Description of the Subjects to Study for a Business Administration Career
Institution and organization use career development to help people acquire skills and experiences that are necessary for performing future roles. The different institution uses different subjects or units to prepare students with effective skills that are required for future jobs. Therefore, the paper seeks to describe subject to study and key skills required for Business Administration career.
Description of the Subjects to Study for a Business Administration Career
Business Administration requires a student to study various subjects. The subjects provide a sufficient knowledge to the student regarding the expectations in diverse work roles. The subjects that a student must peruse for business administration career and become competent administrators include communication skills, risk management, introduction to entrepreneurship, introduction to business, financial management, organizational behavior, introduction to micro-finance, human resource management, strategic management, introduction to computer concepts and basics of accounting.
Communication skills is a subject that gives an overview of how the student should develop an effective communication in the future job role. In most of the institutions, the communication skills subject is perused in all the students in their diverse courses. The subjects involve writing of curriculum vitae (CV), memos, emails, application letters, minutes and any other forms of writing that is essential for future career development. Furthermore, the subject also equips students with knowledge of understanding and interacting with people in the community from diverse cultures, ethnics and races which is a key concerned for any business administration (Kavanagh & Drennan, 2008). In addition, when the students are well trained in effective communication skills, it becomes easier for them to express themselves without fear. The subject also assists the student to develop a high degree of confidence when addressing a large group of people. For example, through presentations that are conducted in the classes every day, the students are likely to develop public speech confidence that is a key requirement for any business administrator.
Organizational behavior is another subject that is critical in understanding different behaviors that exist in an organization. The subjects prepare the student to understand how an individual interacts with each other in an organization. In business administration career, a student must learn the organizational behavior in order to be able to understand different perspectives such as personalities, values, workplace emotions, stress, attitudes and organizational culture (Bess & Dee, 2008). Through studying organizational culture as a subject, the students are also equipped with more skills such as team working skills and interpersonal skills. The skills are critical in further career development as they are considered as a success measure. In addition, through studying the subject thoroughly, a student is likely to overcome workforce conflicts. The business management career involves managing people and resources in the organization and therefore, studying organizational behavior helps the student to be team dynamics, creativity and effective decision-makers in their future workplaces.
Introduction to business and entrepreneurship are also a key subject for business administration careers. Both the subjects provide the student with an overview of how the business functions and planning skills are applicable in the business setting. Furthermore, the subjects intended to equip students with knowledge of having different ideas and skills in managing their own businesses. A research conducted by Chowdhury, Shamsudin & Ismail, (2012) shows that in the changing world majority of the student’s graduates with the mentality of being employed for a short period for them to raise capital that is required for starting their own business. Therefore, studying the introduction to business and entrepreneurship is essential for the students who fall under this category and want necessary skills for running their own businesses. In addition, the subject helps in the understanding of how to apply management skills and some basics of marketing and strategy which business administrators must have for them to excel in changing workplace environment. As the business administration career requires employees to be dedicated to organizations responsibilities, the subject assist the students with abilities to become exercise sustainability leadership and be able to integrate mainstream corporate objectives and understand and apply basic corporate financial issues.
Key Skills Needed For Business Management Career
Organizations have different risks that are involved in daily operations. Learning of risk management as a subject is an essential subject for business administration career. The subjects provide students with knowledge of work health and safety rules that are required in an organization or also in their own business. Furthermore, the learning of risks and hazards that are available in the organization assist the business administrator to strategize on how to make the workplace environment suitable for all employees. Knowledge of risks and workplace safety rule helps administrator to identify, analyze, assess and implement control measures of reducing risks. Furthermore, if the risk occurred the organization, the business administrators are the first to be questioned by top-level management.
Human resource management is also a subject that is key to business administration career as it assists the business administrators to utilize the available resources and all assets in the organization for the achievement of their daily targets. Employees are the most important assets in the organization (Kuvaas, 2008). Therefore, studying human resource provides a student with knowledge of interacting with different individuals and strategically planning the business assets.
Key Skills Needed For Business Management Career
Interpersonal Skills
Interpersonal skills are important in the business management environment since without them, conducting business would be very difficult since all work aspects involve communication. Communication is also the basis of collaboration, which greatly assists in the interaction between colleagues in the workplace. Therefore, since the workplace is diverse, effective interpersonal skills are important as they make collaboration happen. In addition, during job interviews, recruiters seek to find the candidate with the best interpersonal skills since they will be able to fit better in a business environment. In a business career, interpersonal skills are important as they equip students with knowledge of understanding people who they communicate and interact with on daily basis and are viewed as an advantage when compared to individuals whose skulls are not efficient. Interpersonal skills are important as they solve issues which are common in the workplace and assist in the promotion and understanding of customers to facilitate their satisfaction. Interpersonal skills assist in the provision of feedback from customers hence lead to a more focused customer satisfaction strategy.
