Sunday 19 March 2017

Non Verbal Communication Categories And Features

Non-verbal Communication
Today, many researchers are concerned with the information sent by communication that is independent of and different from verbal information; namely, the non-verbal communication. Verbal communication is organized by language; non-verbal communication is not.
Communication is the transfer of information from one person to another. Most of us spend about 75 percent of our waking hours communicating our knowledge, thoughts, and ideas to others. However, most of us fail to realize that a great deal of our communication is of a non-verbal form as opposed to the oral and written forms. Non-verbal communication includes facial expressions, eye contact, tone of voice, body posture and motions, and positioning within groups. It may also include the way we wear our clothes or the silence we keep.
In person-to-person communications our messages are sent on two levels simultaneously. If the nonverbal cues and the spoken message are incongruous, the flow of communication is hindered. Right or wrong, the receiver of the communication tends to base the intentions of the sender on the non- verbal cues he receives.
Categories and Features
Non-verbal communication can be divided into four broad categories:
1. Physical. This is the personal type of communication. It includes facial expressions, tone of voice, sense of touch, sense of smell, and body motions.
2. Aesthetic. This is the type of communication that takes place through creative expressions: playing instrumental music, dancing, painting and sculpturing.
3. Signs. This is the mechanical type of communication, which includes the use of signal flags, the 21-gun salute, horns, and sirens.
4. Symbolic. This is the type of communication that makes use of religious, status, or ego-building symbols.
Other major categories include
Static Features

Distance. The distance one stands from another frequently conveys a non-verbal message. In some cultures it is a sign of attraction, while in others it may reflect status or the intensity of the exchange.
Orientation. People may present themselves in various ways: face-to-face, side-to-side, or even back-to-back. For example, cooperating people are likely to sit side-by-side while competitors frequently face one another.
Posture. Obviously one can be lying down, seated, or standing. These are not the elements of posture that convey messages. Are we slouched or erect ? Are our legs crossed or our arms folded ? Such postures convey a degree of formality and the degree of relaxation in the communication exchange.
Physical Contact. Shaking hands, touching, holding, embracing, pushing, or patting on the back all convey messages. They reflect an element of intimacy or a feeling of (or lack of) attraction.
Dynamic Features

Facial Expressions.
A smile, frown, raised eyebrow, yawn, and sneer all convey information. Facial expressions continually change during interaction and are monitored constantly by the recipient. There is evidence that the meaning of these expressions may be similar across cultures.

Gestures. One of the most frequently observed, but least understood, cues is a hand movement. Most people use hand movements regularly when talking. While some gestures (e.g., a clenched fist) have universal meanings, most of the others are individually learned and idiosyncratic.

Looking. A major feature of social communication is eye contact. It can convey emotion, signal when to talk or finish, or aversion. The frequency of contact may suggest either interest or boredom.

