Advisee‐advisor communication: An exploratory study examining interpersonal communication variables in the graduate advisee‐advisor relationship

The objective of this study was to investigate graduate students' perceptions of their graduate advisors' communication (competence, credibility, and nonverbal immediacy), and how these perceptions impact advisees' perceptions of learning, effectiveness of the advisee‐advisor relationship, and advisors' degrees of mentoring. Advisee perceptions of her or his advisor's competence and caring/goodwill accounted for 43% of the variance in advisee cognitive learning. Advisee perceptions of her or his advisor's caring/ goodwill accounted for 39% of the variance in advisee perceptions of the effectiveness of the advisee‐advisor relationship. Lastly, this study noted that the linear combination of advisee perceptions of advisor credibility and communication competence accounted for 55% of the variance in an advisee's perception of the amount of mentoring an advisee received from her or his graduate advisor.

Key concepts:

• advisor‐advisee communication
• nonverbal immediacy
• graduate student
• mentoring
• creditilibity