The Effects of Instructor Service Performance, Immediacy, and Trust on Student–Faculty Out-of-Class Communication

Abstract

Student initiated out-of-class communication (OCC) with instructors has been linked to benefits for students, faculty, and the institution at large, yet garners little attention in business education research. Much of the literature found in communication and higher education research has revolved around the discovery of factors that lead students to engage in OCC. Yet the picture of this process remains far from complete. This article examines key influencers of upper-level business students’ initiation of OCC with their instructors. Several of the predictor variables and the OCC measure itself were found to be multidimensional. Exhibiting certain in-class behaviors, namely, verbal immediacy and strong performance of the education service, while earning students’ trust, encourages students to engage in greater OCC with their instructor. Moreover, results indicate that the relative influence of these factors differs for the two dimensions of OCC (i.e., Personal/Social-Career and For Course Success), indicative of the purpose for discussion sought by the student. Marketing faculty’s use of these in-class communication behaviors should be encouraged and become part of the service culture of the department in its ongoing efforts to attract and retain a healthy share of the business program’s students.