The above list shows that both static features and dynamic features transmit important information from the sender to the receiver.
Let's review these non-linguistic ways of exchanging messages in more detail.
Kinesics
Lamb believes the best way to access an executive's managerial potential is not to listen to what he has to say, but to observe what he does when he is saying it. He calls this new behavioral science "movement analysis." Some of the movements and gestures he has analyzed follow:
Forward and Backward Movements. If you extend a hand straight forward during an interview or tend to lean forward, Lamb considers you to be an "operator"- good for an organization requiring an infusion of energy or dramatic change of course.
Vertical Movements. If you tend to draw yourself up to your tallest during the handshake, Lamb considers you to be a "presenter." You are a master at selling yourself or the organization in which you are employed.
Side-to-Side Movements. If you take a lot of space while talking by moving your arms about, you are a good informer and good listener. You are best suited for an organization seeking a better sense of direction. Lamb believes there is a relationship between positioning of the body and movements of the limbs and facial expressions. He has observed harmony between the two. On the other hand, if certain gestures are rehearsed, such as those made to impress others, there is a tendency to separate the posture and the movements. The harmony disappears.
Studies by Lamb also indicate that communication comes about through our degree of body flexibility. If you begin a movement with considerable force and then decelerate, you are considered a "gentle-touch." By contrast, if you are a "pressurizer," you are firm from beginning to end. The accuracy of Lamb's analyses is not fully known. However, it is important that corporation executives are becoming so sensitive to the importance of non-verbal messages that they are hiring consultants, such as Lamb, to analyze non-verbal communications in their organizations.
Facial Expressions
Facial expressions usually communicate emotions. The expressions tell the attitudes of the communicator. Researchers have discovered that certain facial areas reveal our emotional state better than others. For example, the eyes tend to reveal happiness or sadness, and even surprise. The lower face also can reveal happiness or surprise; the smile, for example, can communicate friendliness and cooperation. The lower face, brows, and forehead can also reveal anger. Mehrabian believes verbal cues provide 7 percent of the meaning of the message; vocal cues, 38 percent; and facial expressions, 55 percent. This means that, as the receiver of a message, you can rely heavily on the facial expressions of the sender because his expressions are a better indicator of the meaning behind the message than his words.
Eye Contact
Eye contact is a direct and powerful form of non-verbal communication. The superior in the organization generally maintains eye contact longer than the subordinate. The direct stare of the sender of the message conveys candor and openness. It elicits a feeling of trust. Downward glances are generally associated with modesty. Eyes rolled upward are associated with fatigue.
Tactile Communication
Communication through touch is obviously non-verbal. Used properly it can create a more direct message than dozens of words; used improperly it can build barriers and cause mistrust. You can easily invade someone's space through this type of communication. If it is used reciprocally, it indicates solidarity; if not used reciprocally, it tends to indicate differences in status. Touch not only facilitates the sending of the message, but the emotional impact of the message as well.
Personal Space
Personal space is your "bubble" - the space you place between yourself and others. This invisible boundary becomes apparent only when someone bumps or tries to enter your bubble.
How you identify your personal space and use the environment in which you find yourself influences your ability to send or receive messages. How close do you stand to the one with whom you are communicating ? Where do you sit in the room? How do you position yourself with respect to others at a meeting? All of these things affect your level of comfort, and the level of comfort of those receiving your message.
Goldhaber says there are three basic principles that summarize the use of personal space in an organization: The higher your position (status) in the organization,
  1. the more and better space you will have,
  2. the better protected your territory will be, and
  3. the easier it will be to invade the territory of lower-status personnel
The impact of use of space on the communication process is related directly to the environment in which the space is maintained.
Environment
How do you arrange the objects in your environment - the desks, chairs, tables, and bookcases? The design of your office, according to researchers, can greatly affect the communications within it. Some managers divide their offices into personal and impersonal areas. This can improve the communication process if the areas are used for the purposes intended.
Your pecking-order in the organization is frequently determined by such things as the size of your desk, square feet in your office, number of windows in the office, quality of the carpet, and type of paintings (originals or copies) on the wall.
It is obvious that your personal space and environment affect the level of your comfort and your status and facilitate or hinder the communication process.
Paralanguage
Is the content of your message contradicted by the attitude with which you are communicating it? Researchers have found that the tone, pitch, quality of voice, and rate of speaking convey emotions that can be accurately judged regardless of the content of the message. The important thing to gain from this is that the voice is important, not just as the conveyor of the message, but as a complement to the message. As a communicator you should be sensitive to the influence of tone, pitch, and quality of your voice on the interpretation of your message by the receiver.
Silence and Time
Silence can be a positive or negative influence in the communications process. It can provide a link between messages or sever relationships. It can create tension and uneasiness or create a peaceful situation. Silence can also be judgmental by indicating favor or disfavor - agreement or disagreement.
For example, suppose a manager finds a couple of his staff members resting.
If he believes these staff members are basically lazy, the idleness conveys to him that they are "goofing off" and should be given additional assignments.
If he believes these staff members are self-motivated and good workers, the idleness conveys to him that they are taking a well-deserved "break."
If he is personally insecure, the idleness conveys to him that they are threatening his authority.
Time can be an indicator of status. How long will you give the staff member who wishes to speak to you? How long will you make him wait to see you? Do you maintain a schedule? Is your schedule such that your subordinates must arrange their schedules to suit yours? In a healthy organization, the manager and his subordinates use time to communicate their mutual respect to each other.
Non verbal Communication: Further Decoded

Any of the five senses: sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch can be used as a medium of communication. In practice only visual, aural and tactile are used in both active (expressive) and passive (receptive) ways.

The term language is usually restricted to speech and writing (and sign, in the case of deaf sign language), because these mediums of transmission display a highly sophisticated internal structure and creativity. Non-verbal communication, by contrast, is relatively less complex and involves less creativity.

