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 deter mined 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 inter action less costly and aversive to subordinates by adapting to them non- verbally. 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 sig nificant nonverbal messages.

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References

Dan H. Swenson , "Relative Importance of Business Communication Skills for the Next Ten Years," The Journal of Business Communication , Vol. 17, No. 2, Winter 1980, pp. 41-49.

Robert D. Gieselman , "Research in Business Communication: The State of the Art," The Journal of Business Communication, Vol. 17, No. 4, Summer, 1980, p. 12.

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For an excellent discussion of this finding and its limitations, see Marianne LaFrance and Clara Mayo , Moving Bodies: Nonverbal Communication in Social Relationships, Brooks/Cole Publishing Co., Monterey, California, 1978, pp. 91-93.

See, for example, Mary-Jeanette Smythe , "Beyond Body Language: Nonverbal Communication in Human Resource Development," paper presented at the Speech Communication Association Convention, New York, November, 1980.

T. Tannenbaum , et al., Leadership and Organization, McGraw-Hill , New York, 1961, p. 24.

See, for example, Ralph Stogdill , Handbook of Leadership, The Free Press, New York, 1974, pp. 128-141.

10.

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11.

Jacobs, 1971, p. 217.

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Erving Goffman , Interaction Ritual, Anchor , Garden City, New York, 1967.

13.

The taxonomy and the sections that follow dealing with kinesic, proxemic, and temporal norms, are based on an extensive review of the scientific literature found in Martin S. Remland , "Leadership Behavior and Nonverbal Displays of Status in a Dyadic Interaction," unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, Ill., 1980.