Manajemen | Fakultas Ekonomi Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji joeb.83.2.101-109
Journal of Education for Business
ISSN: 0883-2323 (Print) 1940-3356 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/vjeb20
Measuring Assurance of Learning at the Degree
Program and Academic Major Levels
Leisa Lynn Marshall
To cite this article: Leisa Lynn Marshall (2007) Measuring Assurance of Learning at the Degree
Program and Academic Major Levels, Journal of Education for Business, 83:2, 101-109, DOI:
10.3200/JOEB.83.2.101-109
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.3200/JOEB.83.2.101-109
Published online: 07 Aug 2010.
Submit your article to this journal
Article views: 61
View related articles
Citing articles: 14 View citing articles
Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at
http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=vjeb20
Download by: [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji]
Date: 11 January 2016, At: 23:03
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MeasuringAssuranceofLearning
attheDegreeProgramand
AcademicMajorLevels
LEISALYNNMARSHALL
VALDOSTASTATEUNIVERSITY
VALDOSTA,GEORGIA
ABSTRACT.Inthisarticle,theauthor
examinesthevalidityofperformingassuranceoflearning(AOL)activitiesatthe
degreeprogramlevel(e.g.,bachelor’s
level)andthemajorlevel(e.g.,accounting,
finance).Sheexamines3learninggoals:
management-specificknowledge,problem
solving,andcommunication.Theresults
stronglysuggestthattheAOLactivities
forthemanagement-specificknowledgelearninggoaloccuratthemajorlevel.
However,program-levelAOLactivitiesare
appropriateforthecommunication-learning
goal.Theevidence,althoughinconclusive,
indicatestheneedforAOLactivitiesrelated
totheproblem-solvinglearninggoalatthe
majorlevel.
Keywords:assessment,assuranceoflearning,
business,learningobjectives
Copyright©2007HeldrefPublications
T
he Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business—
International’s (AACSB’s) Eligibility
ProceduresandStandardsforBusiness
Accreditation (Standards) state that
assurance of learning (AOL) activities
should occur on a program-wide level.
AACSB defines program as a degree
program(e.g.,undergraduate,master’s)
as opposed to majors within a degree
(AACSB,2003).
The AOL Standards require that
accredited schools assure learning in
general and management-specific
knowledge and skills. More specifically, each degree program must documentacurriculum-managementprocess
that includes a set of knowledge and
skills-learning goals, measurement and
analysis of students’ performance, recommendations, and implementation of
the recommendations that assure the
accomplishment of the learning goals.
The Standards further state that if students fail to meet the learning goals,
revisionstoaddressthedeficiencymust
exist (AACSB, 2003). These revisions
maytaketheformof“changesincurricula,pedagogy,andteachingandlearningmaterials”(AACSB,p.67).
TheStandardsdonotrequirespecific
courses, knowledge, or skills in undergraduate business programs but do provide lists of general and management-
specificskillsandknowledgethatwould
normally appear in management degree
programs. A list of “topics typically
found”(AACSB,2003,p.71)inundergraduate business programs contains
basicbusinessknowledgefoundinmost
businessdegreeprograms’corebusiness
courses.Theskillslistedamongthegeneral knowledge and skills include but
are not limited to communication and
analyticalthinking.
AlthoughtheAOLprocessappliesto
separatedegreeprogramsasopposedto
“separatemajorsorconcentrationswithinadegree”(AACSB,2003,p.59),the
literature indicates differences between
majors within a business program and
their learning preferences, skills, and
aptitudes.Recommendedchangeinpedagogyorteachingandlearningmaterials
toaddressdeficienciesdiscoveredduring
thecurriculummanagementprocess(i.e.,
AOL activities) may be appropriate for
onemajorbutnotallmajors.Forexample,therecommendationofanadditional
math course may not be necessary for
economicsmajors.
Measurementandanalysisatthedegree
level without consideration for majors
presenttwopotentialdilemmas.First,the
majorswithmorestudentswillweighthe
results toward their abilities and knowledge levels.As such, the combined data
might conceal strengths or weaknesses
of the students within particular majors.
Data skewed toward a particular major
createstheseconddilemma:recommended degree program changes. Because of
November/December2007
101
Downloaded by [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji] at 23:03 11 January 2016
differencesinlearningpreferences,skills,
and aptitudes, changes aimed at addressing the weakness may not be effective
acrossallmajors.
Evidence exists in the literature of
differencesbetweenmajorswithrespect
tobusinesscoreknowledgeandvarious
skills listed in the Standards among
seniors in a business capstone course.
More specifically, the majors within a
business program differ with respect
tostudents’quantitativeanalysis,teamwork, and analytical thinking skills.
However, there is no discussion in the
literatureregardingtherelationsbetween
communications skills of seniors in
business capstone courses and majors.
However,researchershavenotedalink
between communication performance
andapprehensionswithwrittenandoral
communication.