Non-verbal communication may involve
1.        physiological vocal reflexes: e.g., coughing and snoring
2.       musical effects: e.g., whistling, also in some societies where whistling serves a more complex communicative function
3.       suprasegmental voice characteristics: voice quality, speech rate, pitch, volume
4.       gustatory signals: symbolism of food and communication function of chatting over coffee or tea, and oral gratification, such as smoking or gum chewing
5.        outlook (Clothing and hair styles; Artefacts and symbols: lapel pins, walking sticks, jewellery etc.; tattoos, piercing)
6.       use of chronemics: time symbolism (e.g. lateness, coming early; long or short speech or visit). Two types of the use of time in communication
a.       monochromatic: a time schedule in which issues are solved consecutively, not simultaneously. In monochromatic societies, time is very important and viewed as something that can and should be used wisely. It is important to be on time, meeting start and end on time. In individualistic cultures such as the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and other Northern European countries, the culture adheres to monochromatic time.
b.      polychromatic: A time schedule in which people tend to do several things at the same time and place higher value on personal involvement than getting things on time. It is common to start meetings and finish them late. Schedules are subordinate to personal relationships such as Latin America, Middle East and Africa.
7.       chromatics: communication of messages through colours. Colours mean one thing in the US, but something different in Asia or Africa. E.g., in US you wear black when mourning, in India white. In Hong Kong traditional bridal dresses are red, in Poland white. In Chile a yellow roses means “I do no like you”, in US the opposite.
8.      body language
a.       kinesic: study of human use of movement as a means of communication
i.         facial expressions (smiling, winking, and eyebrow flashing)
ii.                   gestures (both intended and unintended; directed at someone else and self directed, e.g. nervous
rubbing of hands, waving, gesturing rudely, blessing)
iii.       body postures (kneeling, bowing)
iv.     oculesics: communication through the eye contact, eye movement
In some cultures, staring or maintain continuous eye contact is frown; in the United Sates, it is good manners to look at other person's eyes when talking. In the West it is usually a signal for confidence or sincerity. The Japanese consider direct and constant eye contact a rude gesture that means defiance or challenge. The Japanese may shift their eyes or look down to show respect to another. Looking into someone’s eyes for long may mean a challenge, sexual attraction, reproach, etc.
All of the above display varying levels of formality. Often, visual effects interact closely with speech: movements of the hands and head tend to coincide with points of greatest spoken emphasis, and may convey particular nuances of meaning not easy to communicate in speech (such as the drawing of inverted commas in the air to signal a special meaning).
b.      proxemics: study of human use of space/touch as a means of communication
i.                     the use of space as means of communication such as walking, standing, seating, and movement distance. It is the way people use physical space to convey messages and interact with others. Americans communicating with people from the Middle East or South America tend to violate their intimate or personal distance zones. Office space: The more important you are, the larger the office
Hall's distance zones: Four distances that people use in communicating on a face-to-face are distinguished:
(a)    intimate distance: Distance between people that used for very confidential communications.
(b)   personal distance: In communicating, the physical distance used for talking with family close friends
(c)    social, consultative distance: in communicating, the distance use to handle business transactions, etc.
(d)   public distance: in communicating, the distance used when calling across the room or giving a talk to a group
ii.                   tactile = haptic communication - (Canadians hand shake hands, Japanese bow, Middle Easterners of the same sex kiss on the cheek, Latinos embrace). Tactile communication involves touch (as in shaking hands, grasping someone's arm or shoulder, stroking, and punching) and the manipulation of physical distance and body orientation in order to communicate indifference or disagreement.

9.      silence
a.       communicative values of silence
i.         positive value of silence: common in the East
(1)      interpreted as leaving an option to the interlocutor
(2)    a designated moment to understand what has been communicated, a moment to think and an opportunity to respond in a well thought out manner. (e.g. in Japan)
ii.        negative value of silence: often Western bias in favour or speech rather than silence: short pauses, short speaking turns; but notice saying “Silence is golden”
(1)     interpreted as a sign of impoliteness, hostility, dumbness (in failure to provide an expected response)
(2)    means of concealing the truth
b.      functions of silence
i.         planning of utterances
ii.       marking boundaries of grammatical clauses
iii.      signalling emphasis
iv.      marking particular discourse types
v.        marking particular conversational styles
v Chronemics
The centrality of time to the quality and experience of our lives has led scholars from a variety of disciplines to consider its social origins, including temporal differences among social collectives. Consistent across their accounts is the acknowledgment that time is co-constructed by people via their communicative interactions and formalized through the use of symbols. It takes a chronemic approach to interrogating time in the workplace, exploring how time is a symbolic construction emergent through human interaction.
Time, or chronemics, can be used very differently with respect to individuals and even cultures. Time perceptions include punctuality, willingness to wait, and interactions. Time use affects lifestyles, daily agendas, speed of speech and movements, how long people are willing to listen, etc.
The way time is used can provide information about people as individuals. There are different perceptions about time usage and its value. Also, cultures differ in their usage of time. For example, in European and American societies, when men are interacting with women, they generally control the time use, talk more than women, and interrupt more than women. In the business world, Americans are expected to arrive to meetings on time and, usually, even early. On the other hand, they arrive late to parties and dances.

