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. © 1981, Sage Publications. All rights reserved.