nonverbal communication and world of diversity. class 3

Communication Through Nonverbal Messages

Prof. Olga Ivanova

International University of Southern Europe

What is Nonverbal Communication?

• Understanding messages involves more than just listening to spoken words

• Nonverbal communication includes all written and unspoken messages

• Eye contact • Facial expression • Body movements • Space, time, distance, appearance


Functions of Nonverbal Communication


Functions

To complement and illustrate

To replace and substitute

To control and regulate

To reinforce and accentuate

To contradict

Amplify, modify and provide details for a

verbal message

Nodding your head for “yes”, shrugging your

shoulders “I don’t know” Slight head movements, changes in posture, etc.

tell speakers when to continue, to elaborate,

to repeat

Raise the voice to convey important

ideas

The speaker holds their nose while saying that smbd’s new perfume is

wonderful

Forms of Nonverbal Communication

• Eye Contact – eyes are the most accurate predictor of a speaker’s true feelings and attitudes

• We usually distrust those who cannot maintain eye contact

• Enables the message sender to determine whether a receiver is paying attention, showing respect



• Facial Expression – raising or lowering the eyebrows, smiling broadly

• Voluntary and involuntary expressions supplement verbal messages

• Over 250.000 different expressions



• Posture and Gestures – from high status and self confidence to shyness and submissiveness

• Time – e.g. when a director shares their invaluable time with a subordinate , they send a clear non verbal message

• Arriving late to a meeting – no importance or little self-discipline



• Space – how we arrange space around us tells something about ourselves.

• A team leader who arranges chairs informally in a circle rather than in straight rows conveys their desire for a more open exchange of ideas

• Territory – distance between people, private space


Appearance of Business Documents

• The way the letter, memo or report looks can have a positive or a negative effect on the receiver

• Sending an email message full of errors conveys a damaging nonverbal message – the receiver doubts the credibility of a sender

• The documents should be well structured and organized, with headlines and index


Appearance of People

• The way you look – your clothing, cleanness, posture – sends an instant nonverbal message about you

• Viewers make judgments about your status, credibility, personality, and potential

• You will never have a second chance to make the first impression!


Techniques for Improving Nonverbal Communication Skills

1. Establish and maintain eye contact 2. Use posture to show interest – lean forward,

look alert 3. Reduce or eliminate physical barriers –

arrange meeting chairs in a circle 4. Improve your decoding skills – watch facial

expressions and body language to understand the complete message


Techniques for Improving Nonverbal Communication Skills

5. Probe for more information - when you perceive nonverbal cues that contradict verbal meaning, ask: “I’m not sure I understand, please tell me more”

6. Associate with people from diverse cultures – learn about other cultures to widen your knowledge


Exercise

• Assume you’ve been hired into a prestigious job and you want to make a good impression. You also want very much to become influential in the organization.

• Your task: When you attend meetings, what nonverbal behavior and signals can you send that will make a good impression as well as improve your influence? In interacting with colleagues, what nonverbal behavior will make you more impressive and influential?


CASE STUDY

BODY LANGUAGE


Communicating Across Cultures


Globalization of Markets

• Doing business beyond our borders in now commonplace

• The foreign companies find it necessary to adapt to other cultures

• In China and Korea Procter & Gamble learned to promote unisex white diapers (blankets) for children, not blue and pink. Society with intense sexism favoring boys


Intercultural Workforce

• People are on the move• Increasingly diverse workforce encompasses a

wide range of skills, traditions, backgrounds, experiences, outlooks, and attitudes toward work

• Many innovative companies have changed the way that they approach diversity, from seeing it as a legal requirement to seeing it as a strategic opportunity to connect with customers


Challenges of Intercultural Communication


Workplace Diversity

Motivation

Communication

CooperationBackgrounds

Outlooks

Experiences

Attitudes

Characteristics of Culture

• Culture is learned – E.g. in many Middle Eastern and Asian countries same-sex people can walk hand-in-hand, but opposite-sex people may not do so. In Arab cultures conversations are held nose to nose

• Cultures Are Inherently Logical – rules in the culture reinforce its values and beliefs. In Japan, women tend to close their mouth with hands, when smiling. Barbie doll was a failure.


Characteristics of Culture

• Culture Combines the Visible and Invisible – in India people try not to step on insects because they believe in reincarnation and are careful about all forms of life

• Culture is Dynamic – over time cultures will change. When people moved from farms to cities, the way the family members interact changed


Low and High Context Cultures

• Low Context – tend to value individualism. They believe that initiative and self –assertion result in personal achievement (North-Americans, German, Swiss, Scandinavian)

• High Context – more collectivist. They emphasize membership in organizations, groups and teams. Resist independence because it fosters competition and confrontation (Greek, Chinese, Arab, Mexican, Spanish)


Communication Style

• Low Context – words are very important, especially in contracts and negotiations

• High-Context – may treat contracts as statement of intention, and they assume changes will be made later (Japanese), Mexicans may treat contracts as artistic exercises of what may be accomplished in the ideal world


Time Orientation

• Low Context – consider time a precious commodity

• High-Context – time is an unlimited and never-ending resource to be enjoyed

• Asians do not like to be rushed – contradicts with Europeans’ need for speedy decisions


Achieving Intercultural Proficiency

First step> to become aware of your own cultureand how it contradicts with othersSecond step> recognize barriers to interculturalcommunication and try to overcome them


Avoiding Ethnocentrism

• Ethnocentrism – the belied in the superiority of one’s own race (things that seem “right” to you)

• Ethnocentrism causes us to judge others by our own values (example with consultancy in Arab cultures)

• Some Arabs would prefer a hand-shake to a written contract


Bridging the Gap

• Tolerance – practice empathy, be less judgmental and eager to seek common ground

• Saving Face – what community thinks of you. E.g. Japanese have 16 different ways of saying “no”, if you know these details – you will not push further

• Patience – avoid the temptation to finish the sentence if somebody is trying to express a view in English and they don’t speak it very well. Asians use deliberately periods of silence


Examples and Exercises

• Based on what you have learned, describe several broad principles that could be applied in helping the individuals involved understand what went wrong in the following events. What suggestions could you make for remedying the problems involved?


WAL-MART

When Wal-Mart opened a store in Germany,shoppers were annoyed by the door greeters,and they regarded the ever-helpful clerks as anintrusion on their private space. They also weresuspicious when clerks tried to help customersto carry their purchases outside


Spain

The employees of a large US firm became angryover the e-mail messages they received from the

firm’s employees in Spain. Generally, theseroutine messages just explained ongoing

projects. What riled the Americans was this:every Spanish message was copied to the

hierarchy within its division. The Americansdidn’t not understand why e-mail messages had tobe sent to people who had little or nothing to do

with the issues being discussed


nonverbal communication and world of diversity. class 3

Documents

nonverbal communication

nonverbal messages

words nonverbal communication

nonverbal behavior

nonverbal cues

instant nonverbal message

damaging nonverbal message

message sender