Chronemics and Power at Work

Time has a definite relationship to power
Power (sociology)
Power is a measure of an entity's ability to control the environment around itself, including the behavior of other entities. The term authority is often used for power, perceived as legitimate by the social structure. Power can be seen as evil or unjust, but the exercise of power is accepted as...

In the workplace, those in a leadership or management position treat time – and by virtue of position – have their time treated differently than those who are of a lower stature position. Anderson and Bowman have identified three specific examples of how chronemics and power converge in the workplace – waiting time, talk time and work time.
  • Waiting Time
    The act of making an individual of a lower stature wait is a sign of dominance. The one who “is in the position to cause another to wait has power over him. To be kept waiting is to imply that one’s time is less valuable than that of the one who imposes the wait.”

    Employees of equal stature will not worry about whether they are running a few minutes behind schedule to meet with one another. On the other hand, for a mid-level manager who has a meeting with the company president, a late arrival might be a nonverbal cue that you do not respect the authority of your superior.
  • Talk Time
There is a direct correlation between the power of an individual in an organization and conversation. This includes both length of conversation, turn-taking and who initiates and ends a conversation. Extensive research indicates that those with more power in an organization will speak more often and for a greater length of time. Meetings between superiors and subordinates provide an opportunity to illustrate this concept. A superior – regardless of whether or not they are running the actual meeting – lead discussions, ask questions and have the ability to speak for longer periods of time without interruption. Likewise, research shows that turn-taking is also influenced by power. The length of response follows the same pattern. While the superior can speak for as long as they want, the responses of the subordinate are shorter in length.   Albert MehrabiaAlbert Mehrabian , has become known best by his publications on the relative importance of verbal and nonverbal messages.. 

  • Work Time
    It is not likely that you will ever see a president or a high level executive punching a time clock. Their time is perceived as more valuable and they control their own time. On the other hand, a subordinate with less power has their time controlled by a higher status individual and are in less control of their time – making them likely to report their time to a higher authority. Such practices are more associated with those in non-supervisory roles or in blue collar rather than white collar
    White collarWhite collar could refer to:* White-collar worker refers to a salaried professional or an educated worker who performs semi-professional office, administrative, and sales coordination tasks, as opposed to a blue-collar worker, whose job requires manual labor....

 professions. Instead, as power and status in an organization  the flexibility of the work schedule also increases. For instance, while administrative professionals might keep a 9 to 5  
9 to 59 to 5 is a phrase used to describe a conventional and possibly tedious job. Negatively used, it connotes a tedious or unremarkable occupation, the idea being that, because the job is so boring, the workplace shuts down outside of required hours. The phrase also indicates that a person is an...
work schedule, their superiors may keep less structured hours. This does not mean that the superior works less. They may work longer, but the structure of their work environment is not strictly dictated by the traditional work day.

