Service Learning Guides
REAL CLIENTS, REAL MANAGEMENT, REAL FAILURE: THE RISKS
AND REWARDS OF SERVICE LEARNING
By Dale Cyphert
University of Northern Iowa
Cedar Falls, Iowa
afternoon. “Great,” the caller had told the rest of her group, “now we’ll have twice as many people to be
totally humiliated in front of!”
There are multiple advantages to service-learning projects across the business curriculum, but in
communication classes I have found their biggest value to be authenticity. A “real–world” assignment
requires the flexible, creative integration of communication skills in an environment where, “unlike
organizational challenge for the instructor, requiring institutional commitment, alliances with community
agencies, student inducements, and a careful integration of academic curriculum (Gujarathi & McQuade,
2002). This team’s experience was a reminder that neither complicated administration nor significant
instructor involvement is needed to create a platform that reaps the benefits of service learning. A bona
fide client with a real concern for an outcome is enough to foster a learning experience that extends
take on that role, which they have done within an assignment structure that encourages a continuous
process of organizational learning through individual and team tasks.
Students are first required to propose a project to the class that promises to “enhance business
communication skills.” They are encouraged to review an ever-expanding list of previous project ideas
(Cyphert, 2005b) and required to introduce themselves to their prospective teammates with an online
understanding with a client, a project Gantt chart, and a budget. Some projects involve more service to the
community than others, but because every team must define its deliverables to a “real” client, the element
of authenticity is built into the assignment. (The instructor is also the client for teams that choose to
Service Learning Guides
Copyright © 2014 Pearson Education, Inc.
enhance the college’s business communication Web site, http://www.cba.uni.edu/buscomm/. These tend
to be selected by management information systems (MIS) majors for whom the high visibility of a live
Web site creates risks and rewards comparable to those of working with an outside client.) Because
project ideas spring completely from student interests, most clients have been individuals or organizations
from the campus community, and most projects involve event planning or Web site development. In no
case has the instructor ever made the arrangements for a service project, although a few potential clients
have asked to be placed on the list. In reality, there are always more willing clients than there are teams
available, and the passion of the students—along with the attendant risk— is maximized when they
identify their own project.
Once projects are defined and under way, a series of tasks requires students to evaluate and adjust
their own communication processes: agendas and minutes for a meeting to which the “supervisor” (the
team. An updated Web page for the project list will justify the project to students in the next semester,
and an updated documentation binder will be passed to a team that takes it on.
Given the level of work involved in the various assignments, along with the heightened attention to
quality when faced with the needs of a real client, student satisfaction with the project is heavily
dependent on a perception that the team has provided an authentic service to a client. Furthermore, it is
understanding becomes a paragraph on the team’s final Web site. Because the team projects have been in
effect for several years, students who mention the course to faculty or the dean are likely to need an
“elevator speech” on their projects, with a thesis that might be revisited when those same individuals
attend the final presentations. These connections are only relevant, however, because the students
perceive the project as a “real” one, with all the attendant risks and rewards.
I have learned to require contact information for each team’s client, and I now contact the clients after
I have collected the memos of understanding, confirming their awareness of the project, asking them to
treat the team as they would any vendor or consultant, and thanking them profusely for their cooperation
in an educational exercise. I occasionally find a client who has been identified by the team but has not
Service Learning Guides
students will never forget. These women realized they were working well outside of their “comfort zone,”
REFERENCES
Business Communication Quarterly, 61(3), 20-34.
Cyphert, D. (2005a). Business communication (150:113): Fall, 2005. University of Northern Iowa.
Retrieved December 16, 2005, from http://www.cba.uni.edu/buscomm/buscomcourse/roster.html
Cyphert, D. (2005b). Business communication projects. University of Northern Iowa. Retrieved