Lecture 09: Nonverbal Communication The following lecture discusses the significance and forms of nonverbal communication in the business environment.

Transcription

1 Lecture 09: Nonverbal Communication The following lecture discusses the significance and forms of nonverbal communication in the business environment. What is nonverbal communication? Nonverbal communication includes all behaviors, attributes, or objects (except words) that communicate messages that have social meaning. (Angell, 2004) Speaking literally, non-verbal communication is any communication without the use of words. So, if words are not used, then what else is used to communicate? Let us read further and find out. Non verbal or no word communication uses communication through means other than words. The media of transmission of messages through something other than words are collectively known as modalities. (Burgoon, Guerrero & Manusov, 2011) Ekman and Friesen(1969, in Littlejohn, 2002) analysed the behaviours performed through these modalities in three different ways: 1. Origin: The source of the act 2. Coding: The relationship of the act to its meaning, 3. Usage: The degree to which a nonverbal behaviour is intended to convey a message According to Ekman and Friesen (1969, in Littlejohn, 2002), based on the origin, non-verbal behaviours could be...innate [or] built into the nervous system, speciesconstant [or] universal behaviour required for survival, or variant across cultures, groups and individuals. For example, Crying when sad and laughing when happy could be classified as innate behaviours, forming groups and families could be classified as species specific behaviour, and forming or avoiding eye contact when speaking to a senior member of the group could be classified as culture-specific non verbal behaviour. According to Ekman and Friesen (1969, in Littlejohn, 2002), based on the usage, nonverbal behaviours could be classified as: a. Communicative acts: Used deliberately to convey meaning. e.g. Nodding one s head when one sees and acquaintance pass by. The nod of the head conveys that one has acknowledged the existence of the acquaintance who just passed by. b. Interactive acts: Acts that influence the behaviour of the other participants. e.g. Turning one s hand palm up, and moving the forefinger towards one s own self. This would mean that the person in the direction of the finger is expected to come towards the person moving his/her finger.

2 c. Informative acts: Acts that convey information without the actual or overt intention to convey information or meaning. e.g. Establishing eye contact with someone and walking towards them would, in most cultures, be interpreted as one s intention to speak with the person one is walking towards. According to Ekman and Friesen (1969, in Littlejohn, 2002), the codes or relationships one may expect to find between behaviours and their meanings could be classified as arbitrary...with no meaning inherent in the sign itself, iconic...resemble the thing being signified, and intrinsic... cues [that] contain their meaning within them and are themselves part of what is being signified. The behaviours of the body expressing the above mentioned relationships may be classified as: A. Body Codes or expression using various parts of the body B. Contact Codes or expression using various forms of physical contact, and C. Spatio-temporal Codes or expression through the way we treat time and the space around us. Let us see go through each of these in detail. A. Body codes may further be classified into a. Oculesics, i.e. Expression transmitted through our eyes. This may further be classified into two broad categories. The eye behavior we use to express our intrapersonal environment, and the eye behavior we use to connect with environment outside of our bodies. The most common types of Oculesic behaviours we come across in our daily lives are (Angell, 2006): i. Intensifying (Exaggerating) Gaze: This refers to focused eye behaviors combined with intense facial expression. This type of gaze could be used to exaggerate the significance of the target of the conversation.

3 Chauhan, Arti. (2011). Intense gaze. Artwork # 37 of 108. Retrieved 11 th August, 2013 from Permission awaited. ii. Neutralizing (Understating) Gaze: This eye behavior refers to a gaze that is similar to looking through something or understating the importance of the target of attention in one s environment. e.g. Chauhan, Arti. (2011). Holy man of India. Artwork # 94 of 108. Retrieved 11 th August, 2013 from Permission awaited.

