Managing Communication in Business - Essay Example

Student Name> Managing Communication in Business Introduction: When people communicate with one another in a get together or in an office, they normally do so in two ways; verbal and non verbal. Verbal communication is the normal way of communication which depends upon the use of words while non-verbal is independent of the use of words. Such communication is done without the least motion of tongue. Non-verbal cues and behaviors include postures, facial expression, eye gaze, gestures, voice tone, hand shake, hairstyle, appearance, clothes, how close you stand to others, how you listen, confidence, your breathing, the way you move, the way you stand, the way you touch people, color choice, silence etc. Thus every message that is communicated without the use of words falls under the definition of non-verbal communication. The non-verbal communication exhibits who we are and how we relate to other people. It is the silent way to express our feelings and emotions. In 1872 Charles Darwin’s publication The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals came on the fore front and set a trend for researchers to explore the types, effects, and expression of unspoken communication and behavior. It has been observed that 93% of communication is nonverbal which further includes 55% through facial expression, posture, gesture and 38% through tone of voice. These researchers have further identified certain types of non-verbal communication which are explained below: 1) Facial Expression: It has been seen that the largest constituent of non-verbal communication is facial expressions. A human face has 80 muscles and can create more than 7,000 facial expressions. Only a smile and frown can convey abundance of information that can be very difficult to express sometimes through the use of words. The facial expressions for happiness, sadness, anger, and fear are similar throughout the world despite of people living with various cultural backgrounds. Happiness, disgust, fear, anger, surprise and sadness are six main types of facial expressions found in all cultures. 2) Kinesics __ Body Movement / Gestures: Kinesics also called body movements is a study of various gestures any human being can give in different situations. Meaning or purpose of certain gestures are common in every culture which are waving, pointing, and using fingers to indicate number amounts while the meaning of other gestures vary from culture to culture. According to Ekman and Freisen Kinesics are of five types: Emblems, illustrators, regulators, display of feelings and adaptors. Emblems are those body movements that are a replacement of words e.g. for the word ‘no’ people will simply shake their head once right and then left in order to show their disapproval silently etc. Illustrator is the use of hand movement along with the accent to reinforce or emphasize words e.g. the fish was this big! Regulator is defined as the controlling of back and forth flow of speaking and listening. Display of feelings is normally done through face and body motions and adaptor is the way of adjusting to communication situation e.g. twisting of hair and tapping pen etc. 3) Paralinguistics: Paralinguistic is also a form of non-verbal communication but it is a little different from that of others. Others involve purely silent communication without any inclusion of words but paralinguistic does include words. It is basically a signal given through change in the tone of voice, loudness, inflection, and pitch. Sometimes disapproval is shown through a lower than routine tone of voice, care is shown through soft tone; anger is expressed through rough and rude tone etc. This type of communication is used where a person does not want to use specific words to explain e.g. a debater tries to convince through the tone of voice not through the use of words. Albert Mehrabian, a non-verbal communication researcher has estimated that on average 39% of communication is paralinguistic. Paralinguistic is done through the use of following: 1) Rate speed: it is the speed of speaking. People speak faster when in anger, medium when they want to convince and slower when they want to show disapproval and lack of interest. 2) Pitch: pitch means the highness or lower ness of voice. When someone wants to be rude he/she normally raises the pitch of the voice while for affectionate purpose low pitch is used. 3) Volume: it is the loudness of voice. Often loud voice is used when someone wants to get attention towards what they want to communicate. 4) Vocal fillers: these are small words to fill up gaps among words and add to their meaning. e.g. huh, uff, ah etc. 5) Quality: it includes tempo, rhythm, resonance and articulation. 1 4) Body language and posture: Non verbal communication can be done through the use of whole body, physique or posture, however a person want to term it as. A great example of it is modeling in which the models do cat walk etc and express everything they should to convey the message of marketing for their wearable. Defensive postures, arm-crossing, and leg-crossing are the most popular postures used. This topic gained significant importance since 1970s and Julius Fast even wrote a book namely Body Language. 