David
E. Weber, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Communication
Studies
Course Descriptions
Page
(click on course number for description)
COM 311: Communication & Leadership
COM 325: Business & Professional Communication
COM 327: Organizational Communication
COM 429: Organizational Culture
COM 445: Non-verbal Communication
COM 490: Disciplinary Capstone
COM 495: Adv. Organizational Communication
Course title: Communication and Leadership
In
this course, we learn how leaders, leadership, and relationships between leaders
and constituents, are constructed by communication choices and practices. We selected leadership theories and
develop each student’s leadership skills.
The emphasis is on developing a practical appreciation as a leader of
personal power, vision, meaning, collaboration, persuasion, and social
change. In COM 311, the student will acquire knowledge
and experience with to make informed, thoughtful observations and choices
concerning leadership and its communication imperatives and ingredients.
This course is a core requirement in UNCW’s Leadership Studies (LED) minor. As a result, LED minors have first priority as prospective enrollees, with upper-division Communication Studies majors having next-highest priority, followed by upper-division students who neither minor in LED nor major in COM. The course pre-requisite is EDN 211 (for LED minors), or COM 221 or 327 (for COM majors who are not minoring in LED), or coursework pertaining to organizational environments (for students with neither LED minor or COM major status)..
Course title: Business & Professional Communication
In this course, we learn how to deliver simple and complex messages effectively in a variety of communication channels (spoken language, written language, computer-mediated communication, nonverbal communication, etc.), and in a variety of business and professional environments. We will especially focus developing one’s own distinctive voice and style as a B&P communicator. This course emphasizes hands-on, performance-driven learning. Take this course only if you’re willing to (a) produce excellent, professional-quality work in all assignments, (b) rehearse and polish your work on your own and in consultation with the instruction prior to turning the assignment in, and (c) spend substantial time reflecting on and expressing what kind of experience you’re having in the process of developing as a B&P communicator.
Ideally, a student will have completed COM 110 before enrolling in this course. Students from other departments—especially from Cameron School of Business—are encouraged to meet with the instructor to discuss the possibility of enrolling in the course.
Course title: Organizational Communication
In this course, we learn (a) how effective communication creates and constitutes organizations, and (b) what communication practices enhance one’s performance in and contribution to organizational life. In this course, the term “organization” refers to any group of people who share goals, patterns and processes by which those goals are pursued, a sense of distinctiveness or uniqueness as a group, and a sense of past or emerging history that applies to them as a group. Much of what we study concerns business organizations, but we also explore organizations in military, health/medical, education, not-for-profit, government, and NGO contexts.
This course is strongly, although not exclusively, oriented toward practical application of what is taught and learned. Primary areas of focus include: traditional/human-relations/human resources/systems approaches to organization; organizational culture; diversity and intercultural imperatives in organizations; technology and organizations; interpersonal communication skills in organizational settings; and international/global themes in organizational communication.
Course title: Organizational Culture
In this course, we examine the communicative construction of culture in a variety of organizational settings, and conduct analysis of cultural accomplishment. We will study the artifacts and values that constitute the culture of an organization—symbols, mission statements, organizational vision, communication practices and typologies, architecture and design, organizational rituals and rites of passage, roles and identities, heroes and villains, and organizational stories. Each student will conduct field research in an organization of his or her choice in order to compose a cultural assessment of that organization.
Ideally, a student who enrolls in this course will have had some prior involvement in an organizational setting—an organization in business/education/military/government or not-for-profit domains. Alternatively, or in addition to such experience, a prospective enrollee would do well to have completed COM 221, 325, or 327; or related courses in other departments (e.g., Sociology of Organizations, Criminal Justice Administration, Industrial Psychology, Managing Leisure Service Organizations, Public Administration, Leadership in Nursing, Social Work with Organizations, etc.)
Course title: Nonverbal Communication.
In this course, we explore codes of communication other than spoken language codes. We'll cover a wide range of topics under that rubric: visual symbols and semiotics, gestures, interpersonal rituals and practices (e.g., flirting, expressing emotion, subordination and dominance, etc.), facial expression, detection of deception, management of space, presence and absence of sound, touch, intercultural issues and challenges, and more. This course also calls upon students to conduct simple field research projects in nonverbal communication.
This is the only course offered by the Communication Studies Dept. on this topic, so it won't be as advanced as its 400-range numbering may suggest. An upper-division major from any department can feel at home as an enrollee in this course.
Course title: Disciplinary Capstone
This course is open only to seniors who have completed all other requirements (except perhaps for a course or two) in the Communication Studies major.
In this course, the student is invited to develop and take a personal position on such issues as: one’s orientation to, or perspective on, communication; the influence of
Communication Studies on the way one conducts, or hope to conduct, one’s life; and what one may wish to do after receiving the Bachelor’s degree. The main focus of the course, then, is to take stock of your life, embrace a commitment to personal growth and development, and regard one’s knowledge and skills in Communication Studies as points of entry into those processes.
The Disciplinary Capstone is not a course in job-hunting or career development. Instead, it is a course in which the student discovers how his or her academic background in communication may serve as a springboard to opportunities (professional, academic, recreational, etc.) in the postgraduate period.
The heart of the course is each student’s construction of a personal portfolio that reflects one’s accomplishments of 2-4 years spent studying communication, as well as the one’s values, dreams, and personal commitments. In every course offered by the Department, COM Department faculty members regularly remind students to keep their highest-quality reports, project materials, letters of recommendation, resume materials, and other artifacts, for eventual inclusion in the COM 490 portfolio.
Course title: Advanced Organizational Communication
This course is designed to develop pre-professional skills in detailed organizational analysis. Our work will revolve around discussion and analysis of case studies of actual organizational communication challenges, successes, failures, and problems. Also, each student will conduct field research in an organizational setting of his or her choice, and from that data develop a formal case study. Some topics will expand on course material encountered in COM 327 (the basic organizational communication course), so successful completion of that course is a pre-requisite for this one. Beyond that, we will address brand new and up-to-the-minute organizational communication issues such as emotions in organizational life, spirit in organizations, social drama in the organizational world, and deep-structure power analysis of leadership and constituencies in organizations.
As an advanced course at the “400” level, this course has a pre-professional orientation. That is, the course is designed to furnish participants with specific professional tools to use in the organizational world, and provide opportunities to enhance valuable communication skills and communication knowledge applicable to such settings. This course also prepares you to study for a graduate degree in, say, Business Administration, Public Administration, or Education, or Master’s or Doctoral work in Communication Studies.