Communication Apprehension and Receiver Apprehension in the Workplace

The purpose of this study was to examine communication apprehension (CA) and receiver apprehension (RA) in the context of an actual organization. This procedure is a departure from previous work that has generally ignored RA and been executed in hypothetical circumstances. These data indicate that CA is inversely related to position with RA being directly related to salary. Neither CA nor RA were related to the length of time a person was associated with an organization. Further, a regression analysis indicated that self‐perceived communication competence, motivation, and fear of negative evaluation accounted for significant amounts of variance in CA and RA, while age, gender, length of time with an organization, position, and salary did not. The implications of these findings are discussed at the conclusion of this report.

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