Communication apprehension and reactions to proxemic violations

An experiment was designed to examine the role of a person's predispositions toward communication in reactions to violations of proxemic expectations. Working with Burgoon's (1983) violations of nonverbal expectations model, Buller and Burgoon (1986) predicted that predispositions may bias evaluations of initiator reward and violation valence. Apprehensive individuals should unfavorably evaluate the initiator, negatively valence a violation and comply less, while nonapprehensive individuals should favorably evaluate the initiator, positively valence a violation, and comply more. Alternately, this paper proposes that predispositions may affect arousal-induction rather than initiator evaluation and violation valencing. Following Patterson (1983), apprehensives should experience more arousal and comply more to reduce the arousal, whereas nonapprehensives should experience less arousal and comply less. Four initiators engaged 90 subjects in experimental conversations which ended with a request for the subjects' signature on a petition. Initiators either remained at the normative distance, moved one seat closer, or moved one seat farther from the subject. Results showed that apprehensives and subjects experiencing close violations complied more, suggesting that communication apprehension influences arousal-induction. Communication apprehension had no main effect on perceptions of initiator attractiveness and similarity, implying that arousal not perceptions of the initiator is affected by predispositions toward communication. Initiator gender again emerged as an important characteristic which influences a subject's perceptions of initiator reward.     

The effect of probing on deceivers and truthtellers

This study examined the effect of probing for additional information on the accuracy of deception detection. One hundred forty-eight experimental interactions were analyzed to see whether deceivers and truthtellers behave differently when probed and whether probing improved deception detection. Probing produced a number of changes in nonverbal behavior, several of which differed between deceivers and truthtellers. Probing may have communicated suspicion or uncertainty; therefore, deceptive sources were motivated to control their nonverbal demeanor to mask deception-related cues and appear truthful. Probing did not improve detection. Instead, probing receivers considered all sources more truthful. It is suggested that suspiciousness and prior knowledge may affect probing's efficacy.     

Nonverbal cues to deception among intimates,friends, and strangers

Buller and Burgoon (in press) propose that deceivers attempt to encode strategically nonverbal cues which indicate nonimmediacy and project a positive image. At the same time, deceivers leak arousal and negative affect via their nonverbal display. This experiment tested these predictions, while examining the influence of relational history on deception cues and the stability of deception cues within deceptive conversations. The nonverbal behavior of 130 strangers, friends, and intimates was measured. Results indicated that deceivers signalled nonimmediacy, arousal, and negative affect, but they did not appear to project a positive image. Deception cues were mediated by relational history and showed considerable temporal variation. Strangers leaked more arousal and negative affect than friends and intimates. Further, deceivers, particularly deceiving friends and intimates, seemed to monitor and control their nonverbal behavior during deception by suppressing arousal and negative affect cues and moderating nonimmediate behavior.     

Strategy and Human Resource Management Integration in Fast Growth Versus Other Mid-sized Firms1

The nature and integration of strategy and human resource management practices, and the effects of such integration on firm performance were examined in two groups of mid-sized flrms: fast-growth firms and a random sample of similar sized mature firms. The results indicated that the fast-growth firms emphasized fewer human resource activities and experienced a lower degree of strategy-human resource integration than the mature firms. Some evidence was found that the relation between the level of integration and firm performance was moderated by the organization's stage of development.     

Nonverbal response patterns in physician-patient interactions: A functional analysis

In this paper, we examined physician-patient interactions in terms of the communicative functions accomplished during these encounters. Specifically, the nonverbal communicative exchanges of 38 physician-patient interactions in a family practice clinic were investigated. Two distinctive communicative patterns characterized these interactions. First, physicians nonverbally exerted greater dominance and control by employing longer speaking turns, more social touch, and more pauses while speaking than did the patients. Secondly, physicians and patients tended to reciprocate nonverbal behaviors signalling affiliation including gaze, response latencies, body orientations, and gestures. Consistent with previous research, there was a strong positive relationship between patients' satisfaction with health care and perceptions of the physicians' affiliativeness. Although there were few significant effects, physicians perceived less affiliative tended to be more vocally and gesturally active relative to the patients' nonverbal behavior styles. Finally, there were positive relationships between patients' perceptions of physicians' dominance and the physicians' use of task touch, and the extent to which physicians produced more interruptions and maintained more indirect body orientations relative to the patients' performances of these behaviors. The results are discussed in terms of the communicative functions of nonverbal behavior in physician-patient interactions and of patients' preferences for physicians' nonverbal expressiveness.The authors wish to thank Joe Cappella, Howard Waitzkin, Martha Davis, and William B. Stiles for their helpful comments on previous drafts of this paper.     

Interpersonal deception: III. Effects of deceit on perceived communication and nonverbal behavior dynamics

Much past research on deception has examined it individually and noninteractively. Here we argue for broadening our understanding of deception by examining it as a dyadic and interactive event. Assumptions of an interpersonal perspective, articulated in Interpersonal Deception Theory, are advanced. These include recognizing the agency of both parties to interpersonal exchanges, examining such exchanges at multiple levels, incorporating measures of communicationrelated perceptions and interpretations as well as behaviors, recognizing that behaviors may be strategic as well as nonstrategic, and viewing such behavior as dynamic rather than static. An experiment reflecting this orientation is presented in which pairs of participants, half friends and half strangers, conducted interviews during which interviewees (EEs) either lied or told the truth to interviewers (ERs) who were induced to be highly, moderately, or not suspicious. Dependent measures included participant (EE and ER) perceptions, interpretations, and evaluations of EE behaviors and trained coders' ratings of actual nonverbal behaviors. Consistent with the theory, deceivers were more uncertain and vague, more nonimmediate and reticent, showed more negative affect, displayed more arousal and non-composure, and generally made a poorer impression than truthtellers. Their behaviors also connoted greater formality and submissiveness. Also consistent with the theory's premise that deceptive interactions are dynamic, deceivers' kinesic relaxation and pleasantness changed over time, in line with a behavior and image management interpretation, and degree of reciprocity between EE and ER nonverbal behaviors was affected by the presence of deception and suspicion.Portions of this paper were presented to the annual meeting of the International Communication Association, San Francisco, May 1989. This project was funded by the U.S. Army Research Institute (Contract #MDA903-90-K-0113). The views, opinions, and/or findings in this report are those of the authors and should not be construed as an official Department of the Army position, policy, or decision.     

A Model for Implementing a Sustainability Strategy through HRM Practices

There is a rapidly growing interest in the topic of sustainability as it relates to long‐term business performance that optimizes the “triple bottom line”: economic, environmental, and social outcomes. This article articulates a multilevel conceptual model for executing a business strategy for sustainability primarily through the design and implementation of human resource management practices. The model builds on open systems theory, the resource based view of the firm, and the concept of line of sight to identify certain key organizational capabilities, group competencies, and individual abilities and other characteristics that combine to drive organizational performance when pursuing a sustainability strategy. The article concludes with a discussion of implications of the model for theory, research, and practice.     

Toward an Organizational Perspective on Identifying and Managing Formal Gatekeepers

In this article, we present an institutionalist organizational perspective on formal gatekeeping, arguing along two fronts: First, identifying gatekeepers provides useful analytic devices for learning about the vocabularies of structure in an organization. Second, successfully managing gatekeepers requires that one understands the vocabularies of structure in use in an organization. We ground our perspective in field experiences gleaned from eleven public sector organizations who participated in our health promotion and research program, the Arizona 5 a Day Project. Field data and insights from institutional organizational and decision-making theory frame a matrix of organizational types and formal gatekeeping. We conclude by linking our perspective with analytic perspectives on organizational charters and organizational change.