Deborah J. Barrett

Contact Information

Email Deborah Barrett
Office:  RMC - Chapel Reading Room 
Mailstop: MS-630
Phone: 713-348-5394

Teaching Areas:

Leadership Communication, Executive Development,  Negotiation, Teams, Change Management

Scholarly Areas:

Leadership Communication, Cross-Cultural Communication, Teams, Change Communications, Employee Communication

Affiliations:

Conference on College Composition and Communication

Management Communication Association

Society for Intercultural Education, Training, and Research

Society for Technical Communication

National Association for Female Executives

Executive Director, University Connections

Research Grants:

Use of Technology in MBA Communication Mellon Foundation

Services to Profession:

Associate Editor, Journal of Management, Common Ground, from 2005 - present .

Reviewer, Special Issue, International MBA Communication, Special Issue, Business Communication Quarterly, from 2004-2005.

Article reviewer, Business Communication Quarterly, Assn. for Business Communication, 2002-2008 .

Book Reviewer, Journal of Business Communication, Assn. for Business Communication, 2002-present.

Chair, Change Management Session, August 2006. Academy of Management Annual Meeting.
Chair, AACSB Liaison Committee, Assn. for Business Communication, 2004-2006.

AACSB Committee, Assn. for Business Communication, 2001-2004.

Conference Paper Reviewer, Academy of Management, January 2006 - June 2006.

Reviewer, Review Books for Thomson Learning, Thomson Learning, 2004-2005 .

Editor, Corporate Communication: An International Journal, Emerald Press, 2005 to present.

Research Statement:

Dr. Deborah J. Barrett is currently researching cross-cultural communication in major change programs and leadership communication to prepare students for civic engagement.  For some of her most recent work, see the abstract for her upcoming presentation at the Association for Business Communication  Conference (ABC Web site). 

Education:

Dr. Deborah J. Barrett is Professor of the Practice of Professional Communication for Rice University.  She also is a Visiting Professor at the Instituto de Empresa, Madrid, Spain, and at Jacobs University, Bremen, Germany.

Dr. Barrett has taught communication for over 25 years, specializing in professional and team communication for the last 20 years. She taught at Rice University, where she was a lecturer in managerial communications in the MBA program from 1988-1991; at Texas A&M University, where she was a visiting assistant professor in technical writing; and at Houston Baptist University, where she was an associate professor in English and director of the writing specialization and English internship programs. She has coached executives and conducted numerous workshops on writing, presentations, teams, negotiations, consulting, and intrapreneurship for organizations across the world. Her approach to effective professional communication, called, “leadership communication,” is the title of her book, published by McGraw-Hill in 2006.

Before rejoining the faculty of Rice University in 1998, Dr. Barrett was a senior managing director of Hill and Knowlton, Houston. Prior to Hill and Knowlton, she was a communication consultant with McKinsey & Company for over five years. With McKinsey, she served as a leader in the change communication practice, developed and conducted Firm training, and worked on communication and general management consulting projects for McKinsey clients throughout the world.

Publications:

Books
Leadership Communication. 2nd edition. McGraw-Hill, 2008. 

Leadership Communication. 2nd edition. Chinese Translation. McGraw-Hill, 2008. 

Leadership Communicaiton. 1st edition. McGraw-Hill, 2006.

Five C-Approach to Effective Business Communication. 1991. 

Journal Articles
Barrett, Deborah J. 2006. "Successful Cross-Cultural Communication During Major Change." International Journal of Knowledge, Culture, & Change Management

Barrett, Deborah J. 2005. "Strong Communication Skills a Must for Today's Leaders." Handbook of Business Strategy Emerald Press 385-390

Barrett, Deborah J. 2002. "Achieving Results in MBA Communications." Business Communication Quarterly 65 93-98

Barrett, Deborah J. 2002. "Change Communication: Using Strategic Employee Communication to Facilitate Major Change." Corporate Communications: An International Journal 7 219-231

Barrett, Deborah J. 2004. "The Power of PowerPoint: Providing MBAs a Leadership Edge." Association for Business Communication Conference Proceedings 2004 Association for Business Communication

Book Chapters
Barrett, Deborah J. 2003. "A Best Practice Approach to Change Communication." Corporate Communication: A Handbook of Best Practices London Kogan Page 20

Barrett, Deborah J. 2005. "FSWE - On Communication." Foreign Service Written Exam Review and Practice Wiley Press

Reviews:
Barrett, Deborah J. 2003. "Review of Leading Organizations Through Transition." Journal of Business Communication Thousand Oaks Sage

Conference Presentations:

"Approach to Managing the Challenges of Cross-Cultural Communication in Today's Organizations," June 2006. Association for Business Communication

"Including Cross-cultural Analysis when Teaching Communication Strategy," November 2006. Association for Business Communication

"Strengthening Leadership Communication by Developing Emotional Intelligence," March 2005. Dubai, UAE - Women as Global Leaders Conference, Zayed University

"Leadership Communication: The Current and Future State of MBA Communication," Association for Business Communication, San Diego, October 2005.

"Cross-Cultural Communication in Major Change Programs," July 2005. Conference on Knowledge, Culture and Change in Organizations, Greece 

"The Role of Emotional Intelligence in Managerial Communication Courses," June 2005. Management Communication Association

"The Power of PowerPoint," November 2004. Association for Business Communication

"Leadership Communication: A Definition and a Defense," November 2002. Association for Business Communication, Cincinnati

"Best Practices in Employee Communication: Establishing a Foundation for Organizational Change," May 2003. Association for Business Communication, European Conference

"Connecting Ethos and Ethics in MBA Leadership Communication," October 2003. Assocation for Business Communication Annual,  Albuquerque, New Mexico

"Learning to Manage the Challenges of Working in Virtual Teams," Association for Business Communication
Europe, Aarhus, Denmark, May 2002.

"Use of Technology in University Level Instruction: The Final Report on the Use of Technology in MBA Communications," April 2002. Mellon Foundation Sponsored Research

"IntegratingTeam and Communications in MBA Programs," June 2001. Advances in Team Learning Conference, Boston University

"Measuring the Success of a New Approach to MBA Communication," November 2001. Association for Business Communication,  San Diego

"Improving Global Communication and Team Work by Aplying Lessons Learned Using Virtual Teams," May 2001. Association for Communication Conference Association for Business Communication, Dresden, Germany

"Intrapreneurship: the Secret to Successful Internal Consulting," Houston, April 2000. Society for Technical Communication

"Using Myers-Briggs to Develop MBA Teams," October 2000. Association for Business Communication Conference, Atlanta

Interviews, Quotations, and Other Press Recognitions:

CFO Magazine, "Talking Points" CFO Magazine 5/28/2006.
Highly Commended Award for Outstanding Publication, Corporate Communication: An International Journal - Emerald Press, 11/13/2003

RT Image, "Training for success: Helpful hints for conducting team meetings" 4/5/2004.

Your Houston Business, "Change Management Begins, and Succeeds, with Communication" 12/28/2004.

Presentations.com, "The Writing on the Wall" 6/23/2004.

Chicago Tribune, Miami Herald, Baltimore Sun, New York Newsday, etc., "Mistakes can offer workers change to shine" 2/15/2004.

Continental Magazine, "Start Making Sense" 7/28/2003.

Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, "Employee communications firms merge" 9/5/2003.

Continental Magazine, "Taking Action" 4/23/2001.

Continental Magazine, "The Mind of the Manager - Presentations" 3/23/2000.

Entrepreneur Magazine, "Don't Go Changing" 3/23/2000.