Reducing public speaking anxiety in accounting students: a guided mastery approach to developing self-efficacy

Research indicates that accounting students generally possess high levels of public speaking anxiety (PSA), which can impede their development of oral presentation skills. Despite the growing importance of these skills to success in the accounting profession, accounting curricula rarely incorporate strategies to mitigate PSA. This paper introduces a novel guided mastery approach (GMA), grounded in self-efficacy theory, that aims to reduce PSA by enhancing public speaking self-efficacy (PSSE). The effectiveness of the GMA is explored using a sample of students perceived to have high PSA; specifically, Chinese students enrolled (in-person and online) in a postgraduate accounting course within an Australian university. Using a pre- and post-test methodology, this study finds a significant association between the GMA and perceptions of both PSSE and PSA. Importantly, this association is found irrespective of whether students deliver presentations in-person or online via video recordings. Thematic analysis also reveals a decline in procrastination and an intrinsic change in perceptions of public speaking. The findings presented in this paper have important implications for all accounting educators aiming to enhance the public speaking skills of their students.