5) Proxemics: It is the study of space and distance. It is basically the ‘personal space’ required by everyone. It varies from person to person and situation to situation. In a crowed the speaker would like to stand at a distance of 10 to 12 feet from people but the same would demand only 18 inches to four feet while engaged in a casual conversation. It also varies from culture to culture. Intimate Distance is no more than 18 inches, Personal Distance is from 18 inches to four feet, Social Distance is from four to twelve feet and Public Distance is more than twelve feet. 6) Occulesics __ Eye behavior/ Eye Gaze: It is the message given through eyes. Eyes can be made wider, smaller, bright, dull, winked etc to communicate different types of feelings and messages. When we like something or someone our blinking rate decreases and eyes dilate but the same contract for dislikeness. Yasir Arafat used to wear dark glasses to hide his personal feelings visible through eyes, according to anthropologist Hall. According to Argyle and Dean eye contact is made for interaction and obligation. When we try to remember we look in one direction while it is not the case when we try inventing some idea. 7) Haptics: It is the communication through touch. Touch shows intimacy and closeness. It is especially important for the development and grooming of personal relationships. Even a good friendship requires expression of hidden feelings through touch. A hand put on shoulder when you are worried expresses that you are not alone. Especial research studies have been done on the importance of touch in infancy and early childhood. Harry Harlow did research on the upbringing of monkeys. He found that deprivation of touch caused poor upbringing of monkeys and they used to be unhealthy both physically and mentally when grown up. 8) Appearance/ Artifacts: Appearance is now considered very important especially in businesses. Therefore, many corporations have their specific uniforms to portray whom they represent e.g. FedEx employees wear shirts at which FedEx logo is displayed, in party women wear shocking colors and glitters to show that they are in a party to celebrate, happiness is shown through bright colors in clothing, on funerals people wear black to express their mourning etc. In the world of marketing these days appearance matters a lot. The presenters have to wear what can present specifically the background of their content etc. 9) Olfactics: This is the communication through smell. If a person smells good people are attracted to him/her. If someone has put up too much perfume it portrays a cheap and substandard state of mind etc. 10) Chronomics: This communication is done through the use of time. Usually we see that in many cultures the higher status people come in the end in get together and meetings. If you go to some higher ranked person he/ she will most probably make you wit for hours. So through time gaps people often try to communicate their sense of importance. 2 Nowadays the human resources in organizations are composed of people coming from diversified cultural backgrounds. They do not only speak in different dialects but also use differing non-verbal communication forms which are sometimes hard for people to understand coming from different cultures and this non-understanding sometimes become reason for disputes and conflicts. Therefore now it has become necessary for people with different cultural backgrounds in offices to understand non-verbal communication forms used by others.3 Here we will apply the discussed non verbal communication types to Australia and China. Below we have given different non-verbal communication forms used in both Australia and China according to the available data. Non-verbal communication styles in Australia: Here we will take a brief account of the various non-verbal communication ways used in the business perspectives of Australia. It is to be noted that not all the types discussed above can be applied in this example due to lack of information available. Gestures: 1) Shaking hands is considered as a token of good demeanor both at meeting and leaving. 2) Women may greet each other with a kiss on the cheek but it happen seldom. 3) Business cards are exchanged among professional workers. 4) Directness and brevity are valued by Australians. 5) Opinionated discussions are welcomed. 6) Interrupting discussions are regarded nicely. 7) Australians also raise the arm with palm facing down, and make a scratching motion with fingers to beckon. Curling the index finger is used for beckoning animals only. 8) Using thumbs up and down gestures are considered obscene.4 Appearance: 1) In offices men wear dark business suit and tie. 2) Women wear dress, skirt and blouse in office. 3) In informal occasions casual dressing is acceptable. 4) In same gender men are not approved of showing physical attachment. 5) Winking at women is considered rude. Behavior: 1) Punctuality in office hours is demanded. 2) Eye contact is appreciated in both formal meetings and casual conversations. 3) Giving gifts is not appreciated in business 4) If you want to pay for drinks then do so on your turn otherwise it is disapproved. 