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About the Center for Management Communication

Our goal is to prepare present and future business leaders to manage the communication demands of a highly competitive, rapidly changing global marketplace.

To that end, we strive to equip our students with the communicative skills that will enable them to compete successfully in the business environment of the 21st century. We develop competence and expertise in oral presentations, business writing, interpersonal interaction and group processes -- areas of external and internal organizational communication where mastery is essential for managerial success.

Our continued national leadership in management communication includes a commitment to excellence in classroom instruction, program development, research, publication and service to the University and to the community.

 

"Dr. Bob McCann talks to the US News & World Report about workplace ageism"

http://www.usnews.com/money/careers/articles/2009/09/30/when-age-bias-hinders-the-job-hunt.html?PageNr=2&-C
 


 Bob McCann on Older Workers from the NY Times 10.6.09


http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/06/older-workers-and-their-rights/

 Dr. Jeff Smith's 2009 book reviewed in Choice magazine

From Choice, the official magazine of academic librarians, which named the book one of its current "Editors' Picks":

Smith, Jeff.  The presidents we imagine: two centuries of White House fictions on the page, on the stage, onscreen, and online.  Wisconsin, 2009.  391p bibl index afp; ISBN 9780299231842
pbk, $26.95. Reviewed in 2009aug CHOICE. 46-6587 PS228  2008-39542 CIP

"This lucid study of imaginative literary and media responses to the US presidency reveals how portrayals of presidents (actual or fictitious) project the US itself and "people's hopes and fears for it ... their sense of its strengths, weaknesses, righteousness, and guilt." Smith's understanding of the sociopolitical realities of US history is impressive; likewise his interpretations of works of literature and popular culture. Covering more than two centuries, Smith (management communication, USC) focuses on a wide range of individuals--fiction writers, filmmakers, cartoonists, actors, computer artists, and so on. All this work, whether serious, satirical, or frightening, presents stories or imaginings that are, Smith writes, "significant artifacts of America's cultural history" that are as telling as daily news accounts. In addition to presenting thoughtful analysis, the book is also fun. Readers will enjoy encounters with, for example, The Beggar's Opera, Duck Soup, Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward, Philip Roth's Plot against America, the comedic campaigns of W. C. Fields for President and Pogo for President, and presidential fictions that continue up to the last President Bush. Smith is keenly aware of the scholarship of "cultural studies" and carefully acknowledges others' work. His writing is fluid and conversational, but every page reveals deep understanding and focus." Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers. -- B. Wallenstein, emeritus, CUNY City College (Link: http://www.cro2.org/default.aspx?page=reviewdisplay&pids=3481343)

Dr. Greg Patton in the China Economic Review

From China Economic Review:

Strictly business (July 2009)
Educators at business programs in China talk about teaching

Gregory H. Patton, PhD
Global Executive MBA, USC Marshall and Jiao Tong University
Associate Professor, University of Southern California, Los Angeles

Q: Your focus as a professor is on communication and interpersonal skills as well as leadership effectiveness. What has it been like to teach in China?

A: Extremely positive. Chinese businesses and business leaders in the decades to come will continue creating a global presence likely to exceed their domestic activities. To prepare, we need to bring together students from China and other nationalities from throughout the Pacific Rim to ensure various perspectives in the classroom and then to focus on developing these future leaders' core communication and leadership skills. In this environment, we've had a lot of success. We typically have many students who are technical experts - they may be a banker, CIO or engineering expert - but we teach them to refocus on being effective leaders first.

Q: Do you have to be conscious of anything in particular while teaching in China, compared with in a US classroom?

A: I've done a lot of teaching and consulting in China, Taiwan, Japan, Singapore and South Korea. And wherever you are, you have to customize the content and use local examples. A great deal of the students in our program are from China, but a dozen other countries are also represented. They all share their different points of view, but in terms of teaching core leadership skills, these are really the same around the world. That's universal.

Q: How has traveling to China to teach had an impact on your work and personal life?

A: I am typically in Shanghai for 7-10 days at a time, teaching five of those days and then meeting and working with alumni, friends and colleagues. The impact of my travel, teaching and consulting throughout Asia over the years is really irreplaceable in the classroom. Personally, being apart from the family is hard, yet the bright side is my two daughters now give me a short list of what they would like me to pick up for them - mainly fans and bracelets - so they now really like one aspect of my travel.  I also bring back many traditions, and my girls are now huge fans of Children's Day.

Location of the Center for Management Communication

Center for Management Communication
Marshall School of Business, ACC 400
University of Southern California
3660 Trousdale Parkway
Los Angeles, CA 90089-0444
Phone: 213-740-0627
Fax: 213-740-9428
Email: cmc@marshall.usc.edu

Link to campus map highlighting Accounting Building: ACC 400.

 

 

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