Contact: Maridith Geuder
A classic communication textbook first published nearly four decades ago is getting a 21st century update with the help of a Mississippi State University management professor.
Carol M. Lehman of MSU and co-author Debbie DuFrene of Stephen F. Austin University have streamlined, modernized and added new materials to Himstreet and Baty's "Business Communication."
A classroom standard now in its 12th edition, the 600-page book is published by South-Western College Publishing. It is among the publisher's selections for a new web-based educational service called the World Class Learning Course.
While containing many of the elements that made it a classic, the latest edition is structured for the first time around a strategic model of communication, Lehman said. The model is introduced in the first chapter, integrated within the content of each succeeding chapter and highlighted throughout the text.
"We concentrate on the four environmental forces of diversity challenges, changing technology, legal/ethics constraints, and team environment," she said. "This new organization is logical, because it patterns the way communication actually occurs in the contemporary workplace."
Also new is expanded coverage of electronic technologies, including e-mail, Internet search engines, electronic meetings and videoconferencing, and multimedia presentations, among others. Real-time cases using the World Wide Web encourage students to think critically while they develop Internet skills, Lehman said.
Examples featuring such well-known companies as Southwest Airlines, Steak and Ale, MTV, and The Gap illustrate communication principles in action. Nine communication mentors from the companies offer personal examples throughout text.
Lehman, a Bay Springs native, has been helping update the textbook since 1990. A member of the MSU faculty since 1984, she is a graduate of Jones County Junior College and the universities of Southern Mississippi and Arkansas.