ABSTRACT
Overview “Actions speak louder than words,” “People believe what you do and more than what you say,” and “You should walk the talk” are three familiar admonitions that express clearly the importance of nonverbal communication in organizations. Nonverbal communication is vitally important to communication effectiveness (Anderson, 1999). Depending on the expert, nonverbal communication comprises from 93% (Mehrabian, 1981) to 68% (Birdwhistell, 1970) of a message’s meaning. One summary concluded that nonverbal messages “can convey affiliation, positive regard, interest, dominance, credibility, or status; can reinforce or punish; (and can) affect what others learn, what attitudes develop, what approaches will be modeled, and what is expected” (Tresch, Pearson, Munter, Wyld, & Waltman, 1986, p. 78).
