Teaching management and business communication to future IT experts

Patrizia Poščić, Assistant Professor patrizia@inf.uniri.hr

Danijela Subotić, Teaching Assistant dsubotic@inf.uniri.hr

Department of Informatics, University of RijekaRadmile Matejčić 2, 51000 Rijeka, Croatia

http://www.inf.uniri.hr

The presentation is about

• Teaching management and business communication skills and techniques to graduate (master) students at the Department of Informatics

• Management and Leadership course

• Business Communication course

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Management and Leadership

• The course is held on the second year of graduate (master) program

• The course consists of theoretical lectures and practical exercises

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Management and Leadership

• In the lectures students can learn:

– Organization Theory

– Entrepreneurship and Competition

– Planning

– Strategic, Tactical and Operational Management

– Human Resource Management and Performance monitoring

– Total Quality Management

– SWOT analysis

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Management and Leadership

• In the lectures students can learn:

– Crysis Management (methods to solve problems)

– Decision-making process, deciding factors and team decision-making

– Use of information systems as a basis for decision-making and management

– Project Management and IT Support

– Safety and risks

– Time Management

– Virtual organizations

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Management and Leadership

• In the practical exercises students can learn:

– Game Theory

– Strategic Planning

– Time Management

– HRM software analysis

– Motivation and Creativity

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Management and Leadership (exercises)

• Game theory deals with situations of conflict between two or more participants and focuses on strategic interactive decision-making

• The goal of game theory is not to win, but to find an optimal strategy that will maximize payoff/profit

• Game theory is based on mathematical principles – students can develop systematic way of thinking and approaching to problem solving

• Students can learn to collect information in order to plan and strategize their behavior and to consider all perspectives and possible outcomes of specific situaction, in order to make a better decision

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Management and Leadership (exercises)

• Prisoners dilemma

• Market monopoly

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Management and Leadership

• Strategic planning - development of a strategic plan for the period 3-5 years

• Vision, mission, values, SWOT analysis, general and specific goals, priorities, influences, teamwork

• IT support to strategic planning and execution – MS Project (project plan and gantogram, objectives and activities tree, activity implementation table, cost-benefit analysis, monitoring table)

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Management and Leadership (exercises)

• Human resource management (HRM) software analysis

• Next academic year – practical exercises in some open-source ERP software (OpenERP, WebERP, ...)

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Business Communication

• The course is also held on the second year of graduate (master) program

• The course consists of theoretical lectures (mostly online) and practical exercises (organized in a form of mini-workshops)

• The emphasis is on practical exercises during which students can practice and adopt various communication skills

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Business Communication

• In the lectures students can learn:

– Effective communication: Components and process. Types of communication. Communication barriers. Cultural influences.

– Verbal Communication: Language. Meaning. Clarity of expression. Formality of language.

– Nonverbal communication: Types of nonverbal communication. Functions. Nonverbal expressiveness and sensitivity. Discrepancy between verbal and nonverbal communication. Self-presentation.

– Teamwork

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Business Communication

• In the lectures students can learn:

– Communication skills:

• Listening. The importance of listening. Components. Active listening techniques.

• Conflict and Negotiation. Types of conflict. Causes of conflict. The consequences of the conflict. Conflict resolution.

• Assertiveness. What is assertiveness? Specific techniques of assertive behavior.

• Public communication: The purpose of speech. Organizing speech. The presentation speech.

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Business Communication

• In the practical exercises (workshops) students can learn:

– Verbal and Nonverbal Communication

– Business Correspondence

– Conducting and Participating in Meetings

– Job Interviews

– Telephone Communication

– Presentation and Promotion - Public Appearances

– Sales skills and Negotiation

– Marketing Practices

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Business Communication (exercises)

• All students except one leave the classrom until they are called in. One student that is left in the classroom has to read the given story, and narrate it to the first student that comes back, then the second student has to narrate the story that he heard to the third student, etc. The goal of this exercise is to demonstrate how little we listen, and how easy is to loose information in a conversation

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Conclusion

• Introduce students to business theory and practice

• Emphasis on the relationship between business and technology

• IT in support of business communication and management

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Thank You for your attention!