The main purpose in this study was
to assess the validity of the AACSB
requirementtoassurelearningofskills
and knowledge at the degree program
levelasopposedtomajorswithinbusiness degree programs. More specifically,thisstudyextendstheliteratureon
the separate evaluation of knowledge,
problem solving, and communications
fromdifferentstudentbodiesandevaluatesallthreeofthesecharacteristicsfor
onestudentbodyatoneinstitution.
Asecondpurposeofthisstudywasto
addtotheliteraturerelatedtocommunication performance. This study contributes
empiricalevidencetothecommunication
skillsandknowledgeliteratureassociated
with separate majors within colleges and
schoolsofbusiness.Theevaluationofseparatemajors’knowledge,problemsolving,
andcommunicationskillsincludesgender
andtransfer-statuseffects.
Management-SpecificKnowledge
Using the Educational Testing
Service’s (ETS) Major Field Test in
Business (MFT-B), several researchers
have provided results indicating differences in management-specific knowledge among business majors. Allen
and Bycio (1997) revealed differences
between majors and scores earned on
the MFT-B: accounting and finance
majors scored significantly higher than
didmanagementandmarketingmajors,
andmanagementmajorsscoredsignifi102
JournalofEducationforBusiness
cantlyhigherthandidmarketingmajors.
AllenandBycioalsofoundthatvarious
measuresofgradepointaverage(GPA),
includingoverallGPA,predictedMFT-B
scoresandstudents’businessGPA.
Black and Duhon (2003) measured
students’ majors in two categories—
managementandotherbusinessmajors—
and found significant correlations
between major and students’ scores on
the MFT-B. Subsequent multivariate
regression results revealed that of the
twomajors,managementmajorsscored
significantly lower on the MFT-B than
didotherbusinessmajors.Althoughthey
didnotpresentitassuch,Langstonand
Hamilton (2005) also found potential
differencesontheMFT-Bscoresamong
themajorswithinacollegeofbusiness.
I calculated expected values for the
Langston and Hamilton (2005) sample
on the basis of the information reported on 95 students. The average scores
ranged from low scores of 33.19 and
39.30 for general business and management majors, respectively, to high
scores of 48.64 and 55.0 for finance
and accounting majors, respectively. In contrast, Bagamery, Lasik, and
Nison(2005)dividedtheirsampleinto
accounting majors and other and did
notfindsignificantdifferencesbetween
majorsonscoresearnedontheMFT-B.
BlackandDuhon(2003)revealedthat
MFT-B scores of male students were
significantly higher than were those of
femalestudents.Bagameryetal.’s(2005)
originalanalysisconcurredwiththegender effect found by Black and Duhon,
butsubsequentanalysisproducedasignificant interaction between gender and
business core GPA, thus precluding a
conclusion regarding the gender effect
alone. Mirchandani, Lynch, and Hamilton (2001) presented evidence of the
significanteffectsofgenderandtransfer
statusonMFT-Bscoresbutdidnotreport
possible interaction effects. Allen and
Bycio(1997)andBagameryetal.found
noassociationbetweengenderandMFTBscores.Bagameryetal.alsofoundno
transfereffectonMFT-Bscores.
ProblemSolvingandQuantitative
AnalysisSkills
Murphy, Doucette, Kelleher, and
Young (1997) found that information
processing by business students may
differ between the majors and genders. They found that female accounting majors are more field independent (greater interest in analytical and
abstract) than are female management
majors,andfemalemanagementmajors
are more field dependent (view situations holistically) than are male management majors. Pritchard, Potter, and
Saccucci(2004)foundstatisticallybetterquantitativeskillsamongaccounting
andfinancemajorsthanamongmarketingandmanagementmajors.
Communication
Communication apprehension (CA)
istheleveloffearexperiencedbyindividuals in situations involving writing
or speaking. More specifically, writing
apprehension (WA) refers to anxiety
associatedwithwriting(Daly&Miller,
1975a), whereas oral communication
apprehension (OCA) refers to anxiety
associated with speaking (McCroskey
1978). Communication and general
education researchers have provided
evidencethatOCAandWAaffectoral
(Bourhis & Allen, 1992) and written
(Daly 1977, 1978; Faigley, Daly, &
Witte, 1981) communication performance,respectively.However,communication performance is a function of
communication skills and CA (Berger
& McCroskey, 1982). Individuals with
poor communication skills and higher
CAwillperformpoorly.Also,individualswithlowerCAandpoorcommunicationskillswillperformpoorly.However, individuals with higher CA and
goodcommunicationskillsmayormay
not perform well, depending on their
abilities to overcome their apprehensionsatthepointofcommunicating.
Faris,Golen,andLynch(1999)found
thatamongsophomorebusinessmajors,
accounting majors show significantly
higher WA levels than do nonaccountingbusinessmajors,whereasmarketing
majorsshowsignificantlylessWAthan
dootherbusinessmajors.Simons,Higgins,andLowe(1995)alsoprovidedevidenceofhigherWAamongsophomore
accounting majors over other business
majors, with the exception of finance
majors.Sophomoreaccountingmajors’
OCA is significantly higher than that
Downloaded by [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji] at 23:03 11 January 2016
of finance and marketing majors, but
notmanagementmajors(Simonsetal.;
Stanga&Ladd,1990).
