The use and measurement of communication self-efficacy techniques in a UK undergraduate accounting course

Abstract

This research contributes to helping educational establishments across the world develop self-e ffi cacy techniques to improve communication skills within an accounting course design and other disciplines. This paper asks the research question: Does self-e ffi cacy enhances accounting students ’ communication ability? Previous research has identi fi ed the business community requiring accountants to display high levels of communication ability. However, despite many deliberate pedagogical interventions over the years, communication skills are lacking in graduating accounting students. This paper describes a new approach of deliberate self-e ffi cacy interventions in one UK university ’ s undergraduate accounting curriculum to improve accounting students ’ communication ability. In addition, a self-e ffi cacy framework of Stone and Bailey [(2007). Team con fl ict self-e ffi cacy and outcome expectancy of business students. Journal of Education for Business , 82 (5), 258 – 266. https://doi.org/10.3200/ JOEB.82.5.258-266.] is developed to model communication self-e ffi cacy, outcome expectancy and behavioral intentions of the students. The data consists of the results of 131 fi rst-year accounting students, and this paper contributes by helping to pinpoint two self-e ffi cacy techniques to improving students ’ communication skills: ‘ personal mastery ’ and ‘ mentor support ’ .