5) Discipline is very much demanded whether you are to stand in a queue or at a bus stop. 6) Littering is considered much uncivilized.5 China: Here we will discuss the various non-verbal communication types used in the business perspective of Chine, an Asian country. It is to be noted that the non-verbal communication styles used in Asia are almost same in all Asian countries. Here again due to less and to the point availability of data we cannot apply all the discussed types to the Chinese business culture. Greetings Gestures: 1. in China people give a slight bend to their head or nod to greet. Hand shaking for greeting is considered to be a Western style and is done only in formal or customary form of greeting. 2. business cards are exchanged and it is expected them to be printed in the greeter’s own language and in Chinese. Cards are presented using both hands with a slight bow to show respect and honor. 3. Chinese often clap in the form of a group to welcome and they expect same in return or just a thank you. 4. in large cities or communities it is considered bad to have a direct eye contact or stare but in smaller cities people do so. Touching Gestures: 1) Touching and body contact are not considered good or acceptable. It is especially true for visitors. 2) Among opposite gender public display of affection is strongly disapproved but same sex people are found walking hand in hand openly as friends. 3) In crowd pushing is a usual thing whether it is in a market or a bus stop to board the bus and there is no fashion of apologizing or even accepted. 4) Chinese stand closer than westerners while talking. Beckoning Gestures: 1) To beckon human beings palm faced down with fingers moved in a scratching motion is used. Index finger, palm up and toward you, in a back forth curling motion toward your body are used only to beckon animals. 2) For pointing open hand is used. 3) Using feet to gesture or to move or touch other objects is considered lowly and dirty.6 Other Nonverbal Gestures: 1) People accept physical interaction from older and senior people as a sign of respect. 2) Drooping posture and putting feet on desks and chairs is considered very bad. 3) Silence is considered really well and is taken as a symbol of politeness and contemplation. 4) Interruptions are not welcome during conversations. 5) Saying “no” is considered rude so instead of flatly refusing tip the head backward and audibly suck air in through the teeth. 6) Only low class and uneducated people are considered to spit on street and blow nose without handkerchief.7 The above two examples cannot be completely comparable to each other because in one gestures’ data is more available and in the other behavioral data is more available. But a conscious comparison shows that Chinese culture is more of a smooth, silent and reserve with respect to that of Australian. Conclusion and Recommendations: After taking a detailed overview of non-verbal communication and studying them in the light of two countries with very different cultures we have concluded that in every culture and society feelings and emotions are exchanged through non-verbal way but the difference comes in their meaning and acceptance. Australia being a western country accepts open and friendly behaviors both in business and personal lives but even there certain types of public displays are not welcomed. China is a country with very reserve culture and norms. Therefore the westerns have to be very careful when communicating and interacting with Chinese. Similarly when Chinese go to western countries they have to develop flexibility, openness and extra acceptance in their attitudes to survive there. Some tips or recommendations are given as follows that can help anyone who wants to go to some other country on business trip, to make a living or simply to enjoy a vacation: 1) Before going take a deep reading of the cultural demands of the country especially of non-verbal communication styles. 2) Be very conscious while expressing your feelings through body movements etc because a single wrong signal can spoil a great business deal. 3) Better to keep a visiting pamphlet about that country in order to keep yourself up to date about values and norms of that country. 4) Pay attention to non-verbal communication while communicating to them. 5) Look for incongruent behaviors. Researches have proved that when words do not match facial or body expressions people only consider non-verbal expressions. 6) Concentrate on your tone of voice when speaking. 7) Practice as much as you can to avoid any mishap. Thus it is contingent upon the visitor to comply with the culture, norms and values of the host country. As much knowledge you have about the host country communication ways as much successful you can be there. Works Cited 1. Alice Murie (2001). Communication Problems in Australia – Japan Business. Monash University. 2. Cheryl Hamilton (2005). Communicating for Results: A Guide for Business and the Professions. Thompson Wadsworth. 3. D. Ray Heisey, Wenxiang Gong (1998). Communication and Culture: China and the World entering the 21st Century. Rodopi. 4. Godwin C. Chu (1976). Communication and Development in China. East West Center. 5. Riggio, Ronald E. (2005). Applications of Non Verbal Communication. Routledge. 6. Robert Burns (2002). Making Meetings Happen. Allen & Unwin. 7. Shirley Taylor (2005). Communication for Business: A Practical Approach. Pearson Longman. Read More