Developing Leadership Skills in Nonverbal Communication: A Situational Perspective

Abstract

This paper addresses the importance of developing leadership skills in the encoding and decoding of nonverbal messages. It takes the position that impressions formed in superior-subordinate relationships are often determined by the nonverbal communication that occurs in face-to-face meetings. Based on social exchange principles, a situational view of considerate leadership behavior is developed where a superior attempts to make interaction less costly and aversive to subordinates by adapting to them nonverbally. A taxonomy of nonverbal displays of status, consisting of kinesic, proxemic, and temporal norms, is presented, which shows how supervisors often abuse the physical presence, personal territory, and time of their employees. It is suggested that superiors become more aware of these significant nonverbal messages.ORGANIZATIONS HAVE BECOME increasingly aware of the need for management training that includes the development of skills in effective face-to-face communication. In a recent survey of executives in 45 large industrial corporations Swenson found that face-to-face communication within the firm was considered the most important communication skill.' This is not surprising in view of the fact that as much as 90 percent of a manager's time may be spent communicating, with speaking and listening comprising a much larger percentage than reading and writing.

The Display of “Dominant” Nonverbal Cues in Negotiation: The Role of Culture and Gender

“…Models of emotion in negotiation also note that negative affect resulting from goal conflict or unmet expectations may elicit dominant action tendencies in negotiators (Barry and Oliver 1996;Butt, Choi, and Jaeger 2005;Kumar 1999). Dominance is generally associated with being forceful, assertive, and expressive (Burgoon and Dunbar 2000;Manusov 2005), the nonverbal display of which includes the use of space, relaxed posture, and emotion expressiveness, especially negative emotions (Mehrabian 1974;Remland 2009). …”

“…According to Remland (1981), powerful and dominant individuals tend to have more access to space and larger territories. Previous studies illustrate that when people expand themselves by occupying space, they are perceived as dominant, and postural expansion is more likely to occur amongst high status individuals (Argyle 1988;Aries, Gold, and Weigel 1983;Mehrabian 1972;Tiedens and Fragale 2003).…”

“…Dominant personality dispositions have been shown to correlate with relaxed behavior, and dominant communicators tend to exhibit a relaxed, yet confident guise (Burgoon et al 1990;Manusov 2005;Mehrabian 1972). In general, high status is associated with a relaxed, easygoing demeanor because a person who feels powerful is confident and more able to be relaxed in social interactions (Burgoo 1999;Gifford 1994;Manusov and Patterson 2006;Remland 2009). Nonverbal cues associated with the confident side of dominance include relaxed and expansive postures (Manusov and Patter-son 2006;Mehrabian 1972;Remland 2009).…”

“…In the realm of nonverbal communication, behaviors that signify dominance include a relaxed posture, for example sitting back in one's chair, the use of space, for example spreading one's work out all over the table, and the expression of negative emotion such as anger (Mehrabian 1972;Remland 2009). Based on existing literature on culture and communication, we develop hypotheses predicting culture and gender variation in the display of these nonverbal cues.…”

An Analysis of Strategies for Announcing Organization-Wide Change

“…But Remeland (1981) has found that high-status persons act in ways that control, or attempt to control, the time of others. The implication is that management may attempt to &dquo;force&dquo; the communication on employees at a time desirable only to management.…”