Student Motives for Communicating with Instructors as a Function of Perceived Instructor Power Use

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the perceived use of instructor power bases (i.e., reward, coercive, referent, legitimate, and expert) in association with student motives for communicating with an instructor (i.e., relational, functional, participatory, excuse-making, and sycophancy) in the college classroom. Participants were 244 students who completed a questionnaire consisting of the Teacher Power Use Scale and Student Communication Motives Scale in reference to an instructor they had immediately prior to data collection. Results of a canonical correlation analysis revealed that (a) when instructors were perceived to use all three prosocial bases of power (i.e., reward, referent, and expert), students were motivated to communicate for the relational, functional, and participatory motives and, to a lesser extent, the excuse-making and sycophancy motives; and (b) when instructors were perceived to use coercive power and lacked expert power, students were motivated to communicate for excuse-making and sycophancy motives, but were unlikely to communicate for the functional motive.

Keywords:

• Instructional Communication
• Student Motives for Communicating
• Teacher Power

Notes

Note. Wilks's Λ = .60; F(25, 871) = 5.12, p < .001.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Alan K. Goodboy

Alan K. Goodboy (PhD, West Virginia University, 2007) is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Bloomsburg University.

San Bolkan

San Bolkan (PhD, University of Texas–Austin, 2007) is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication Studies at California State University, Long Beach.