An Eastern Kentucky University professor was the lone representative of the United States at a recent conference in Beijing of the Chinese Business Communication and Negotiation Committee of Industrial Technology Association of Economic and Management Colleges (ITAEMC).
Dr. Marcel Robles, professor of corporate communication and technology at EKU, attended the three-day event as first vice president of the Association for Business Communication (ABC), an international organization which she will serve next year as president. Five countries were represented: China, Korea, Germany, Hungary and the U.S.
Her appointment as a “foreign adviser” of the Chinese committee is for three years.
Robles presented at the conference on the subject of cross-cultural communication and, on behalf of ABC, signed a memorandum of understanding between business communication associations that seeks to promote communication, competition, training, seminars and cooperation revolving around business communication and negotiation competitions among college students. The first international student negotiation and communication writing contest is scheduled for 2018.
While in China, Robles also discussed the potential for an MBA program that would be delivered by EKU in China and taught in Mandarin. More recently, discussions continued at EKU when Professor Mingxue Xia, MBA director of Chang’an University and vice deputy secretary of the ITAEMC, visited the Richmond campus to meet with Robles, College of Business and Technology Dean Dr. Thomas Erekson and Dr. Weiling Zhuang, interim chair of EKU’s Department of Management, Marketing and International Business (MMIB), among others.
“The Chinese universities are very interested in American collaboration and knowledge sharing,” Robles said. “The network connections between EKU and some Chinese universities have been established, and the potential for collaboration with our MBA program is enormous. We are all very excited about opportunities that we can bring to American and Chinese students.”
Zhuang said: “We are so proud of Marcel’s achievements. She represents us very well, promoting MMIB, the School of Business and the University internationally.”
Robles has brought her international communication experience into her business communication courses at both the undergraduate and graduate level. “The critical importance of communication is prevalent regardless of the country in which you are conducting business,” she said.