PROPOSAL TO ESTABLISH INTERPERSONAL BUSINESS RELATIONSHIPS AMONGST LUNDQUIST COLLEGE OF BUSINESS STUDENTS
Presented By:
Katelyn Gruys, Sabeen Waqar, Kyle Hicks, Jacob Travis, Benjamen Lindsay
To:
The Enrichment Task Force
______
Introduction
We want to bring the attention of the Enrichment Task Force the significant problem of interpersonal business relationships that our students face within the program. Our goal is to create an environment at the LCB that encourages students to have more interpersonal relationships amongst each other, in order to help them establish connections that could potentially provide career opportunities for them in the future. The importance of building connections and relationships is something that is a great need of the LCB students as well as professionals in the workforce (Appendix A). Students are here to study business, but a fundamental part of business is the connections that are created in order to work together. This should be addressed promptly in order to better serve our students.
In order to address the need of our students, we have developed a program that will create an environment where students will build strong interpersonal business connections during their time at the LCB. We have 1 solution, a mentor-mentee program with an alternate solution.
Our program will connect a pre-business student with an admitted business student, with whom they will be working with until they are admitted to the LCB. This program will encourage the development of an interpersonal business relationship, and will also serve as good guidance for the incoming freshman. All business students will benefit from this program because by the time they are a junior and an admitted business student, they will have developed a strong connection with their mentor. This program could benefit students not only during their experience at the LCB, but also after graduation because they will have developed a connection with their mentor who could potentially help them build further connections or relationships through networking.
2 Situation Analysis
The problem that was identified when talking to our stakeholders; alumni, faculty, students, and business professionals, was the lack of interpersonal relationships with other students within the LCB. For example, Conor, a second year LCB student feels that after graduation students lack “Networking skills and how to go about networking with professionals”. Students felt that the environment of the LCB didn’t provide the opportunity to build interpersonal business relationships or connections with other students in the school. They expressed that within the course of ten weeks, they just got to know their group members and classmates, and then they are thrown into a new bunch of students again, essentially not building any lasting connections.
2.1 Existing Programs
The LCB currently has business and networking clubs and newly introduced a job shadow program for undergraduate students and a mentor/mentee for MBA students with a business professional.
A job shadow program is not relevant to our problem because it does not address the issue of relationships with each other as students. However, the Lundquist College of Business has figured out that a mentor/ mentee program for their students is useful in their education. We are arguing the point that this should be done for students during their undergraduate education at the LCB.
The LCB also has a very unique honors program. The program has classrooms that do not exceed 35, and provides hands on leadership experience with the same group of students. The classes provide experience to honors students and require each student to demonstrate leadership. The students are much closer in this program and develop personal relationships with one another, allowing for the students to use one another as sources of contact and for networking.
However, none of these programs solve the underlying problem of building interpersonal business relationships within the LCB.
2.2 Why We Need More
We need more students to have more interpersonal relationships amongst each other because of the benefits. Having more interpersonal relationships in our school would not only increase innovative business professional of the future, but will also affect student’s productivity during their time at the LCB. However as a top caliber business school, we are not their yet in terms of building lifelong relationships with each other.
The programs we want to introduce will help students far beyond their time at the LCB. These relationships can be a great source of inspiration, advice, and strength to face the realities that await them. Students will face many problems after graduation that aren’t the standard problem of finding employment that is fixed by receiving a degree. Some examples of possible problems that could be helped by relationships formed at the LCB are how to deal with a difficult co-worker, negotiating pay and benefits increase, upward movement in an organization, and many more. Introducing how to communicate in business during college will allow students to have a jumpstart in how to build and maintain relationships.
The Benefits in Interpersonal Relationships with Students
3. Objectives
An effective business plan for establishing interpersonal business relationships amongst each other would achieve the following objectives:
●Provide a way students can learn from each other’s experiences
●Offering LCB upperclassmen a great leadership opportunity
●Offering lower classman close guidance and a role model
●Allow every LCB student to get the most out of their experience
●Alumni staying connected after their graduation
●Students would feel encouraged to build alliances with each other
●Provide positive attention to the Lundquist College of Business caliber
4. Proposed Solution
Establish a Mentor/Mentee program for all undergraduate Lundquist College of Business students
The program that we have developed for the Lundquist College of Business requires all pre-business students to be mentee’s of the LCB upperclassmen, who would be their mentors. Mentors and mentees would be assigned in pairs right at the beginning of their freshmen year. The mentors would serve as guidance and advisors to the mentees and when they reach their junior year, they would become mentors to incoming freshman. This would not only benefit the incoming freshmen, but would also serve as an opportunity for the upperclassmen to gain good leadership experience. The greater goal of this program is to help students within the LCB establish an interpersonal business relationship that they could benefit from not only during their academic experience, but also after graduation. A solid business connection with a business student that’s older could provide career opportunities and help build connections. This relationship would cause more LCB students to feel the interacting environment at the LCB.