Farisetal.(1999)foundsimilarscores
between male and female business
majorWAscores.However,thegeneral
population of college students reveals
higher WA for male students than for
femalestudents(Daly&Miller,1975b).
ContradictorytothefindingsofStanga
andLadd(1990)andFordhamandGabbin(1996),whofoundnogendereffect
among business majors’ OCA, Simons
et al. (1995) and Elias (1999) found
that female accounting majors experience significantly higher OCA than do
all students in other majors and male
accountingmajors,respectively.
PedagogicalTechniques
Noël, Michaels, and Levas (2001)
provided evidence of the difference in
accounting and marketing majors’ personalitytraitsandself-monitoringbehaviors,andtheirresultsprovidedevidence
to the typical stereotypes of accounting
andmarketingprofessionals.Accountants
tendtowardthedesiretoworkalonewith
concretethinkingandpreferpredictable
and known situations, whereas marketers seek and thrive on human interactions. Noël et al. suggested that these
characteristics “indicate [accountants’]
difficultywithgroupprojectsandteamwork” (p. 156). Murphy et al. (1997)
providedevidenceofthisstereotypingby
reporting that female marketing majors
prefer interpersonal communication and
female accounting majors lean toward
autonomy.
Among a list of pedagogical techniquesorganizedbystrategy,accounting
and finance majors ranked instructor-
centered and individual-learning pedagogical techniques higher than interactiveandexperiential-learningstrategies
(Urlich,2005).Ulrichfoundthatingeneral,marketingandmanagementmajors
prefer experiential-learning strategies
more than do accounting and finance
majors.Financeandaccountingmajors
preferproblemexams.
Differences in preferences extend
beyond the students to the faculty.
Michlitsch and Sidle (2002) provided
evidence that faculty measurements of
students’ attainment of course objec
tives differ between faculty disciplines
withincollegesofbusiness.
METHOD
ResearchQuestions
Thesampleconsistedof339students
enrolled in an upper division business
capstone course at a medium-sized,
regional, southeastern U.S. university.
Thecapstonecourseisrequiredofallstudents seeking a degree in business. Studentsenrollinthecapstonecoursewhen
they are within 30 hrs of completing
their coursework. This course—taught
by management faculty—serves as a
culmination of the core business degree
courses:accounting,economics,finance,
management,marketing,andstatistics.
The 339 seniors (M age = 25 years,
range = 21–56 years) averaged a 2.95
GPA and 114 cumulative semester
hours. The gender breakdown among
students was approximately 52% male
and 48% female. Eighteen percent of
these seniors were accounting majors
and 4.1, 13.0, 35.4, and 29.5% were
economics, finance, management, and
marketingmajors,respectively.Approximately55%ofthestudentsweretransfer students. Approximately 32% of
the transfer students had SAT scores,
resulting in a much smaller sample of
studentswithSATscores.The190students with SAT scores had an average
SATscoreof1028.
IusedoverallGPAasthefirstmeasure
to test the relations between major and
knowledge on the basis of Allen and
Bycio’s(1997)findingsthatoverallGPA
predicts success on the MFT-B equally
aswellasbusinessGPA.Iusedstudents’
course grade in the business capstone
course as the second measure. Scores
earned on the math portion of the SAT
servedasameasureofproblemsolving.
IusedtheWA(Daly&Miller,1975a)
and OCA (McCroskey, 1978) instrumentstodeterminetheaveragecommunicationapprehensionlevelsofstudents
in each major. Grades earned in the
first and second English composition
courses(i.e.,CompIandCompII)and
grades earned in the English businesswriting course served as measures of
communicationskills.Scoresearnedon
theverbalportionoftheSATservedas
an additional measure of communicationskills.
Data was retrieved from student
records for each semester in which the
Ifstudentsinallmajorshavesimilar
learning and teaching strategy preferences and perform equally well, then
recommendationsatthedegreeprogram
level would be appropriate. However,
if students in different majors perform
differentlyandviewteachingandlearning strategies differently, then suggested revisions—and possibly measurements—arerequiredatthemajorlevel.
TheStandards’(AACSB,2003)requirement to assure learning at the degree
program level despite the differences
foundintheliteraturerelatedtomajors
withinbusinessprogramsresultsinthe
overriding research question: Should
AOLactivitiesoccuratthedegreeprogram level or the major level? Three
specificresearchquestionsemergefrom
theAACSB’sAOLrequirementandthe
literature.
ResearchQuestion1(RQ1):Shouldmanagement-specificknowledgeAOLactivities occur at the degree or the major
level?
RQ2:Shouldproblem-solvingAOLactivities occur at the degree or the major
level?
Thegeneraleducationliteraturelinks
WA and OCA to communications performance. However, there is no evidence of a relations between CA and
communication performance for business students. The literature does indicate greater WA and OCA levels for
accounting majors over their nonaccounting business majors’ colleagues.
