Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-669899f699-qzcqf Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-05-02T19:05:54.609Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

13 - Interpersonal accuracy in relation to the workplace, leadership, and hierarchy

from Part II - Correlates of interpersonal accuracy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 April 2016

By
Marianne Schmid Mast  and
Ioana Latu
Edited by
Judith A. Hall ,
Marianne Schmid Mast  and
Tessa V. West
Judith A. Hall
Affiliation:
Northeastern University, Boston
Marianne Schmid Mast
Affiliation:
Université de Lausanne, Switzerland
Tessa V. West
Affiliation:
New York University
Get access

Summary

Abstract

In this chapter, we discuss how interpersonal accuracy – the ability to accurately assess others’ states and traits – plays out in hierarchies, particularly those related to workplace and leadership. We begin by discussing the importance of interpersonal accuracy for workplace relationships, such as those with customers, co-workers, and among subordinates and superiors. Overall, the literature on this topic shows that interpersonal accuracy skills are associated with positive outcomes in workplace tasks such as sales and negotiations. Moreover, we summarize research that shows the positive outcomes associated with interpersonally accurate leaders. In the second part of the chapter, we summarize the theoretical issues and empirical research that investigate how power is related to interpersonal accuracy. Finally, we discuss research investigating the extent to which individuals are accurate in assessing others’ power or hierarchical positions, as well as the verbal and nonverbal cues they use. Overall, we show that there is mostly a positive relationship between power and interpersonal accuracy in the workplace context, and we highlight the limitations and possible future directions in this line of research.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Social Psychology of Perceiving Others Accurately , pp. 270 - 286
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2016