PAC 12 Business Schools that have undergraduate Mentor/Mentee Programs
●Oregon State College of Business
●Washington State College of Business
●University of Washington Foster School of Business
●University of California Los Angeles Anderson School of Management
●University Southern California Marshall School of Business
●Stanford Graduate School of Business
●University of California Berkeley Haas School of Business
●Arizona State University W.P Carey School of Business
●University of Arizona Eller School of Management
●University of Utah David Eccles School of Business
●University of Colorado Leed School of Business
Leaving the University of Oregon Lundquist College of Business the only PAC 12 business schools not to offer undergraduates the opportunity of being a mentee and a mentor.
4.1 Place and Atmosphere
The atmosphere of the LCB would greatly blossom by the interaction of students with a big brother, big sister type of environment. Creating closer student to student relationships would create camaraderie, as well as make the large school feel smaller. Smaller meaning taking some of the benefits that are seen in the honors program, such as having a source of contacts, while maintaining the actual size of the LCB student body.
4.2 Business Plan
Since Pre-Business Administration (PBA) students are required to take classes before applying and being admitted into the business school, we would require the BA 101 class to set up the mentee’s since that is one of the first classes a PBA student takes. Since BA 352 is recommended for newly admitted business students to take within their first two terms, we would introduce the transformation into a mentor in order to maximize on the business leadership.
PBA Requirement / LCB Core RequirementBA 101 (Mentee Class) / BA 352 (Mentor Class
WR 121, 122 / MKTG 311
EC 201, 202 / MGMT 321
MATH 241, 242, 243 / BE 325
ACTG 211, 213 / DSC 330, 335, 340
BA 453
4.3 Alternate Solution
Block Class Requirement Using Existing Classes
An alternate solution that could work in conjunction with the mentor program is a block class type environment where students would take one class in all 3 regular school terms where the students in those 3 classes are all the same. What that means is that one of their courses in Fall, Winter, and Spring will have the same exact students in it. The students will move through the 3 terms together. Having students be with each other for 3 terms will give them the opportunity to form lasting relationships with their fellow classmates.
The students would be put into a team in the Fall term and would stay with that team through all three terms. Some of the benefits of the same group for all 3 terms are:
●Building strong relationships with teammates
●Class project that can combine material from three different classes
●A project in a Portfolio that has a lot of depth
To deal with the issue of rolling admissions at the LCB students would not be required to start the three class series their first term at the LCB but to start their first Fall term. This class would also not be offered in the summer as a 3 part series because the benefits come from students being with each other for 9 months.
This solution is a unique approach that would offer many opportunities for students to grow. This alternate solution closely models the real business world where you work with and see the same professionals for more than just three months. The LCB needs to prepare students for the professional world. This would be a great way to do that and at the same time fix the need of having connections between students.
4.4 Marketing[1]
The LCB undergraduate mentor/mentee program will be useful in attracting potential students to the LCB.[2] With a program like we are proposing, the LCB would be making another step towards becoming one of the best business school in the country. Higher college rankings are important to many students because prestige many times means more and better employment options after graduation. The mentor/mentee program will show students and parents that the LCB is serious about connecting students with each other and focuses on students success after college. Students and employers are asking for more communication experience, and this program will provide exactly what they need.
5. Conclusion
The Lundquist College of Business does not offer undergraduate students a chance to communicate with each other beyond the ten weeks of a curricular class[3]. The LCB has been ranked as one of the top business schools in the country,[4] but has yet to find a way for the 2,377 students to engage and build relationships with each other. Eleven out of twelve PAC 12 schools offer a program like we are proposing so it only makes sense for the LCB to do so as well. Requiring pre-business students and business majors to be both a mentor/mentee throughout their experience in the LCB provides so many benefits during and after their time at the LCB. Business is a degree that requires connections with professionals[5] because it is all about trading expertise with one another. By requiring students to build and maintain relationships with one another can provide the positive correlation in their career later on. Now is the time for the enrichment task force to recognize the opportunities and benefits of a mentor/mentee program would have on the LCB caliber of reputation. The benefits of experience, leadership and relationships that the LCB students gain would outweigh the costs.
6. Biblography
"Undergraduate Business Honors Program." Honors Program. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 May 2014. <
"Oregon MBA Career Services." Oregon MBA Career Services. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 May 2014. <
The Power of Many. Rep. N.p.: EYGM Limited, 2013. Web. 05 May 2014. <
"Undergraduate Job Shadow Program Student Information." Undergrad Job Shadow. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 May 2014. <
(Relationships)[6]
"Business Relationship Building Skills – Benefits & Tips for Success."Money Crashers. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 May 2014.
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Appendix A) “The Power of Many”
A report on how companies use teamwork to resolve complex business problems. The report surveyed 821 business executives in April 2013 that work in 14 different countries across the world. About 50% of those surveyed were board members of C-member executives. Of the companies interviewed 30% brought in annual revenues of over $5 billion dollars while the remaining 70% had annual revenues between $250million-$5billion dollars.
Series 1:
This series in the chart refers to the statement that “teams are the best way to deal with complex business problems.”
Series 2:
This series in the chart refers to the statement that “improving our organizations ability to grow and manage teams will be essential for our future operations.”
[1]What is this
[2]The marketing could provide marketing?
[3]Is this really true? Or are the opportunities there and not being used
[4]Big clain, and why is it relevant. Fluff.
[5]Too absolute of a claim. "number 1"
[6]Discusses the importance and benefits to having a positive work enviornment