An investigation into communication apprehension and self-efficacy of first year accountancy students ROBERTS, Martin Available from the Sheffield Hallam University Research Archive (SHURA) at: http://shura.shu.ac.uk/16550/ A Sheffield Hallam University thesis This thesis is protected by copyright which belongs to the author. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author. When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. Please visit http://shura.shu.ac.uk/16550/ and http://shura.shu.ac.uk/information.html for further details about copyright and re-use permissions. An Investigation into Communication Apprehension and Self-efficacy of First Year Accountancy Students. By: Martin Roberts A Doctoral Thesis. Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirement for the award of Doctor of Philosophy. June 2017 1 Declaration I hereby certify that this material which I now submit for the assessment on the programme of study leading to the award of Doctor of Philosophy is entirely my own work, that I have exercised reasonable care to ensure that the work is original, and does not in the best of my knowledge breach any law of copyright, and has not been taken from the work of others and to the extent that such work has been cited and acknowledged within the text of my own work. The right of Martin Roberts to be identified as the author of this work is asserted in accordance with ss.77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. At this date copyright is owned by the author. Signed: Martin Roberts ID No: 200275 Martin Roberts Date: 23.6.2017 2 Acknowledgements This dissertation has been possible through the support and encouragement of many people, my sincerest thanks to them all. My specific thanks go to my supervisors Professor John Joyce, Professor Trevor Hassall of Sheffield Hallam University and Jose Arquero of Seville University whom have provided an excellent level of guidance and support. Professor John Joyce deserves a special extra mention for all the time he took to go through the finite detail of this thesis. I would also like to thank Lesley Buick and Nigel Garrow for making it possible to take the time out of my teaching to enable me to write up my findings and produce this work. I would also like to thank Professor Murray Clarke and Dr Anthony O'Brien for their encouragement and support as I approached the final stages of viva and the adjustment process. Their help has also been immeasurable. Thanks also go to all the first year undergraduate participants in this research, both in the initial pilot and the final study. I hope that our collective efforts have been worth it, and will shape the education of future accounting students here at Sheffield Hallam and beyond. I would also like thank my wife Suzanne and my children Lewis and Ella for their unwavering support. Also thanks to Maisie, my constant companion on this journey. Martin Roberts Martin Roberts June 2017 3 Abstract It has been identified by research as early as 1986 (AAA's Bedford Report) that the business community requires accountants to display a wide range of vocational skills beyond the traditional requirement of just being good at the numbers. Denna et al. in 1993 identified that due to the increasing influence of Information Technology, accountants needed to possess a strong understanding of business, have significant interpersonal skills and leadership skills. The key vocational skill needed for this new philosophy that enables businesses to continually respond to a constantly changing world is communication (Stout and DaCrema 2004), but it has been noted that this skill is particularly lacking amongst accountants in either a written or verbal manner (Dagget and Liu 1997, Hirsch and Collins 1988, Borzi and Mills 2001, O'Connell 2015, Ireland 2016). The testing and results for one-hundred and thirty-one first year undergraduate accounting students indicate that many students possess high levels of communication apprehension (as first defined by McCroskey 1970). McCroskey's intervention to help reduce communication apprehension is too expensive both in terms of time and resources required. Therefore this thesis investigates the use of self-efficacy techniques (as advocated by Bandura 1977, 1986, 2006) in the first year accounting pedagogy at Sheffield Hallam University. The investigation into communication self-efficacy techniques may be limited to Sheffield Hallam University's first year undergraduate accounting and business studies students but it does indicate that different pedagogical interventions must be created to help male and female accounting students. Both and male and female accounting students indicated that the