The literature does not reveal whether
thesedifferencesrelatetoperformance.
This evidence from the literature and
the AACSB requirement lead to the
finalresearchquestion.
RQ3:DothehigherWAandOCAlevels
revealed in the literature for accounting majors predicate the implementation
of communication AOL activities at the
majorlevel?
Gender and transfer status appear in
the literature for management-specific
knowledge,problemsolving,andcommunication skills. As such, these variablesappearwithintheanalysisforeach
researchquestion.
SampleandDataCollection
November/December2007
103
TABLE1.DescriptiveStatisticsofIndependentVariables,byMajor
Gradepointaverage
Major
Downloaded by [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji] at 23:03 11 January 2016
Accounting
Economics
Finance
Management
Marketing
Total/average
n
%
M
SD
n
%
M
61
14
44
120
100
339
18.0
4.1
13.0
35.4
29.5
100.0
3.10
2.92
2.99
2.96
2.84
2.95
.47
.41
.50
.45
.47
.47
61
14
44
120
100
399
18.0
4.1
13.0
35.4
29.5
100.0
3.28
3.14
3.27
3.06
2.99
3.11
WAinstrumentwasadministered.These
semestersincludedthefallof2003,fall
of 2004, and spring of 2005. Specific
data retrieved from the student records
includedGPA,gradesearnedinthecapstonecourse,scoresearnedonthemath
and verbal portions of the SAT, grades
earnedineachEnglishcourse(CompI,
Comp II, and business writing), birthdates,cumulativehours,major,gender,
andtransferstatus.
The WA instrument administration
took place during the last week of
each semester in each of the 11 capstone courses offered during the study
periods. The respective course faculty
memberadministeredandcollectedthe
questionnaires during class. Students
were asked to provide their name and
weretoldthattheirgradewouldnotbe
affected by their responses. Students
werealsoinformedthattheirresponses
wouldremainanonymousandconfidential.Insum,205usableWAinstruments
were obtained. The OCA instrument
was administered only during the fall
2003 semester, resulting in 69 usable
OCAinstruments.
StatisticalMethods
I first analyzed the relations of all
of the variables with Spearman’s rho
nonparametric correlation. I used oneway and univariate analyses of variance (ANOVAs) to test the relations
of knowledge, problem solving, and
communications to major, gender, and
transferstatus.Variablesproducingsignificant results in the Levene test of
homogeneityofvarianceswereexposed
to data transformation procedures until
the variances were equal. This process
includedtakingthesquareroot,thenthe
104
Capstonecoursegrade
JournalofEducationforBusiness
SD
SAT-math
%
n
.73
28 14.7
.53
10
5.3
.69
27 14.2
.71
57 30.0
.76
68 35.8
.72 190 100.0
log, and then the sine of the variable.
I used mean separation procedures to
identify specific differences in significantindependentvariables.
SAT-verbal
M
SD
533
528
542
508
499
515
%
n
90 28
62 10
89 27
67 57
73 68
77 190
M
14.7
5.3
14.2
30.0
35.8
100.0
513 113
540 60
517 65
505 62
496 62
506 72
relations revealed significant relations
between major and the two knowledge
variables (GPA and capstone course
grade).TheindividualANOVAsrevealed
significant differences in the GPA
knowledge variable by major, gender,
and transfer status (see Table 3). These
significantrelationsdidnotemergewhen
thecapstonecoursegradewasusedasthe
measureofknowledge.However,aslight
significant relation occurred between
course grade and major. The univariate
general linear model (GLM) revealed
significant differences in GPA between
the majors and genders, independently
(seeTable4).Worthyofnoteisthelack
of interaction effects. The mean separation procedure revealed significantly
higherGPAsforaccountingmajorsthan
for management and marketing majors.
Accountingmajors’GPAswerenotsignificantlyhigherthanweretheGPAsof
economicsandfinancemajors.
RESULTS
Knowledge
A review of the average GPAs and
capstonecoursegradesrevealedthat,in
general, accounting and finance majors
produced higher scores than managementandmarketingmajors(seeTable1).
Marketingmajorsappearedonthelower
end of both knowledge measures. Male
students outperformed female students
inthecapstonecourse;however,female
studentshadhigherGPAsthandidmale
students.Transferstudentsoutperformed
other students when measured by GPA;
however, transfer students earned lower
average scores in the capstone course
thandidotherstudents.
The correlations highlighted the
expectedpositiveandsignificantrelations
between the knowledge and problem-
solvingvariables(seeTable2).Thecor-
ProblemSolving
Paralleltothefindingsfortheknowledge variables, accounting and finance
TABLE2.Spearman’sRhoCorrelationsforKnowledgeandProblem-Solving
Variables
Variable
Grade
point
average
Capstone
course
grade
Coursegrade
SAT-math
Major
Gender
Transfer
Age
.47***
.47***
−.18***
.17***
−.11**
−.13**
—
.30***
−.15***
−.07
.07
−.08
*
p
ISSN: 0883-2323 (Print) 1940-3356 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/vjeb20
Measuring Assurance of Learning at the Degree
Program and Academic Major Levels
Leisa Lynn Marshall
To cite this article: Leisa Lynn Marshall (2007) Measuring Assurance of Learning at the Degree
Program and Academic Major Levels, Journal of Education for Business, 83:2, 101-109, DOI:
10.3200/JOEB.83.2.101-109
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.3200/JOEB.83.2.101-109
Published online: 07 Aug 2010.
