The Definitive Book of Body Language

Seating Arrangements - Where to Sit, and Why

King Arthur's Concept

King Arthur used the Round Table as an attempt to give each

of his knights an equal amount of authority and status. A

round table creates an atmosphere of relaxed informality and

is ideal for promoting discussion among people who are of

equal status, as each person can claim the same amount of

table territory. The circle itself has become a worldwide symbol

of unity and strength and simply sitting in a circle promotes the

same effect. Unfortunately, King Arthur was unaware that if

the status of one person is higher than the others in the group

it completely alters the dynamics of group power. The king

held the most power and this meant that the knights seated on

either side of him were silently granted the next highest

amount of power, the one on his right having more than the

one on his left. The power then diminished relative to the dis-

tance that each knight was seated away from the king.

A high status person at

a round table distorts

the power distribution

The knight seated directly opposite King Arthur was, in effect,
in the Competitive/Defensive position and was likely to be the
one to give the most trouble. Sixty-eight per cent of respon-
dents saw the person sitting directly opposite them on a round
table as the one most likely to argue or be competitive. Fifty-
six per cent also said that sitting opposite could be used to
show non-involvement or lack of interest, as in a public library.
When sitting directly beside another person, 71% said they
were either having a friendly conversation or co-operating.

Many of today's business executives use rectangular, square
and round tables. The rectangular desk, which is usually the
work desk, is used for business activity, brief conversations,
reprimands and so on. The round table, often a coffee table