A Dec. 7, 2011, article in Bloomberg Businessweek provides exclusive coverage of new research from the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA)’s MBA Initiative and the announcement of its forthcoming pilot program to develop public relations courses for MBA programs. The research is part of PRSA’s Business Leaders Survey, which asked 204 American business leaders (vice president and above) to detail the level of education in public relations and reputation management of the MBA graduates they hire.
Further details of PRSA’s MBA Initiative and its Business Leaders Survey can be found here.
Reporter Alison Damast says of the initiative:
“Public relations is a topic that has long been a lonely stepchild in most MBA curricula, touched upon briefly, if at all, in soft-skills classes that teach writing and communication. That may soon change, thanks to a push by the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA), the largest industry group for public relations professionals, which is trying to get business schools to take a more serious approach to teaching MBA students the art of corporate communication and reputation management.”
The article also features a Q-and-A interview with Paul Argenti, professor of corporate communications at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business. Argenti is working with PRSA to develop a pilot program of public relations courses that can be used by MBA programs.
Read more about the initiative and research in Bloomberg Businessweek.