How Interpersonal Communication Motives Influence Communication Satisfaction: Willingness to Communicate in Foreign Functional Language as a Mediator

Abstract

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Willingness to communicate has been gotten attention by communication researchers during these recent years. Based on the concept that all non-native English speaking employees have to adopt English as functional language, this study focuses on discovering the relationships among interpersonal communication motives, willingness to communicate in foreign functional language and communication satisfaction. Data was obtained from 639 flight attendants who worked for Taiwan’s international airline company. The findings revealed that communication motives (except escape) had positive impact on communication satisfaction, which was in consistent with prior research. In addition, willingness to communicate also linked to satisfaction, and partially mediated the relationships between communication motives (pleasure, affection, relaxation and inclusion) and communication satisfaction. However, the mediator did not mediate the associations of control with satisfaction, and escape with satisfaction. In essence, the findings provided better understanding of communication cycle in terms of discovering the connection between employees’ communication motives and willingness to use foreign functional language for communication in workplace, which leaded to the understanding of their communication outcomes. At the end of the study, research limitations, implications and suggestions for future study were discussed.