Oral skills
Oral skills are large sets of skills that encompass listening comprehension, phonological skills, grammatical knowledge, word knowledge and vocabulary and producing and its understanding of complex language (Gray, 2010). Oral skills are extremely important in business management career since it is the most used form of communication. Basically, there is no better way of communicating with another person than through word of mouth. Therefore, the knowledge of communication strategies which are culturally specific is important. Professionals in the business management career need to be able to discuss issues that are complicated at a higher level thus they need to sharpen their skills in oral communication. Customer care representatives need to have the best oral communication skills as their job deals with direct customers. Customer care personnel need to understand the right methods of responding to client queries since poor service will lead to frustrated clients. Additionally, skills in oral communication are important for professionals in the business management career as they bring clarity by eliminating misunderstandings and confusion in the workplace.
Interpersonal Skills
Business Writing Skills
Skills in business writing are critical for the success of any organization as they form a basis for business communication (Kellogg, 2008). For example, the writing of minutes and progress reports are done through writing. In a career of business management, good written communication skills improve sales and the marketing of products since marketing business written communication usually result in improved profits for the organization. On the other hand, poor written communication in a business setting results to the company being viewed as incompetent in its communication process. As a result, establishing effective written business communication is critical to the improvement of the business corporate image which may result in increased business contracts and higher revenues.
Team Working Skills
According to Moe and Dingsøyr (2008), teamwork is about the ability to operate efficiently and smoothly in a group setting. Through effective teamwork skills, other skills come into place including advising and interpreting, influence, negotiation and communication and interpersonal skills. In addition, combining different perspectives within an organization leads to the creation of an effective and lasting solution to a problem which would have otherwise been difficult to solve if it was being solved by a single individual. Furthermore, trust and belief are built through teamwork thus having teamwork skills is critical to the success of any team in the business management career. Moreover, a team which is effective has a bond that is stronger as compared to the team which lacks the skills of effectively working as a team. Despite occasional disagreements, people who have effective teamwork skills are likely to solve their issues quickly, let go of past grudges and work forward to achieving their set goals and objectives. Having a strong relationship with colleagues ensures a peaceful environment which thrives in success.
Therefore, in the business management career, effective and efficient teamwork skills are critical as they assist in the blending of complementary skills in the workforce. Teamwork assists workers in the identification and building of their colleagues’ talents which in turn results in the achievement of greater milestones in the workplace. Teamwork ensures that skills are effectively shared within the organization and that individuals lacking certain skills are assisted to learn.
Analysis and Presentation of Basic Research Information
The analysis is the main tool for obtaining information from data. Researching and presentation of basic research information have become an effective asset for employees since it assists in bringing new ideas to the table while at the same time presenting the ideas before people so as to let them know of the findings. Presentation skills are an integral asset for any individual in the workplace ranging from the top management who are required to update shareholders of business processes, line managers who need to update their superiors on the process of work, ad general workers who need to communicate effectively to their supervisors.
Resume Writing
Resume writing skills are as important as any form of written business communication, the difference being that in resume writing, and the individual is presenting a clear picture of their educational and work background, career goals and generally painting a picture of their professional being. Effective resume writing skills are important for any individual looking to change careers, or for a graduate seeking to launch their career journey. Therefore, having a well-written resume may result in human resource managers considering or rejecting an individual’s application based on the skills used in formatting the resume.
Job Interview Skills
In the business management career, job interview skills are very important as they assist individuals to confidently go through an interview and succeed in the role. Actually, many candidates who fail to get a job although they have the right qualifications is because of poor skills in acing job interviews. Generally, job interview skills are interlinked with communication skills which assist the interviewee in expressing themselves clearly without fear (Smith et al., 2014). Therefore, job interview skills are important and individuals should ensure that they acquire the skills.
Conclusion
Job skills are essential in the job hunting process. The different subjects that students undertake in the institution determine the degree of competence in the organization. The job skills such as team working skills and personal interpretation skills play a significant role in career development.
References
Bess, J. L., & Dee, J. R. (2008). Understanding college and university organization: Dynamics of the system (Vol. 2). Stylus Publishing, LLC.
Chowdhury, M. S., Shamsudin, F. M., & Ismail, H. C. (2012). Exploring potential women entrepreneurs among international women students: The effects of the theory of planned behavior on their intention. World Applied Sciences Journal, 17(5), 651-657.
Gray, F. E. (2010). Specific oral communication skills desired in new accountancy graduates. Business communication quarterly, 73(1), 40-67.
Kavanagh, M. H., & Drennan, L. (2008). What skills and attributes does an accounting graduate need? Evidence from student perceptions and employer expectations. Accounting & Finance, 48(2), 279-300.
Kellogg, R. T. (2008). Training writing skills: A cognitive developmental perspective. Journal of writing research, 1(1).
Kuvaas, B. (2008). An exploration of how the employee–organization relationship affects the linkage between perception of developmental human resource practices and employee outcomes. Journal of Management Studies, 45(1), 1-25.
Macan, T. (2009). The employment interview: A review of current studies and directions for future research. Human Resource Management Review, 19(3), 203-218.
Moe, N. B., & Dingsøyr, T. (2008, June). Scrum and team effectiveness: Theory and practice. In International Conference on Agile Processes and Extreme Programming in Software Engineering (pp. 11-20). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.
Smith, M. J., Ginger, E. J., Wright, K., Wright, M. A., Taylor, J. L., Humm, L. B., … & Fleming, M. F. (2014). Virtual reality job interview training in adults with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 44(10), 2450-2463.