Submit your article to this journal
Article views: 61
View related articles
Citing articles: 14 View citing articles
Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at
http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=vjeb20
Download by: [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji]
Date: 11 January 2016, At: 23:03
Downloaded by [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji] at 23:03 11 January 2016
MeasuringAssuranceofLearning
attheDegreeProgramand
AcademicMajorLevels
LEISALYNNMARSHALL
VALDOSTASTATEUNIVERSITY
VALDOSTA,GEORGIA
ABSTRACT.Inthisarticle,theauthor
examinesthevalidityofperformingassuranceoflearning(AOL)activitiesatthe
degreeprogramlevel(e.g.,bachelor’s
level)andthemajorlevel(e.g.,accounting,
finance).Sheexamines3learninggoals:
management-specificknowledge,problem
solving,andcommunication.Theresults
stronglysuggestthattheAOLactivities
forthemanagement-specificknowledgelearninggoaloccuratthemajorlevel.
However,program-levelAOLactivitiesare
appropriateforthecommunication-learning
goal.Theevidence,althoughinconclusive,
indicatestheneedforAOLactivitiesrelated
totheproblem-solvinglearninggoalatthe
majorlevel.
Keywords:assessment,assuranceoflearning,
business,learningobjectives
Copyright©2007HeldrefPublications
T
he Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business—
International’s (AACSB’s) Eligibility
ProceduresandStandardsforBusiness
Accreditation (Standards) state that
assurance of learning (AOL) activities
should occur on a program-wide level.
AACSB defines program as a degree
program(e.g.,undergraduate,master’s)
as opposed to majors within a degree
(AACSB,2003).
The AOL Standards require that
accredited schools assure learning in
general and management-specific
knowledge and skills. More specifically, each degree program must documentacurriculum-managementprocess
that includes a set of knowledge and
skills-learning goals, measurement and
analysis of students’ performance, recommendations, and implementation of
the recommendations that assure the
accomplishment of the learning goals.
The Standards further state that if students fail to meet the learning goals,
revisionstoaddressthedeficiencymust
exist (AACSB, 2003). These revisions
maytaketheformof“changesincurricula,pedagogy,andteachingandlearningmaterials”(AACSB,p.67).
TheStandardsdonotrequirespecific
courses, knowledge, or skills in undergraduate business programs but do provide lists of general and management-
specificskillsandknowledgethatwould
normally appear in management degree
programs. A list of “topics typically
found”(AACSB,2003,p.71)inundergraduate business programs contains
basicbusinessknowledgefoundinmost
businessdegreeprograms’corebusiness
courses.Theskillslistedamongthegeneral knowledge and skills include but
are not limited to communication and
analyticalthinking.
AlthoughtheAOLprocessappliesto
separatedegreeprogramsasopposedto
“separatemajorsorconcentrationswithinadegree”(AACSB,2003,p.59),the
literature indicates differences between
majors within a business program and
their learning preferences, skills, and
aptitudes.Recommendedchangeinpedagogyorteachingandlearningmaterials
toaddressdeficienciesdiscoveredduring
thecurriculummanagementprocess(i.e.,
AOL activities) may be appropriate for
onemajorbutnotallmajors.Forexample,therecommendationofanadditional
math course may not be necessary for
economicsmajors.
Measurementandanalysisatthedegree
level without consideration for majors
presenttwopotentialdilemmas.First,the
majorswithmorestudentswillweighthe
results toward their abilities and knowledge levels.As such, the combined data
might conceal strengths or weaknesses
of the students within particular majors.
Data skewed toward a particular major
createstheseconddilemma:recommended degree program changes. Because of
November/December2007
101
Downloaded by [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji] at 23:03 11 January 2016
differencesinlearningpreferences,skills,
and aptitudes, changes aimed at addressing the weakness may not be effective
acrossallmajors.
Evidence exists in the literature of
differencesbetweenmajorswithrespect
tobusinesscoreknowledgeandvarious
skills listed in the Standards among
seniors in a business capstone course.
More specifically, the majors within a
business program differ with respect
tostudents’quantitativeanalysis,teamwork, and analytical thinking skills.
However, there is no discussion in the
literatureregardingtherelationsbetween
communications skills of seniors in
business capstone courses and majors.
However,researchershavenotedalink
between communication performance
andapprehensionswithwrittenandoral
communication.