technique which had the strongest influence on their communication self-efficacy was that of personal mastery (practice). Male accounting students went on to suggest that support by their class colleagues and their tutor acting as a mentor had a significant influence. For female accounting students what has come through strongly is the need for more female accounting role models. There is a call for female professional accountants to get involved with universities. This involvement needs to be in the form of influencing the curriculum and giving guest lectures. This involvement will hopefully allow the female students to vicariously experience (observe) and gain inspiration to be the next future generation of female professional accountants. 4 Table of Contents Page Declaration 2 Acknowledgements 3 Abstract 4 List of abbreviations 13 Chapter 1: Introduction 1.1 Introduction 15 1.2 Aims of the study 16 1.3 Research questions 17 1.4 Research objectives 18 1.5 Structure and rational for the study 18 1.6 Time-line 22 1.7 Delimitation of scope 24 1.8 Chapter structure of the study 24 Chapter 2: Accounting Profession and Education Literature Review 2.1 Introduction 27 2.2 The history of accounting 28 2.3 The Industrial Revolution 29 2.4 The development of accounting history after the Industrial Revolution 31 2.5 Accounting in the Twenty-first Century 33 2.6 The history of accounting education 36 2.7 Problems in perceptions of accounting education from 1950s onwards 37 2.8 Accounting Education’s major studies in the 1980s 39 2.9 Calls for change in accounting education in the Twenty-First Century 41 2.10 Communication Skills 47 5 2.11 Future professional accountants 49 2.12 Future accounting course design 52 2.13 Conclusion 59 Chapter 3: Communication Apprehension/ Self-Efficacy literature review 3.1 Introduction 61 3.2 Communication and communication apprehension 61 3.3 Possible causes of communication apprehension 64 3.4 Consequences of communication apprehension 67 3.5 Controlling or treating communication apprehension 69 3.6 Studies carried out amongst accounting students 73 3.7 Communication apprehension and self-efficacy 75 3.7.1 Outcome expectancy and the Theory of Planned Behaviour 80 3.8 Sources of self-efficacy 84 3.9 Link between communication apprehension and self-efficacy 88 3.10 Conclusion 95 Chapter 4: Research methodology and method 4.1 Introduction 97 4.2 Research Paradigm 97 4.3 Ontology 100 4.4 Epistemology 101 4.5 Methodology 101 4.6 Ontological, epistemological and methodological choice 103 4.7 Preferred methodology and method 108 4.8 Research approach adopted in this study 111 4.9 Research design 114 6 4.9.1 Stage one: The first investigation 115 4.9.2 Stage two: The Professional Accountant course design and Communication Self-Efficacy design 117 4.9.2.1 Stone and Bailey's Team-Conflict Self-Efficacy model (2007) 117 4.9.2.2 Pilot study of Communication Self-Efficacy Questionnaire 119 4.9.3 Stage three: Investigation on the following year of undergraduate accountants 122 4.10 Ethical considerations of this thesis 122 4.11 Conclusion 124 Chapter 5: Communication apprehension and self-efficacy: The initial test results 5.1 Introduction 126 5.2 Method of data capture 127 5.3 Findings 130 5.3.1 A summary of communication apprehension in the accounting and business students 130 5.3.1.1 Business and accounting students' levels of communication apprehension (CA) 130 5.3.2 Communication self-efficacy results for all the students in the study 131 5.3.2.1 Group statistics for communication self-efficacy (CSE) 132 5.3.3 Hypothesis testing of communication apprehension and communication self-efficacy 133 5.3.3.1. Group statistics for communication apprehension (CA) and communication self-efficacy 133 5.3.4 Analysis of the communication apprehension sub-tasks 135 5.3.4.1 Group statistics for communication apprehension for both degree categories 136 5.3.5 Gender profile 138 5.3.5.1 Breakdown by students by degree by gender 138 5.3.5.2 Split of male and female students suffering from communication 7 apprehension 139 5.3.5.2.1 Chi-square test on the effect of gender 139 5.3.6 Age profile 140 5.3.6.1 Age analysis of both degree programmes 140 5.3.6.2 Age correlations for communication apprehension 141 5.3.6.3 Age correlations for communication self-efficacy 142 5.4 Business studies students 143 5.5 Conclusion 143 Chapter 6: Course design and measurement 6.1 Introduction 146 6.2 Learning Styles 147 6.3 Thoughts behind the Professional Accountant course design at Sheffield Hallam 149 6.4 Communication 153 6.5 Self-efficacy techniques 154 6.5.1 Case studies 155 6.5.2 Co-operative learning 158 6.5.3 Tutors 159 6.5.4 Guest speakers 162 6.6 At risk