Communication performance and communication satisfaction: What do we teach our students?

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Abstract
This study sought to determine the communicative skills students perceive as socially satisfying. The goal of this line of research is to identify specific communicative skills that, ultimately, can be targeted for classroom remediation strategies. Participants were 212 student dyads. Self and other reports of the Communicator Style Measure (Norton, 1978) and the Communicative Ability Scale (1983) served as predictors of Communication Satisfaction (Hecht, 1978a). Results indicated that the skills most predictive of communication satisfaction were those that demonstrated an “other orientation.”; Social confirmation and attentiveness were the best discriminators of high and low communication satisfaction. Further, consistent with previous research, other‐reports of communicative performance were stronger predictors of communication satisfaction than were self‐reports of performance. Implications regarding future research and classroom activities are discussed.