London school of business and law
Master foundation programme
Managerialcommunication
Nonverbalcommunication in the context of managerial
communication
Student name:
Tamara Sargsyan
Tutor name:
Tatiana Pavlovsky
June2010
Table ofContents
Introduction
1. Communication:Verbal and Non-verbal
2. Why non-verbalcommunication can be considered relevant
3. Why non-verbalcommunication can be considered irrelevant
Conclusion
References and Bibliography
Introduction
The purpose ofthis essay is to analyse why non-verbal communication
can be consideredrelevant or irrelevant in the context of
managerial communication.
In the firstpart of the main body we the definitions of
communication will be given as wellas the types of communications
will be presented. And also we will see whatrole plays
communication in an organization.
In the secondpart the relevance of non-verbal communication will be
examined and exampleswill be given for every statement and
argument. Here the statements will besupported by academic
arguments.
In the thirdpart the irrelevance of non-verbal communication will
be analysed, and similarto the previous part all the opinions will
be supported by academic arguments.
In the finalpart a conclusion will be made whether non-verbal
communication is relevant orirrelevant in the context of managerial
communication through bringing togetherthe statements both from
second and third parts.
1. Communication:Verbal and Non-verbal
A little aboutcommunication:Communication can be considered as one
of most important and basic needs ofhuman beings. It can be defined
as exchange of information between entities.(Khan, 2001)
Usually whenwe say «communication» we imagine things connected with
verbalcommunication, like talking on phones, listening to radio,
etc. Verbalcommunication needs language; however it is not the only
type of communication.Also non-verbal communication exists which
does not need language and ideas canbe expressed independent of a
language. Non-verbal communication is alwaysconnected with the
senses of humans, because through that senses one getsinformation.
(Khan, 2001)
Through thesense of sight we can see motion, colours, shapes, which
are all means ofnon-verbal communication. The sense of hearing is
usually thought to be moreverbal than non-verbal, but it is proved
that many feelings like calmness orcheerfulness can be communicated
through using some rhythmic sounds. Somepeople think that sense of
smell can recall our memory best of the others.Sense of taste is
connected with the sense of smell, and tasting food and drinkcan
communicate friendship, agreement and approval. Sense of touch is
also usedas a mean of communication. Examples are a kiss, a
handshake, a hug, etc.(Khan, 2001; Hibbitts, 1992)
Communicationin an organization: Communication plays central role
in every organization especially it isimportant for management as
it is necessary for effective management. It hasbeen shown that
communication, especially oral skills have significant impacton
success in business environment. (Hargie, Dickson & Tourish,
1999)
Study ofStanford University MBA graduates was carried out and it
showed that goodcommunication is the most important skill for
success in business. (Hamilton,2008)
Communicationis considered to be the organization’s oxygen, blood,
brain, central nervoussystem, arteries, highways for transacting a
business, fuel or glue. Thesecomparisons all show how important is
the communication in management. (Hargie,Dickson & Tourish
1999)
2. Whynon-verbal communication can be considered relevant
Almost everymanagement textbook mentions that non-verbal
communication plays a significantrole in an organization.
Communication itself is very important in anorganization as it
takes 80% of the managers’ day. (Riggio, Feldman, 2005)
There is anopinion that non-verbal communication is the most
powerful form ofcommunication and it makes you understand people
better than words. Goodcommunicators are always sensitive to the
emotions. (Heathfield, n.d.)
Let us see whynon-verbal communication can be relevant in everyday
life and especially formanagers.
First of allit helps to interpret the verbal means of communication
right. In our everydaylife we usually use body language to give a
full meaning to our words. Andsaying the same word with different
facial expressions and different movementscan mean totally
different things. For example when we call someone an «idiot»with
smile doesn’t mean the same when we do the same with anger. (Khan,
2001)
Secondly it helpsto develop good interpersonal relationships not
only at work place but also athome. It’s worth mentioning the
famous cliché that says «actionstalk louder than words». For
establishing good relationships it is crucialto be able to
understand and use non-verbal communication in a proper way.