4 iii. Deintensifying (Avoiding): This refers to the eye behavior that indicates avoidance of attention to the matter at hand. Here the eyes shift from the target of attention and seem distracted while the mouth seems to coincide with some other thought going through the person s mind. e.g. Retrieved 11 th August, 2013 from iv. Masking (Replacing): This refers to layers of expressions visible through different parts of the face. The expression in the eyes is perceived as one strong emotion and the expression on the rest of the face is perceived as another. As the name suggests, this expression is a deliberate attempt to mask or hide what is really going on in the person s mind. e.g. Chauhan, Arti. (2011). Untitled. Artwork # 99 of 108. Retrieved 11 th August, 2013 from Permission awaited.

5 b. Kinesics: Kinesics refer to movement and the messages conveyed to the environment through the way the body moves. Ekman and Friesen (1969, in Littlejohn, 2002) classified kinesic behaviours into five broad categories: i. Emblems: have a verbal translation of a rather precise meaning, [and] may be either arbitrary or iconinc. ii. iii. iv. Illustrators: are used to depict what is being said verbally [and] are intentional. According to Ekman and Friesen (1969, in Littlejohn, 2002), illustrators may be classified as: batons movements that accent or emphasize ideographs sketching the direction of a thought deictic movements pointing spatial movements depicting or outlining space rhythmic movements pacing motions kinetographs depicting physical actions pictographs drawing a picture in the air, [and] emblematic movements illustrating a verbal statement Adaptors: serve to facilitate release of bodily tension e.g. fidgeting. According to Ekman and Friesen (1969, in Littlejohn, 2002), depending upon the target being used to adapt to the environment, adaptors may be classified as: Self adaptors: directed at one s own body. e.g. biting one s nails, pacing up and down, etc. Alter adaptors: directed to another s body. e.g. tapping the shoulder of the person sitting next to you Object adaptors: directed at things. e.g. clicking a pen, playing with a toothpick etc. Affect displays: used to control or coordinate interaction. e.g. showing the palm of the hand to someone who we think should stop talking. v. Regulators: involve the display of feelings and emotions. e.g. smiling. c. Vocalics: These body codes refer to the use of our voice apparatus to add meaning to the words we use.

6 Various ways in which our voice apparatus may supplement our words may be: i. Pronunciation and accents: The way we pronounce words and the emphasis we place on different parts of different words. ii. iii. Paralanguage: which includes pitch (how high or low the voice is), vocal force (intensity or loudness of the voice), rate (speed), quality (overall impression of the voice), and pauses or silence we take when we are speaking. (Seiler and Beall, 2002) Vocal pauses and silence d. Olfactics: Another type of body code is olfactics or the treatment of smells and odors in one s intra and interpersonal environment. This is a highly contextual nonverbal behaviour. For example, in communities and cultures based in warmer geographical regions (where sweating heavily is inevitable and may not necessarily mean bad personal hygiene), the definition of bad or offensive body odor indicates a much higher strength of body odor than the definition used by communities living in colder climates where one does not sweat as much. Similarly, communities that are accustomed to consuming foods that have very strong flavours (e.g. onion, garlic, and asafoetida) do not consider mild smells of these strongly flavoured foods as offensive. When spice consuming communities mingle with communities that do not use these spices in their food, these strong odors emanating from their clothes and often their bodies become bothersome for people not used to these odors. e. Physical appearance: One s treatment of one s own body sends out signals into the environment as to how one wants to be treated by the people one is around (Burgoon, Guerrero & Manusov, 2011). Height, weight, size of the skeletal frame, height to weight ratio, texture, color, and treatment of one s hair (hairstyles, preferred length of one s hair, accessories etc.), length, shape, and treatment of one s nails, color and treatment of one s skin (lotions, make up, jewellery, piercings) etc.) all are subject to scrutiny and interpretation within the context one operates in. Nepotism and discrimination on the basis of physical appearance are some of the common evils that we grapple with every day. Sometimes, we make assumptions about people and how they might work, just by the way they treat their own bodies. The discussion on non verbal behaviors is too long and complex to be dealt with in one session. The discussion on Contact and Spatio-temporal codes will be completed in the next lecture. One very important thing to

7 remember here is that none of the above mentioned behaviors happen in isolation. They all take place in combination with each other and mostly in combination with verbal signals. Questions: References: