Projects and discussions focus on formulating policies, designing surveys, analyzing communication programs, and examining the impact of communication technologies on organizations. The curriculum allows students to do significant work in leadership and group decision making, bargaining and negotiation, public presentation, and audience analysis.
Students learn to analyze communication problems faced by organizations.
They also become informed consumers of research and gain skill in developing and implementing their own organizational research. The program develops practical skills required for responding to the complex communication needs of organizations. During the final quarter of the second year, students take comprehensive examinations in three areas of their choice. Each year on Northwestern's Evanston campus the Department of Communication Studies sponsors information sessions that enable prospective students to speak with current students and faculty in the managerial communication program. Program staff also make presentations to small groups in companies and public agencies and schedule appointments with company or agency representatives to answer questions about the program.