{"title":"Overcoming oral communication apprehension: A call for a renewed focus on confidence building in business education","authors":"Ephraim A. Okoro, Peter Cardon","doi":"10.1080/08832323.2023.2255724","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"AbstractThis study explored communication apprehension at the beginning and end of a business communication course. Nearly 200 students completed pre-class and post-class assessments of their communication apprehension in speech situations, class discussions, and group discussions. This study showed that a single business communication course significantly reduces oral communication apprehension. Yet, many students still hold communication apprehension at the end of the class. Thus, an approach that is strategic and program long could better address communication apprehension. The confidence gap between women and men is the most striking aspect of this study, with women possessing much more communication apprehension. Business educators should consider interventions to reduce or eliminate this gap.Keywords: Communication apprehensionoral communicationbusiness communicationcommunications","PeriodicalId":47318,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Education for Business","volume":"65 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":1.3000,"publicationDate":"2023-09-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Education for Business","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/08832323.2023.2255724","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
AbstractThis study explored communication apprehension at the beginning and end of a business communication course. Nearly 200 students completed pre-class and post-class assessments of their communication apprehension in speech situations, class discussions, and group discussions. This study showed that a single business communication course significantly reduces oral communication apprehension. Yet, many students still hold communication apprehension at the end of the class. Thus, an approach that is strategic and program long could better address communication apprehension. The confidence gap between women and men is the most striking aspect of this study, with women possessing much more communication apprehension. Business educators should consider interventions to reduce or eliminate this gap.Keywords: Communication apprehensionoral communicationbusiness communicationcommunications
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Education for Business is for those educating tomorrow''s businesspeople. The journal primarily features basic and applied research-based articles in entrepreneurship, accounting, communications, economics, finance, information systems, management, marketing, and other business disciplines. Along with the focus on reporting research within traditional business subjects, an additional expanded area of interest is publishing articles within the discipline of entrepreneurship. Articles report successful innovations in teaching and curriculum development at the college and postgraduate levels. Authors address changes in today''s business world and in the business professions that are fundamentally influencing the competencies that business graduates need. JEB also offers a forum for new theories and for analyses of controversial issues. Articles in the Journal fall into the following categories: Original and Applied Research; Editorial/Professional Perspectives; and Innovative Instructional Classroom Projects/Best Practices. Articles are selected on a blind peer-reviewed basis. Original and Applied Research - Articles published feature the results of formal research where findings have universal impact. Editorial/Professional Perspective - Articles published feature the viewpoint of primarily the author regarding important issues affecting education for business. Innovative Instructional Classroom Projects/Best Practices - Articles published feature the results of instructional experiments basically derived from a classroom project conducted at one institution by one or several faculty.