Università degli Studi di Roma "Tor Vergata"

LEARNING OUTCOMES:
The course provides students with the basic notions in the field of organizational communication and presentation skills, delivering an overview of the management and organizational tools that can be designed to handle the internal and external communication activities of modern organizations. More specifically, attention will be paid to the tacit and explicit competencies that underpin the ability of human resources to establish sound exchanges at the one-to-one, one-to-many, many-to-one, and many-to-many levels. Starting from an organizational contextualization of what is meant by communication, the teaching will delve into the conceptual and practical challenges of organizational exchanges of data and information, enhancing the students’ ability to participate in meaningful communication activities within any types of organizations, including public sector entities, private firms, and non-profit institutions.

KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING:
The students will acknowledge the issues characterizing the multifaceted communication exchanges that are enacted within organizations. During the teaching activities, the challenges related to effective communication at the individual and collective levels will be deepened, with a focus on the topics of strategic and managerial alignment between internal and external communication, the role of organizational culture in affecting interpersonal exchanges within organizations, and the consistency between organizational communication and organizational action. Moreover, the students will improve their awareness of the specific skills and expertise that are needed to timely and properly manage the multiple tools and approaches available to enact communication within and across the internal and external organizational boundaries.

APPLYING KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING:
People who will attend at the teaching activities will be involved in active learning sessions that will be aimed at applying to practice the theoretical constructs and the conceptual tools discussed during frontal lessons. Active learning activities will include, inter alia, case study analysis and discussion, role playing sessions, and simulations. The contextualization of conceptual knowledge developed by students will concern a variety of organizational context, allowing students to acknowledge and understand the multifacetedness of challenges characterizing the appropriate management of communication at the organizational level.

MAKING JUDGEMENTS:
At the end of teaching activities, students will develop autonomy of judgement about the strategic, structural, and managerial factors that affect the alignment between internal and external communication. Moreover, the discussion of the conceptual issues presented during class activities will empower students to critically assess and improve their presentation skills, adapting them to the evolving challenges faced by organizations in turbulent environmental conditions.

COMMUNICATION SKILLS:
As a result of the attendance at the teaching activities, students will be able to identify and handle the hard and soft tools available to manage the communication needs of organizations. Since role playing activities and in basket sessions will be embedded in classwork activities, the students will benefit from the opportunity of directly experiencing the ambiguities and hurdles affecting the management of communication processes within organizations. Besides, they will be able to increase their presentation skills, achieving a mastery in handling the tools and approaches of organizational communication.

LEARNING SKILLS:
Students will recognize that organizational communication is a critical tool of representation of the individual and collective identity of organizational members. The conceptualization of organizational communication as a symbolic artefact and as a cultural tool will sustain the students’ awareness of the role played by organizational communication in paving the way for managerial effectiveness and business excellence.