A Cultural Approach to Oral Communication Apprehension by ‎Accounting Students in Brazil and Portugal

Oral communication apprehension is perceived as anxiety at the time of communicating with a person or group and, as such, can be potentially influenced by cultural aspects. The study aimed to identify the relationship between accounting students’ oral communication apprehension and power distance as a cultural dimension, also considering sociodemographic variables, which included students’ age, gender, stage in the course, and professional experience. An online questionnaire was administered to accounting students, from which 365 valid answers were obtained. This research found differences by gender in the levels of both oral communication apprehension and power distance. Furthermore, it found that oral communication apprehension might be influenced by the levels of power distance, age, and gender, indicating that power distance may function as a preceding element in the communication process. By country, the findings remained stable, which confirms the historical roots between Brazil and Portugal, which is also corroborated by closer power distance indexes.