A specific example of the way power is expressed through work time is scheduling.
Higher-status individuals have very precise and formal schedules – indicating that their stature requires that they have specific blocks of time for specific meetings, projects and appointments. Lower status individuals however, may have less formalized schedules. Finally, the schedule and appointment calendar of the higher status individual will take precedence in determining where, when and the importance of a specific event or appointment.
v Haptics, tacesics
Haptics deals with touching behavior in different societies. While haptics can be hostile (kicking), more often haptic behavior is used to indicate the degree of intimacy. Heslin (1974), distinguished between the following degrees of intimacy:
o   functional/professional
o   social/polite
o   friendship/warmth
o   love/intimacy
The most widespread heptic symbol is the hand shake. This however differs in degrees, length and strength between the various levels of intimacy (or gets completely replaced by more intimate heptic behavior). A level 3 handshake for example in Spain could include the use of a double grip, which might cause confusion for, for example, a German. Equally the level 2 handshake is stronger in Spain than in Northern Europe, and might hence be interpreted as 'over-friendly' by Northern Europeans, while the level 2 handshake of the Northern European might be interpreted as functional only by the Spaniard.
Even more confusing would be a confrontation of a 'non-contact' culture, such as a Northern European one, with a 'contact-culture', where frequent touching is a sign of friendship or politeness (level 2 or 3). For example an Indian heptic behavior might be interpreted as a level 4 or 5 behavior.
Functional/professional
Managers should know the effectiveness of using touch while communicating to subordinates, but need to be cautious and understand how touch can be misunderstood. A hand on the shoulder for one person may mean a supportive gesture, while it could mean a sexual advance to another person. Working with others and using touch to communicate, a manager needs to be aware of each person’s touch tolerance.
A person in power is more likely to touch a subordinate, but the subordinate is not free to touch in kind. Touch is a powerful nonverbal communication tool and this different standard between a superior and subordinate can lead to confusion whether the touch is motivated by dominance or intimacy.
The initial connection to another person in a professional setting usually starts off with a touch, specifically a handshake. A person's handshake can speak volumes about them and their personality. Touching is the ultimate expression of closeness or confidence between two people, but not seen often in business or formal relationships. Touching stresses how special the message is that is being sent by the initiator. "If a word of praise is accompanied by a touch on the shoulder, that’s the gold star on the ribbon," wrote Walton.
v Kinesics
Is a relatively far reaching expression for body language, a major factor that can differ from cultures to cultures, in particular when no, or little visual information is available on the other culture. One example of such a major misinterpretation: When Khrushchev visited the US at the height of the cold war, he greeted the press with a clasping of his hands, shaking them over each shoulder. This expression is understood to be a sign of greeting of friends in the USSR, symbolizing the embracing of a good friend. In the US this gesture is understood to be the symbol of the winner in a battle; consequently, the US media understood the message as a sign that the USSR would be victorious over the US.
The examples of misunderstanable, kinesic signs are endless. One of the explanations for that is of course the fact that many of them are based on proverbial sayings in a language, which can not be translated literally. For example the French "ça t'a passé sous le nez" (literally: that has passed under your nose) is often used to describe "you missed your opportunity", the kinesic sign for it is, of course, passing a hand under the nose, which makes perfectly no sense to members of a non-francophone culture.
The amount of kinesics usage varies of course equally, also for what they are used. Asian cultures, for example, are less inclined to show any kinesics at all, southern Europeans are far more open to show them. The kinesic usage is also related to genders.
v Proxemics
This refers to the way in which people structure the space around them. Generally spoken, low context cultures have a tendency to have farther distances than high context cultures, although this does not apply to south-east Asian cultures, who are equally high context and prefer a large distance. For example shaking hands is something that is highly uncomfortable for Chinese, while even the tap on the shoulder, often practiced by US Americans, can be interpreted as threatening in Northern European countries.
v Oculesics
Oculesics is the use of the eyes in a communication setting. In most Western cultures again, the use of direct eye contact symbolizes listening and attention. However, direct eye contact is seen as unfavorable by for example various Asian cultures. The length of the eye contact is also a cultural variable, as it might extend to become perceived as aggression when used for too long, or as uninterested, when perceived too short.
v Paralanguage
Paralinguistics are also a major player in cross-cultural confusion. For example the notion that Americans are talking too loud is often interpreted in Europe as aggressive behavior or can be seen as a sign of uncultivated behavior. Likewise, the British way of speaking quietly might be understood as secretive by Americans.
The speed of talking equally is different in various cultural settings. For example Finnish is spoken relatively slowly in comparison to other European languages. This form of speaking has often resulted in the Finish as being regarded somewhat 'slow' and lax.
Further importance is given to the amount of silence that is perceived as right during a conversation. A Japanese proverb says "Those who know do not speak - those who speak do not know"; this must come as a slap in the face of, for example, US Americans where even a slight silence is seen as embarrassing, and hence is filled up with speaking, something often perceived as hypomanic. Similarly, but different in usage, is the avoidance of silence in Arabic countries, where word games are played and thoughts repeated to avoid silence.
v Symbolism and Passive Non-verbal Communication
The symbolism and other forms of passive non-verbal communication are equally a major influence factor for communication problems between different cultures.
The meanings of colors for example can be highly different in various cultures; for example a red circle symbolizes for many south-east Asians Japanese aggression during W.W.II. Green has become a color dominantly representing Irish and Ireland in countries with a high Irish immigration rate, such as the UK, US and Australia, while being totally associated with the ecological and peace movement in continental Europe.
Numerical symbolism equally can vary. An example of this is the number 13, in Christian cultures often associated with bad luck (in Christian mythodology, 13 is unlucky as 13 attendants were at the Last Supper), while in Jewish societies, 13 is a number of luck: The Talmud teaches that God has 13 attributes.
Politically and religiously connected symbols can equally cause confusion, or even anger. A cross, for example, worn in a Middle Eastern Arab society might be interpreted as a direct attack onto the Islam (and may even be forbidden to be worn by law).



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