is divided into seven chapters Chapter I, an introduction, is designed to orient the reader to the world of business communication and its relationship

to the affecting discipline management and its relationship to other fields concerned with communication in organizations As discussed in this chapter, business communication is used as an umbrella term to encapsulate the research and pedagogical practices of the overlapping fields concerned with communication in organizations That said, when necessary, I will make note of or distinguish differences among the overlapping fields Last, the other primary purpose of Chapter I is to provide a fundamental sense of this dissertation’s research project While Chapter III discusses the approach to research and the specifics of each part of the study, Chapter I aims to lay the foundation

Chapter II offers an overview of the scholarship relevant to the dissertation topic

It is designed to provide scholarly perspectives on the use of personal, reflective writing exercises It is the first attempt at answering the question why and how personal,

reflective writing exercises are used in business communication and management

Furthermore, Chapter II draws on composition research that can be used as a lens for analyzing and understanding the results of each part of this study as those results unfold

in subsequent chapters

Chapter III provides the approach to the research of each part of this dissertation study The overall methodology of each part is qualitative The first part of the study focuses on texts and, therefore, is a content analysis of personal, reflective writing

exercises found in relevant sources – business communication and management

textbooks as well as business/management trade books What Chapter III also does is

provide method and rationale for selecting the actual textbooks and trade books to review for accessing personal, reflective writing exercises to analyze In the end, personal,

reflective writing exercises from 30 books (a combination of textbooks and trade books) are analyzed in Chapter IV

Last, Chapter III includes methods for both the survey and interview studies In addition, Chapter III shares the overall qualitative approach I took for analyzing the results of each study including data management For example, in Chapter III, I discuss how I managed the data – the results of the survey and interview studies – and used that data to uncover common themes among the respondents from each study

Analysis of all data – of the results from the review of textbooks and trade books and the results from the surveys and interviews – is located in three discrete chapters, Chapters IV, V, and VI

Chapter IV offers the results of the review of the textbooks and trade books in the form of content analysis Working with theoretical constructs established largely in Chapter II, I discuss the type of personal, reflective writing exercises uncovered in the books, the value or potential value of those exercises, and the apparent purpose of each Each category of book – business communication textbooks, management/leadership textbooks, and business/management trade books – is discussed in separate sections of Chapter IV The chapter concludes, however, with discussion of exercises from each category and, in this regard, aims to make comparisons among them

Chapter V provides the general findings of the survey study and then moves to analysis of results Analysis is organized first by discussion of types of personal,

reflective writing exercises used and reasons for using or not using personal, reflective

writing exercises in business communication classes Analysis also includes discussion of common themes found in respondents’ answers; those themes are highlighted, and further discussion of them is reserved for Chapter VII, a chapter devoted to discussion of all results, the common themes among them, and the potential for future research projects those results imply

Like Chapter V, Chapter VI begins with general findings – in this case, findings from interviews with management instructors about their use of personal, reflective writing exercises Management instructors discuss if, how, and why they use personal, reflective writing exercises in their classes As is made clear in Chapter VI, all

interviewees do use personal, reflective writing exercises and confirm using the exercises much in the way textbooks from management and leadership suggest Furthermore, the interviewees indicate the use of personal, reflective writing is pervasive in the field However, from the interview conversations it becomes clear that use of personal,

reflective writing in management goes far beyond the exercises common in

management/leadership textbooks and business/management trade books

Interestingly, the uses of and pedagogy behind personal, reflective writing in management classes that management instructors describe is largely different from what the business communication instructors describe in the surveys However, many of the problems – largely pedagogical – that arise when using personal, reflective writing in the classroom are met by both sets of participants, management and business communication instructors

The pedagogical problems are, indeed, the most remarkable basis for discussion

of study results in Chapter VII Also, as already indicated, in Chapter VII, I discuss future

studies that could grow out of this dissertation project as well as what this research may say, specifically, about the umbrella, hybrid field of business communication

CHAPTER II

SCHOLARSHIP AND PERSONAL, REFLECTIVE WRITING

Introduction Although limited, business communication and management scholarship contains discussion of personal, reflective writing exercises as well as discussion of purposes of those exercises In addition, in management and composition there is a significant body

of scholarship on theories that clearly influence the use of personal, reflective writing exercises as teaching and learning tools

This chapter discusses the relevant scholarship from management, composition, and business communication Because the scholarship on personal, reflective writing in business communication is scant and because business communication scholarship in general is influenced by management and composition theories, discussion of business communication scholarship is reserved for the last sections of this chapter In addition, those sections are designed to help show how the business communication scholarship relates to the larger, more established fields of management and composition

Management and Leadership Scholarship

In management, discussion among educators about personal, reflective writing exercises is limited What is not limited, however, is discussion of theories that clearly influence the use of personal, reflective writing exercises in management courses The

two most prominent and relevant theoretical constructs are experiential learning theories (including reflection as a tool for learning from experience) and principles of humanistic psychology (including instruction that facilitates opportunities for personal growth and development)

Experiential Learning Theories David Kolb has probably been the most influential figure in bringing experiential learning theory and pedagogy into management classrooms According to leadership

scholar Warren Bennis (1984), Kolb’s 1984 book Experiential Learning provided “the

missing link between theory and practice” (p ix) For scholars in management, moving from the traditional lecture approach to the experiential-learning based approach Kolb advocates represents a significant change in teaching practices The traditional lecture approach is what educator Donald Schön (1983) calls “technical and rational.”

Kolb (1984) calls for a learn-by-doing teaching philosophy Kolb’s work is based

on the idea “that learning from experience is the process whereby human development occurs” (1984, p xi) Kolb suggests that the traditional lecture no longer works in

management classes because significant, relevant experience takes place for students outside the classroom As examples, he points to student “internships, field placements, work/study assignments, structured exercise and role plays, gaming simulations, and other forms of experience-based education,” and he advocates experiential-based learning

as a “framework for examining and strengthening the critical linkages among education, work, and personal development” (p 4)