New Patterns of Management.

The vertical dimension of interpersonal relations (relating to dominance, power, and status) was examined in association with nonverbal behaviors that included facial behavior, gaze, interpersonal distance, body movement, touch, vocal behaviors, posed encoding skill, and others. Results were separately summarized for people's beliefs (perceptions) about the relation of verticality to nonverbal behavior and for actual relations between verticality and nonverbal behavior. Beliefs/perceptions were stronger and much more prevalent than were actual verticality effects. Perceived and actual relations were positively correlated across behaviors. Heterogeneity was great, suggesting that verticality is not a psychologically uniform construct in regard to nonverbal behavior. Finally, comparison of the verticality effects to those that have been documented for gender in relation to nonverbal behavior revealed only a limited degree of parallelism.

http://www.wisebrain.org/papers/NonverbCommVerticalRels.pdf

Nonverbal behavior and the vertical dimension of social relations: a meta-analysis.

Research has linked the communication styles of physicians to patients' satisfaction with health care. Recently Ben-Sira (1976, 1980) offered a social interaction model to explain this relationship; this model, however, focused on a single, narrow style of communicating and overlooked the broader spectrum of styles. This survey assessed two general communication styles: affiliation and control. It also examined eight social characteristics of medical interviews as possible mediators of the impact of the physician's communication style on the patient's satisfaction. Patients' evaluations of the physician's communication were associated strongly with patients' evaluations of medical care, suggesting that competence in communication may be a facet of medical competence. Affiliative styles were related positively to patients' satisfaction, whereas dominant/active styles had a negative relationship with satisfaction. Severity of the illness, physician's age, physician's specialty, and the number of prior visits affected the importance of the physician's communication in the patient's evaluations of care.

Physicians' communication style and patient satisfaction.

This field study of 327 hospital nurses investigated the relationship between perceived satisfaction with organizational communication and job satisfaction and job performance. The researcher developed a research model incorporating nine dimensions of communication satisfaction and hypothesized their varying relationships with job satisfaction and job performance. Correlation, multiple regression, and canonical correlation analyses revealed significant positive relationships between communication satisfaction and job satisfaction, and communication satisfaction and job performance. The communication satisfaction-job satisfaction link was stronger. The same facets of communication—supervisor communication, communication climate, and personal feedback—were found to be most strongly related to both job satisfaction and performance. Although the importance of the superior-subordinate communication relationship was confirmed, top management communication also was substantially related to job satisfaction and, to a lesser degree, job performance. Rank-order correlation results of this study were compared to several other studies and some congruent patterns were found.

Communication satisfaction, job satisfaction, and job performance

Based on a review of the literature, empirical research in the area of superiorsubordinate communication is classified into nine topical categories and critically examined. Inspection of this literature suggests that researchers have focused the majority of their attention on studying (a) the effects of power and status on superior-subo rdinate communication, (b) trust as a moderator of superior-subo rdinate communication, and (c) semantic-information distance as a source of misunderstand ing in superior-subo rdinate communication. It is concluded that future research should increasingly be developmental and longitudinal in nature and should take into greater consideration the effects situational variables have on communication in the superior-subordinate dyad. Status hierarchy is inherent in the nature of purposeful organizations. As Redding (1972) observes, within organizations "there are 'superiors' and 'subordinates'—even though these terms may not be expressly used, and even though there may exist fluid arrangements whereby superior and subordinates roles may be reversible" (p. 18). How superiors and subordinates interact and communicate to achieve both personal and organizational goals has been an object of investigation by social scientists for most of the 20th century. Empirical research examining superior-subordinate communication is diverse, is strewn across a multitude of disciplines, lacks coherent organization and classification, and in general, has not received sufficient review and interpretation as a body of literature. The present article attempts to alleviate this confusion by reviewing, classifying, interpreting, and providing directions for future research in the area of organizational communication that is loosely termed superior-subordinate communication. This article focuses on empirical research solely in the domain of organizationa l communication. To avoid generalizations from communication research outside of the orga

Superior–subordinate communication: The state of the art.

(1976). Sex differences in group communication: A review of relevant research. Quarterly Journal of Speech: Vol. 62, No. 2, pp. 179-192.

Sex differences in group communication: A review of relevant research

Role congruence, communication, superior‐subordinate relations, and employee satisfaction in organizational hierarchies

This study explored the relationships between eight categories of nonverbal behaviors and group perceptions of leadership emergence. Of the variables studied, one, “gesticulation of the shoulders and arms,” explained a significant amount of the variance when all predictor variables were considered together. This result was consistent with theory and research in nonverbal communication and suggested the need for further exploration of the role of nonverbal cues in group discussion.

Some nonverbal elements of leadership emergence

This investigation associated several approaches to management with varying dimensions of communication style. Subjects used in the study were employees of a midwestern hospital (N = 151). Results indicated that democratic management was characterized by relaxation, animation, attentiveness, and friendliness in communication style, laissez‐faire leadership was similar, except for a lack of animation, and autocratic managers were characterized primarily by dominant communication behavior.

Management and communicator style: A correlational analysis

Although several factors are related to employee morale in organiza tional settings, the single most influential factor in enhancing job satis faction and group cohesiveness is superior-subordinate...

/pdf/communication-correlates-of-employee-morale-173ab2v5xd.pdf

John E. Baird

Papers

Sex differences in group communication: A review of relevant research

Role congruence, communication, superior‐subordinate relations, and employee satisfaction in organizational hierarchies

Some nonverbal elements of leadership emergence

Management and communicator style: A correlational analysis

Communication Correlates of Employee Morale