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Alkire, A. A., Collum, M. E., Kaswan, J., & Love, L. R. (1968). Information exchange and accuracy of verbal communication under social power conditions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 9, 301–308.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Anderson, C., Ames, D. R., & Gosling, S. D. (2008). Punishing hubris: The perils of overestimating one’s status in a group. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 34, 90–101.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Barnes, M. L., & Sternberg, R. J. (1989). Social intelligence and decoding of nonverbal cues. Intelligence, 13, 263–287.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bass, B. M. (1960). Leadership, psychology, and organizational behavior. Oxford, UK: Harper.Google Scholar
Bass, B. M., & Avolio, B. J. (1994). Improving organizational effectiveness through transformational leadership. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Bass, B. M., & Riggio, R. E. (2006). Transformational leadership. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Belt, V., Richardson, R., & Webster, J. (2002). Women, social skill and interactive service work in telephone call centres. New Technology, Work and Employment, 17, 20–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Byron, K. (2007). Male and female managers’ ability to read emotions: Relationships with supervisor’s performance ratings and subordinates’ satisfaction ratings. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 80, 713–733.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Byron, K., Terranova, S., & Nowicki, S. J. (2007). Nonverbal emotion recognition and salespersons: Linking ability to perceived and actual success. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 37, 2600–2619.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caruso, D. R., Mayer, J. D., & Salovey, P. (2002). Emotional intelligence and emotional leadership. In Riggio, R. E., Murphy, S. E., & Pirozzolo, F. J. (Eds.), Multiple intelligences and leadership. LEA’s organization and management series (pp. 55–74). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.Google Scholar
DiMatteo, M. R., Hays, R. D., & Prince, L. M. (1986). Relationship of physicians’ nonverbal communication skills to patient satisfaction, appointment noncompliance, and physician workload. Health Psychology, 5, 581–594.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
DiMatteo, M. R., Taranta, A., Friedman, H. S., & Prince, L. M. (1980). Predicting patient satisfaction from physicians’ nonverbal communication skills. Medical Care, 18, 376–387.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dovidio, J. F., Ellyson, S. L., Keating, C. F., Heltman, K., & Brown, C. E. (1988). The relationship of social power to visual displays of dominance between men and women. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 233–242.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Elfenbein, H. A., Foo, M. D., White, J., Tan, H. H., & Aik, V. C. (2007). Reading your counterpart: The benefit of emotion recognition accuracy for effectiveness in negotiation. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 31, 205–223.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ellyson, S. L., & Dovidio, J. F. (1985). Power, dominance, and nonverbal behavior: Basic concepts and issues. In Ellyson, S. L. & Dovidio, J. F. (Eds.), Power, dominance, and nonverbal behavior (pp. 1–27). New York: Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fiske, S. T. (1993). Controlling other people: The impact of power on stereotyping. American Psychologist, 48, 621–628.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Foo, M. D., Elfenbein, H. A., Tan, H. H., & Aik, V. C. (2004). Emotional intelligence and negotiation: The tension between creating and claiming value. International Journal of Conflict Management, 15, 411–429.Google Scholar
Frauendorfer, D., Schmid Mast, M., Sanchez-Cortes, D., & Gatica-Perez, D. (2015). Emergent power hierarchies and group performance. International Journal of Psychology. Manuscript submitted for publication.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galinsky, A. D., Magee, J. C., Inesi, M. E., & Gruenfeld, D. H. (2006). Power and perspectives not taken. Psychological Science, 17, 1068–1074.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galinsky, A. D., Magee, J. C., Rus, D., Rothman, N. B., & Todd, A. R. (2014). Acceleration with steering: The synergistic benefits of combining power and perspective-taking. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 5, 627–635.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, J. A., Andrzejewski, S. A., & Yopchick, J. E. (2009). Psychosocial correlates of interpersonal sensitivity: A meta-analysis. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 33, 149–180.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, J. A., Coats, E. J., & Smith LeBeau, L. (2005). Nonverbal behavior and the vertical dimension of social relations: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 131, 898–924.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hall, J. A., & Halberstadt, A. G. (1997). Subordination and nonverbal sensitivity: A hypothesis in search of support. In Walsh, M. R. (Ed.), Women, men, and gender: Ongoing debates (pp. 120–133). New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Hall, J. A., Halberstadt, A. G., & O’Brien, C. E. (1997). “Subordination” and nonverbal sensitivity: A study and synthesis of findings based on trait measures. Sex Roles, 37, 295–317.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hall, J. A., Rosip, J. C., Smith LeBeau, L., Horgan, T. G., & Carter, J. D. (2006). Attributing the sources of accuracy in unequal-power dyadic communication: Who is better and why? Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 42, 18–27.Google Scholar
Hall, J. A., Schmid Mast, M., & Latu, I. (2015). The vertical dimension of social relations and accurate interpersonal perception: A meta-analysis. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 39, 131–163.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Henley, N. M. (1977). Body politics: Power, sex, and nonverbal communication. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Kong, D., Bottom, W. P., & Konczak, L. (2011, July). Re-examining the role of emotional intelligence in negotiations. Paper presented at the IACM 24TH Annual Conference.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kotter, J. P. (1999). On what leaders really do. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business Press.Google Scholar