The main purpose in this study was
to assess the validity of the AACSB
requirementtoassurelearningofskills
and knowledge at the degree program
levelasopposedtomajorswithinbusiness degree programs. More specifically,thisstudyextendstheliteratureon
the separate evaluation of knowledge,
problem solving, and communications
fromdifferentstudentbodiesandevaluatesallthreeofthesecharacteristicsfor
onestudentbodyatoneinstitution.
Asecondpurposeofthisstudywasto
addtotheliteraturerelatedtocommunication performance. This study contributes
empiricalevidencetothecommunication
skillsandknowledgeliteratureassociated
with separate majors within colleges and
schoolsofbusiness.Theevaluationofseparatemajors’knowledge,problemsolving,
andcommunicationskillsincludesgender
andtransfer-statuseffects.
Management-SpecificKnowledge
Using the Educational Testing
Service’s (ETS) Major Field Test in
Business (MFT-B), several researchers
have provided results indicating differences in management-specific knowledge among business majors. Allen
and Bycio (1997) revealed differences
between majors and scores earned on
the MFT-B: accounting and finance
majors scored significantly higher than
didmanagementandmarketingmajors,
andmanagementmajorsscoredsignifi102
JournalofEducationforBusiness
cantlyhigherthandidmarketingmajors.
AllenandBycioalsofoundthatvarious
measuresofgradepointaverage(GPA),
includingoverallGPA,predictedMFT-B
scoresandstudents’businessGPA.
Black and Duhon (2003) measured
students’ majors in two categories—
managementandotherbusinessmajors—
and found significant correlations
between major and students’ scores on
the MFT-B. Subsequent multivariate
regression results revealed that of the
twomajors,managementmajorsscored
significantly lower on the MFT-B than
didotherbusinessmajors.Althoughthey
didnotpresentitassuch,Langstonand
Hamilton (2005) also found potential
differencesontheMFT-Bscoresamong
themajorswithinacollegeofbusiness.
I calculated expected values for the
Langston and Hamilton (2005) sample
on the basis of the information reported on 95 students. The average scores
ranged from low scores of 33.19 and
39.30 for general business and management majors, respectively, to high
scores of 48.64 and 55.0 for finance
and accounting majors, respectively. In contrast, Bagamery, Lasik, and
Nison(2005)dividedtheirsampleinto
accounting majors and other and did
notfindsignificantdifferencesbetween
majorsonscoresearnedontheMFT-B.
BlackandDuhon(2003)revealedthat
MFT-B scores of male students were
significantly higher than were those of
femalestudents.Bagameryetal.’s(2005)
originalanalysisconcurredwiththegender effect found by Black and Duhon,
butsubsequentanalysisproducedasignificant interaction between gender and
business core GPA, thus precluding a
conclusion regarding the gender effect
alone. Mirchandani, Lynch, and Hamilton (2001) presented evidence of the
significanteffectsofgenderandtransfer
statusonMFT-Bscoresbutdidnotreport
possible interaction effects. Allen and
Bycio(1997)andBagameryetal.found
noassociationbetweengenderandMFTBscores.Bagameryetal.alsofoundno
transfereffectonMFT-Bscores.
ProblemSolvingandQuantitative
AnalysisSkills
Murphy, Doucette, Kelleher, and
Young (1997) found that information
processing by business students may
differ between the majors and genders. They found that female accounting majors are more field independent (greater interest in analytical and
abstract) than are female management
majors,andfemalemanagementmajors
are more field dependent (view situations holistically) than are male management majors. Pritchard, Potter, and
Saccucci(2004)foundstatisticallybetterquantitativeskillsamongaccounting
andfinancemajorsthanamongmarketingandmanagementmajors.
Communication
Communication apprehension (CA)
istheleveloffearexperiencedbyindividuals in situations involving writing
or speaking. More specifically, writing
apprehension (WA) refers to anxiety
associatedwithwriting(Daly&Miller,
1975a), whereas oral communication
apprehension (OCA) refers to anxiety
associated with speaking (McCroskey
1978). Communication and general
education researchers have provided
evidencethatOCAandWAaffectoral
(Bourhis & Allen, 1992) and written
(Daly 1977, 1978; Faigley, Daly, &
Witte, 1981) communication performance,respectively.However,communication performance is a function of
communication skills and CA (Berger
& McCroskey, 1982). Individuals with
poor communication skills and higher
CAwillperformpoorly.Also,individualswithlowerCAandpoorcommunicationskillswillperformpoorly.However, individuals with higher CA and
goodcommunicationskillsmayormay
not perform well, depending on their
abilities to overcome their apprehensionsatthepointofcommunicating.
Faris,Golen,andLynch(1999)found
thatamongsophomorebusinessmajors,
accounting majors show significantly
higher WA levels than do nonaccountingbusinessmajors,whereasmarketing
majorsshowsignificantlylessWAthan
dootherbusinessmajors.Simons,Higgins,andLowe(1995)alsoprovidedevidenceofhigherWAamongsophomore
accounting majors over other business
majors, with the exception of finance
majors.Sophomoreaccountingmajors’
OCA is significantly higher than that
Downloaded by [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji] at 23:03 11 January 2016
of finance and marketing majors, but
notmanagementmajors(Simonsetal.;
Stanga&Ladd,1990).
