Based on an extensive literature review, this paper provides a resource for faculty as they define learning goals and their assessment in the area of "communications abilities," as required in the AACSB International – The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business – Eligibility Procedures and Accreditation Standards for Business Accreditation. The paper first provides a discussion of communications skills that might be included in setting learning goals. Recommended learning assurances for "communications abilities" are then provided, as well as methods to assure learning, including student portfolios as a part of the student records management system.

Current assessment approaches in business schools have focused on program or course learning outcomes. Though important, the assessment of student inputs or readiness for advanced and integrated learning challenges in business schools has received very little attention. The purpose of this article is to explore multiple dimensions of student readiness for challenges in the capstone business course. We turn to the field of cognitive psychology to examine the issue of knowledge retention and transfer of learning and then discuss aspects of student readiness that might be assessed to facilitate the more complex learning challenges of the capstone course.

Industry has an increasing need for a professional workforce with multiple competencies. The Professional Master’s programs address this need by adding specific professional training to multidisciplinary academic education. North Carolina State University is situated close to the Research Triangle Park, a hotbed for biotechnology. This environment has spurred new synergy between academics and industry professionals. The logistics of building alliances between the two parties and the dynamics of these alliances are described. Examples of the utilization of these alliances to integrate business and science in state-of-the-art cases for professional graduate students are presented.

This article describes an in-class exercise that has worked to elevate student awareness of the importance of planning verbal and nonverbal behavior as key to successful career communication. Small groups of students answer questions about dating and then apply their understanding from what it takes to make and sustain a positive impression in dating situations to career communication, including networking, co-op, and job interviews.

The emerging disciplines of positive psychology and positive organizational scholarship offer an innovative way to address some of the concerns that leading business scholars [Ghosal, 2005; Mintzberg, 2004] have identified regarding the theoretical foundations and relevancy of business education. We argue that helping students to develop their degree of personal competency provides educators with a meaningful way of increasing the relevancy of business education. Drawing upon positive organizational scholarship, we develop and explain a set of experiential exercises that outcome assessments indicate can be used to help students develop greater emotion awareness and emotion recognition, key components of emotional intelligence.

Professional accounting organizations encourage accounting educators to develop student competencies in client service, yet such efforts are lacking in most accounting programs. The exercise described in this paper introduces accounting students to key professional service quality concepts through selected readings of service quality research and the preparation of a "client service audit." Through a personal interview with an accounting or other professional service provider, the student gains insight into how professionals address service quality issues in developing operating procedures and managing client communications, as an important first step in developing the student’s own client service competencies.

We describe our department’s new, liberal arts Managerial Economics curriculum for under-graduates. Higher education experts have lamented the separation between management-related and liberal arts education. Our optional Managerial Economics track begins to bridge this gap by creating a focused sequence of courses integrated within the curriculum for departmental majors. The program benefits from faculty research within recent literatures combining economics and management, Allegheny’s expertise in experiential learning, and the College’s liberal arts tradition. Students are prepared to understand a rapidly changing managerial environment, the ambiguous and integrative nature of managerial problems, and the challenges posed by ethical pressures and globalization.

This article describes "The Dance of Leadership," a simple movement exercise that provides a way for students to reflect on their behaviors as leaders and followers and to become aware of their assumptions about leadership. Students are able to compare their actions during the exercise with how they behave in team settings and to consider the effectiveness of their behaviors. Students are also asked to reflect on the powerful implicit leadership theories they bring to the exercise and to consider how those theories impact organizations.