Abstract:

It is widely recognized nowadays that in knowledge society, the verbal and non-verbal communication skills of the employees working in service sector especially in tourism sector affect so many issues but mainly the issues such as employee performance, organizational performance and organization's image. In this extent, in this study; the relationship between communication styles, non-verbal communication and employee performance is discussed. To this end, a research has been made among the employees of five star hotels in İzmir and the effects of employees' communication styles and their tendency level to non-verbal communication on their work performance were investigated. In the research context, two different models were developed and the relationship between the variables in the so-called models were examined by hierarchical regression analysis. While in the first model, the direct effects of employees' communication styles and their tendecy level to non-verbal communication on work performance were analyzed; in the second model, the indirect effects were questioned within the light of self-efficacy as a mediator. In the analyses made regarding both of the models, it is found out that active communication style affects employee work performance directly but when self-efficacy level is considered as a mediator it affects the performance indirectly. At the same time, there has been found no significant relationship between tendency to non-verbal communication, self-efficacy level and employee work performance.

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