Farisetal.(1999)foundsimilarscores
between male and female business
majorWAscores.However,thegeneral
population of college students reveals
higher WA for male students than for
femalestudents(Daly&Miller,1975b).
ContradictorytothefindingsofStanga
andLadd(1990)andFordhamandGabbin(1996),whofoundnogendereffect
among business majors’ OCA, Simons
et al. (1995) and Elias (1999) found
that female accounting majors experience significantly higher OCA than do
all students in other majors and male
accountingmajors,respectively.
PedagogicalTechniques
Noël, Michaels, and Levas (2001)
provided evidence of the difference in
accounting and marketing majors’ personalitytraitsandself-monitoringbehaviors,andtheirresultsprovidedevidence
to the typical stereotypes of accounting
andmarketingprofessionals.Accountants
tendtowardthedesiretoworkalonewith
concretethinkingandpreferpredictable
and known situations, whereas marketers seek and thrive on human interactions. Noël et al. suggested that these
characteristics “indicate [accountants’]
difficultywithgroupprojectsandteamwork” (p. 156). Murphy et al. (1997)
providedevidenceofthisstereotypingby
reporting that female marketing majors
prefer interpersonal communication and
female accounting majors lean toward
autonomy.
Among a list of pedagogical techniquesorganizedbystrategy,accounting
and finance majors ranked instructor-
centered and individual-learning pedagogical techniques higher than interactiveandexperiential-learningstrategies
(Urlich,2005).Ulrichfoundthatingeneral,marketingandmanagementmajors
prefer experiential-learning strategies
more than do accounting and finance
majors.Financeandaccountingmajors
preferproblemexams.
Differences in preferences extend
beyond the students to the faculty.
Michlitsch and Sidle (2002) provided
evidence that faculty measurements of
students’ attainment of course objec
tives differ between faculty disciplines
withincollegesofbusiness.
METHOD
ResearchQuestions
Thesampleconsistedof339students
enrolled in an upper division business
capstone course at a medium-sized,
regional, southeastern U.S. university.
Thecapstonecourseisrequiredofallstudents seeking a degree in business. Studentsenrollinthecapstonecoursewhen
they are within 30 hrs of completing
their coursework. This course—taught
by management faculty—serves as a
culmination of the core business degree
courses:accounting,economics,finance,
management,marketing,andstatistics.
The 339 seniors (M age = 25 years,
range = 21–56 years) averaged a 2.95
GPA and 114 cumulative semester
hours. The gender breakdown among
students was approximately 52% male
and 48% female. Eighteen percent of
these seniors were accounting majors
and 4.1, 13.0, 35.4, and 29.5% were
economics, finance, management, and
marketingmajors,respectively.Approximately55%ofthestudentsweretransfer students. Approximately 32% of
the transfer students had SAT scores,
resulting in a much smaller sample of
studentswithSATscores.The190students with SAT scores had an average
SATscoreof1028.
IusedoverallGPAasthefirstmeasure
to test the relations between major and
knowledge on the basis of Allen and
Bycio’s(1997)findingsthatoverallGPA
predicts success on the MFT-B equally
aswellasbusinessGPA.Iusedstudents’
course grade in the business capstone
course as the second measure. Scores
earned on the math portion of the SAT
servedasameasureofproblemsolving.
IusedtheWA(Daly&Miller,1975a)
and OCA (McCroskey, 1978) instrumentstodeterminetheaveragecommunicationapprehensionlevelsofstudents
in each major. Grades earned in the
first and second English composition
courses(i.e.,CompIandCompII)and
grades earned in the English businesswriting course served as measures of
communicationskills.Scoresearnedon
theverbalportionoftheSATservedas
an additional measure of communicationskills.
Data was retrieved from student
records for each semester in which the
Ifstudentsinallmajorshavesimilar
learning and teaching strategy preferences and perform equally well, then
recommendationsatthedegreeprogram
level would be appropriate. However,
if students in different majors perform
differentlyandviewteachingandlearning strategies differently, then suggested revisions—and possibly measurements—arerequiredatthemajorlevel.
TheStandards’(AACSB,2003)requirement to assure learning at the degree
program level despite the differences
foundintheliteraturerelatedtomajors
withinbusinessprogramsresultsinthe
overriding research question: Should
AOLactivitiesoccuratthedegreeprogram level or the major level? Three
specificresearchquestionsemergefrom
theAACSB’sAOLrequirementandthe
literature.
ResearchQuestion1(RQ1):Shouldmanagement-specificknowledgeAOLactivities occur at the degree or the major
level?
RQ2:Shouldproblem-solvingAOLactivities occur at the degree or the major
level?
Thegeneraleducationliteraturelinks
WA and OCA to communications performance. However, there is no evidence of a relations between CA and
communication performance for business students. The literature does indicate greater WA and OCA levels for
accounting majors over their nonaccounting business majors’ colleagues.