Kraus, M. W., Côté, S., & Keltner, D. (2010). Social class, contextualism, and empathic accuracy. Psychological Science, 21, 1716–1723.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lowe, K. B., Kroeck, K. G., & Sivasubramaniam, N. (1996). Effectiveness correlates of transformational and transactional leadership: A meta-analytic review of the MLQ literature. The Leadership Quarterly, 7, 385–425.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mayer, J. D., Salovey, P., & Caruso, D. R. (2004). Emotional intelligence: Theory, findings, and implications. Psychological Inquiry, 15, 197–215.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moeller, S. K., Ewing Lee, E. A., & Robinson, M. D. (2011). You never think about my feelings: Interpersonal dominance as a predictor of emotion decoding accuracy. Emotion, 11, 816–824.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Moskowitz, D. S. (1988). Cross-situational generality in the laboratory: Dominance and friendliness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54, 829.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nowicki, S. Jr., & Duke, M. (1994). Individual differences in the nonverbal communication of affect: The Diagnostic Analysis of Nonverbal Accuracy Scale. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 18, 9–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Oishi, S., Krochik, M., & Akimoto, S. (2010). Felt understanding as a bridge between close relationships and subjective well-being: Antecedents and consequences across individuals and cultures. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 4, 403–416.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Palmer, B., Walls, M., Burgess, Z., & Stough, C. (2001). Emotional intelligence and effective leadership. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 22, 5–10.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Petty, M. M., McGee, G. W., & Cavender, J. W. (1984). A meta-analysis of the relationships between individual job satisfaction and individual performance. Academy of Management Review, 9, 712–721.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pratto, F., Sidanius, J., Stallworth, L. M., & Malle, B. F. (1994). Social dominance orientation: A personality variable predicting social and political attitudes. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 741–763.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Riggio, R. E. (2001). Interpersonal sensitivity research and organizational psychology: Theoretical and methodological applications. In Hall, J. A. & Bernieri, F. J. (Eds.), Interpersonal sensitivity: Theory and measurement (pp. 305–317). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Rubin, R. S., Munz, D. C., & Bommer, W. H. (2005). Leading from within: The effects of emotion recognition and personality on transformational leadership behavior. Academy of Management Journal, 48, 845–858.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Russell, A. M., & Fiske, S. T. (2010). Power and social perception. In Guinote, A. & Vescio, T. K. (Eds.), The social psychology of power (pp. 231–250). New York: Guilford.Google Scholar
Rosenthal, R., Hall, J. A., DiMatteo, M. R., Rogers, P. L., & Archer, D. (1979). Sensitivity to nonverbal communication: The PONS test. Baltimore, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Schlegel, K. (2013). Improving the measurement of emotion recognition ability. (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of Geneva, Switzerland.Google Scholar
Schmid Mast, M. (2002). Dominance as expressed and inferred through speaking time: A meta-analysis. Human Communication Research, 28, 420–450.Google Scholar
Schmid Mast, M. (2010). Interpersonal behaviour and social perception in a hierarchy: The interpersonal power and behaviour model. European Review of Social Psychology, 21, 1–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmid Mast, M., & Darioly, A. (2014). Emotion recognition accuracy in hierarchical relationships. Swiss Journal of Psychology, 73, 69–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmid Mast, M., & Hall, J. A. (2004). Who is the boss and who is not? Accuracy of judging status. Journal of Nonverbal Behavior, 28, 145–165.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmid Mast, M., Murphy, N. A., & Hall, J. A. (2006). A brief review of interpersonal sensitivity: Measuring accuracy in perceiving others. In Chadee, D. & Young, J. (Eds.), Current themes in social psychology (pp. 163–185). Trinidad, CO: University of the West Indies Press.Google Scholar
Schmid Mast, M., Hall, J. A., Murphy, N. A., & Colvin, C. R. (2003). Judging assertiveness in female and male targets. Facta Universitatis, 2, 731–743.Google Scholar
Schmid Mast, M., Jonas, K., Cronauer, C. K., & Darioly, A. (2012). On the importance of the superior’s interpersonal sensitivity for good leadership. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 42, 1043–1068.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schmid Mast, M., Jonas, K., & Hall, J. A. (2009). Give a person power and he or she will show interpersonal sensitivity: The phenomenon and its why and when. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 97, 835–850.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Snodgrass, S. E., Hecht, M. A., & Ploutz-Snyder, R. (1998). Interpersonal sensitivity: Expressivity or perceptivity? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 238–249.Google ScholarPubMed
Srivastava, S., & Anderson, C. (2011). Accurate when it counts: Perceiving power and status in social groups. In Smith, J. L., Ickes, W., Hall, J. A., & Hodges, S. D. (Eds.), Managing interpersonal sensitivity: Knowing when – and when not – to understand others (pp. 41–58). New York: Novinka/Nova Science.Google Scholar
Stein, R. T. (1975). Identifying emergent leaders from verbal and nonverbal communications. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 32, 125.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Thomas, D. L., Franks, D. D., & Calonico, J. M. (1972). Role-taking and power in social psychology. American Sociological Review, 37, 605–614.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Walter, F., Cole, M. S., van der Vegt, G. S., Rubin, R. S., & Bommer, W. H. (2012). Emotion recognition and emergent leadership: Unraveling mediating mechanisms and boundary conditions. The Leadership Quarterly, 23, 977–991.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhong, Y., Zhang, S., & Chen, Y. (2013). Differences of interpersonal sensitivity between high-power people and low-power people. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 21, 62–65.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×