Organizational Leadership and Communication (Adult Undergraduate)

This course will explore theories, processes, and variables that explain and predict communication behavior in complex organizations. A major emphasis of the class will be on application of these concepts to actual organizational contexts.
Offered in the Adult Undergraduate program only.

This course provides a practical application of creative strategy, process, and execution. The overall goal is to help students design effective advertisements and commercials in a variety of media including print, television, radio, direct mail, outdoor, and web-based. Students will learn to produce ads for local, regional, national, and international markets.

This course focuses on introducing, developing, and refining the communication skills necessary for success in professional and academic arenas. The types of professional and academic writing students will undertake will include business and technical writing (e.g., memos, letters, reports); academic writing (e.g. research papers, position papers, response papers); and electronically mediated communication (e.g. email, telephone). All writing projects will emphasize the processes of drafting, revising, and editing. While the course will focus principally on honing written communication skills, students will also engage in individual and collaborative oral communication projects. Additionally the course will introduce information and strategies that will help working adult learners to succeed in college.
Offered in the Adult Undergraduate program only.

The study of cultural differences that influence the exchange of meaning between individuals and groups of different cultural and/or racial backgrounds. The course is designed to provide students with an understanding of the uniqueness of cultures and the resulting variations in communication styles and preferences, and to provide strategies and skills for successfully communicating across cultural barriers. Students will spend at least 20 hours during the semester working with community agencies serving clients from different cultures.

This course focuses on a variety of issues a pluralistic society faces in current times. It will reflect upon historical foundations of cultural frameworks in the United States, immigrant cultures, cultural tolerance, empowerment and the close intersections of our global community. In addition, the students will have a chance to reflect upon their own cultural identity, biases, communication issues, and teachings in regards to racism, sexism, language diversity, and ethnocentrism.
Offered in the Adult Undergraduate program only.

This course focuses on constructive individual and group interaction by providing practical strategies for handling complex interpersonal dynamics. Class content weaves theory with skill building to help students explore the nature of conflict and a range of approaches to resolving differences. Students will discover what influences problem solving and decision-making through the application of negotiation, communication, and perceptual skills.
Offered in the Adult Undergraduate program only.
Prerequisite(s): Junior standing or permission of the instructor.

This course is intended to serve as a general introduction for majors and interested students to the theories and research questions investigated by social scientists interested in the processes of human communication.
Prerequisite(s): Sophomore standing.

Health Communication is the study and use of communication strategies to inform and influence individual and community decisions that enhance health. We will be exploring a wide range of messages and media in the context of health maintenance and promotion, disease prevention, treatment and advocacy. Through readings, discussion, written assignments, along with shadowing and interviewing a variety of health care professionals, you will learn theories focusing on the communication patterns and practices that shape health care in the U.S. as well as in other cultures.

A study of theories and practices of persuasion within a variety of communication contexts. Students will be expected to apply these concepts to out-of-class persuasive situations.
Prerequisite(s): Junior standing and COMM 2301 Communication Theory or permission of the instuctor.
(Normally offered each fall semester.)

The course in Public Relations is a study of the nature of public relations, the persons involved, its relationship to public opinion, and the channels of communication that are used. Special attention is given to the application of public relations strategies for particular events or organizations.
Prerequisite(s): Junior standing or permission of the instructor.
(Normally offered each semester.)

This course is a general introduction to research methods most commonly used in the Communication discipline. Students will learn how to identify, understand, and appropriately employ a variety of quantitative and qualitative research methods. Students will learn how to critically analyze and evaluate journal articles from Communication and related disciplines. This course will prepare students to complete research projects and use scholarly writing in future courses as well as in their careers. This course is quite similar to the COMM 3500 Research Methods Communication Research Methods course taught in CLAS, however, given the age, experiences and aspirations of the Adult Undergraduate Program students, a special effort will be made to provide a focused application to the organizational setting.
Prerequisite(s): COMM-1101 and COMM 2301 Communication Theory.

This broad-based course overviews the history and criticism of advertising, as well as the fundamental aspects of targeting, positioning, media selection, and creative strategy.
(Normally offered each semester.)

Students will design and make presentations for a variety of communication contexts and audiences. Both practical skills and theoretical insights will be enhanced. Students will complete major projects related to their professional interests. This class is open to majors.
Prerequisite(s): Instructor Permission.

A study of theories, models, and key variables of communication within the context of organizations. Topics include messages, networks, communication roles, technologies, organizational communication diagnosis, and change.
Prerequisite(s): Junior standing and COMM 2300 Communication Theory and COMM 2500 Family Communication or permission of the instructor.
(Normally offered each semester.)

This course focuses on constructive individual and group interaction by providing practical strategies for handling complex interpersonal dynamics. Class content weaves theory with skill building to help students explore the nature of conflict and a range of approaches to resolving differences. Students will discover what influences problem solving and decision-making through the application of negotiation, communication, and perceptual skills.
Offered in the Adult Undergraduate program only.
Prerequisite(s): Junior standing or permission of the instructor.

The course will provide knowledge and skill development relating to essential organizational communication effectiveness including individual, group, organizational and public strategies. Offered in the Adult Undergraduate program only.
Prerequisite(s): COMM 1200 Introduction to Professional and Academic Communication and COMM 1100 Introduction to Organizational Communication.

This course provides an overview of leadership perspectives, frameworks and theories and also focuses on how communication is the essential tool for engaging in relational leadership processes. In the last 30 years information about leadership has exploded, and this class is designed to help you to be better consumers of information about leadership as well as to have a clearer and more useful repertoire of ideas, and practices to intentionally engage in the leadership process, no matter the role in which that engagement occurs. You will also spend time analyzing your own experiences, beliefs, and assumptions about leading, following and communicating effectively.

Interpersonal Communication for Leadership is a core course for Organizational Leadership and Communication majors at Nebraska Wesleyan University. The course is significant for students of all majors as every person participates in interpersonal relationships in a variety of contexts: leadership, family, friends and colleagues. In this course we will explore the dynamics of human interaction, relational sense-making, and the influence of context and individual variables on relationships. Primary emphasis will be placed on the application of interpersonal communication concepts and theory to leadership contexts.

This course examines the theories, variables, models, and communication processes occurring in the context of formal and informal groups and teams. You will focus on understanding the leadership process within groups and teams, describe the factors that affect the performance of both groups and teams, and analyze communication functions that affect group members and the outcomes of group processes. The course is designed to also develop competent participation in and facilitation of group and team processes.

Through many contexts in history and through the midst of conflicting forces that arise within organizational systems, leaders are faced with adaptive challenges. The course distinguishes between authority and knowledge, provides a diagnostic framework for assessing the typical mechanisms in which social systems avoid work on critical issues, and explores strategies and tacticts of intervention to mobilize adaptive work.
Prerequisite(s): COMM 1100 Introduction to Organizational Communication, LEAD 3100 Introduction to Leadership, LEAD 3200 Interpersonal Communication for Leadership, and LEAD 4100 Group and Team Dynamics.

This course is designed to explore the intersection of the theory and practice of communication in an organizational context. Particular emphasis will be placed on understanding how organizations function as a part of the larger society. Topics include messages, networks, globalization, environmental influences, communication roles, technologies, organizational communication diagnosis, and change. Offered in the Adult Undergraduate program only.
Prerequisite(s): Senior standing and COMM 3501 Communication Research Methods.