The literature does not reveal whether
thesedifferencesrelatetoperformance.
This evidence from the literature and
the AACSB requirement lead to the
finalresearchquestion.
RQ3:DothehigherWAandOCAlevels
revealed in the literature for accounting majors predicate the implementation
of communication AOL activities at the
majorlevel?
Gender and transfer status appear in
the literature for management-specific
knowledge,problemsolving,andcommunication skills. As such, these variablesappearwithintheanalysisforeach
researchquestion.
SampleandDataCollection
November/December2007
103
TABLE1.DescriptiveStatisticsofIndependentVariables,byMajor
Gradepointaverage
Major
Downloaded by [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji] at 23:03 11 January 2016
Accounting
Economics
Finance
Management
Marketing
Total/average
n
%
M
SD
n
%
M
61
14
44
120
100
339
18.0
4.1
13.0
35.4
29.5
100.0
3.10
2.92
2.99
2.96
2.84
2.95
.47
.41
.50
.45
.47
.47
61
14
44
120
100
399
18.0
4.1
13.0
35.4
29.5
100.0
3.28
3.14
3.27
3.06
2.99
3.11
WAinstrumentwasadministered.These
semestersincludedthefallof2003,fall
of 2004, and spring of 2005. Specific
data retrieved from the student records
includedGPA,gradesearnedinthecapstonecourse,scoresearnedonthemath
and verbal portions of the SAT, grades
earnedineachEnglishcourse(CompI,
Comp II, and business writing), birthdates,cumulativehours,major,gender,
andtransferstatus.
The WA instrument administration
took place during the last week of
each semester in each of the 11 capstone courses offered during the study
periods. The respective course faculty
memberadministeredandcollectedthe
questionnaires during class. Students
were asked to provide their name and
weretoldthattheirgradewouldnotbe
affected by their responses. Students
werealsoinformedthattheirresponses
wouldremainanonymousandconfidential.Insum,205usableWAinstruments
were obtained. The OCA instrument
was administered only during the fall
2003 semester, resulting in 69 usable
OCAinstruments.
StatisticalMethods
I first analyzed the relations of all
of the variables with Spearman’s rho
nonparametric correlation. I used oneway and univariate analyses of variance (ANOVAs) to test the relations
of knowledge, problem solving, and
communications to major, gender, and
transferstatus.Variablesproducingsignificant results in the Levene test of
homogeneityofvarianceswereexposed
to data transformation procedures until
the variances were equal. This process
includedtakingthesquareroot,thenthe
104
Capstonecoursegrade
JournalofEducationforBusiness
SD
SAT-math
%
n
.73
28 14.7
.53
10
5.3
.69
27 14.2
.71
57 30.0
.76
68 35.8
.72 190 100.0
log, and then the sine of the variable.
I used mean separation procedures to
identify specific differences in significantindependentvariables.
SAT-verbal
M
SD
533
528
542
508
499
515
%
n
90 28
62 10
89 27
67 57
73 68
77 190
M
14.7
5.3
14.2
30.0
35.8
100.0
513 113
540 60
517 65
505 62
496 62
506 72
relations revealed significant relations
between major and the two knowledge
variables (GPA and capstone course
grade).TheindividualANOVAsrevealed
significant differences in the GPA
knowledge variable by major, gender,
and transfer status (see Table 3). These
significantrelationsdidnotemergewhen
thecapstonecoursegradewasusedasthe
measureofknowledge.However,aslight
significant relation occurred between
course grade and major. The univariate
general linear model (GLM) revealed
significant differences in GPA between
the majors and genders, independently
(seeTable4).Worthyofnoteisthelack
of interaction effects. The mean separation procedure revealed significantly
higherGPAsforaccountingmajorsthan
for management and marketing majors.
Accountingmajors’GPAswerenotsignificantlyhigherthanweretheGPAsof
economicsandfinancemajors.
RESULTS
Knowledge
A review of the average GPAs and
capstonecoursegradesrevealedthat,in
general, accounting and finance majors
produced higher scores than managementandmarketingmajors(seeTable1).
Marketingmajorsappearedonthelower
end of both knowledge measures. Male
students outperformed female students
inthecapstonecourse;however,female
studentshadhigherGPAsthandidmale
students.Transferstudentsoutperformed
other students when measured by GPA;
however, transfer students earned lower
average scores in the capstone course
thandidotherstudents.
The correlations highlighted the
expectedpositiveandsignificantrelations
between the knowledge and problem-
solvingvariables(seeTable2).Thecor-
ProblemSolving
Paralleltothefindingsfortheknowledge variables, accounting and finance
TABLE2.Spearman’sRhoCorrelationsforKnowledgeandProblem-Solving
Variables
Variable
Grade
point
average
Capstone
course
grade
Coursegrade
SAT-math
Major
Gender
Transfer
Age
.47***
.47***
−.18***
.17***
−.11**
−.13**
—
.30***
−.15***
−.07
.07
−.08
*
p