Forexample, if someone always talks with angry manner or with
intonation ofblaming everyone,he/she can never have good
relationships with people, no matter how kind his/her wordsare.
(Non-verbal communication in building relationships, n.d.)
Non-verbalcommunication is very important during hiring and
evaluating the personnel.Usually people think that during the jog
interviews the verbal communication isthe only important thing.
However, researches show that the applicants, whoshow more
expressive non-verbal behaviour, such as eye-contact,
smiling,interview-focused, usually receive more favourable
evaluation. For example,during interviews the HR manager of the
bank where I used to work first of allwas paying attention on
cloths of the applicants as she considered it animportant factor
for understanding the nature of the applicant. (Riggio,
Feldman,2005)
Understandingnon-verbal communication helps managers to be more
sensitive. If the managerunderstands his/her employees’ emotions
he/she can easily surpass the managerswho are short of sensitivity.
In cases when the manager-follower relations havehigh quality the
managers provide emotional support and motivate theirfollowers.
These high-quality relations are usually led by mutual trust
andrespect. What is more, some suggest that non-verbal
communication skills arethe most important skills that a leader
must have to create good relationshipswith followers. (Riggio,
Feldman, 2005)
My sister’sexample is the brightest example of successful
leadership. She became the headof customer service department of a
bank at the age of 23 after working withthat bank only one year.
That was mainly because she had a strong sense ofunderstanding
emotions of not only her colleagues but also other managers andthe
CEO. Every employee respects and trusts her. Of course her
promotion was not built only on hersensitivity; however this
specification played a huge role on her career.
Non-verbalcommunication is very important for attracting customers.
It is not a secretthat polite and «with smile» service always has
better impact oncustomers. Studies with waiters show that even
little things like crouchingdown to the customer’s table, slightly
touching the customer always bring togetting more tips from them.
(Riggio, Feldman, 2005)
For example, whenlooking at the statistic in our bank we could
always find out that one of ourcustomer service employees always
was doing more job than the others. At theyear end, taking into
account the opinions of other employees, that girl wonthe prize
«Smile of the Bank». As all the employees of our bank werealso the
clients of the bank they can reflect the opinion of other
customers,and taking into account the volume of work done by that
that employee, we cancome to a conclusion that she could easily
attract customers by her smile.
Non-verbalmeans of communication sometimes seem more trustworthy.
Usually people firsttry to rely on non-verbal communication to
express their feelings and emotions.They seem to be more trustable
as they are usually unconscious and people thinkthat they never
lie. (Besson et al., 2005)
Here thebrightest example will be the American television series
«Lie to me»,which is about a firm which employees accept
assignments from third parties andthrough their ability of
interpreting micro expressions and reading the bodylanguage they
always find the truth because the unconscious nature of
humannon-verbal behaviour always betray what they want to hide.
Summarizingall the above mentioned and looking at non-verbal
communication in the contextof managerial communication, we can see
that non-verbal communication plays asignificant role both in
hiring a staff and earning respect and love of thefollowers and
getting promotions in the career.
3. Whynon-verbal communication can be considered irrelevant
nonverbaldialogue gesture mimicry
In this partof essay analysis of the reasons why non-verbal
communication can be consideredirrelevant will be done.
First of all culturaldifferences have huge impact on non-verbal
communication. They often lead tomiscommunication. An example of a
student and an employee of a university canhighlight this statement
better. A multinational student was trying to explaina white woman
in the university that he had paid the bill and he was doing itby
waving his hands and minimizing the distance between him and the
woman.There was an impression that the student was chasing her, but
in realityminimizing the distance between people was considered to
be respectful from thepoint of view of the student’s culture. Also
there are lots of signs andmovements that differ from culture to
culture and using them incorrectly canlead to miscommunication.
(The importance of Nonverbal Communication. N.d.; Riggio,Feldman,
2005)
Wronginterpretation may bring unwanted results. This statement can
be connectedwith the previous one but can be considered from
another point of view. Wrong interpretation can be bothbecause
someone is understood wrong and because someone sent wrong signals.
Inboth cases business, career, relationships, and even self-esteem
may suffer. (Hogan,2010)
Forunderstanding this statement better let’s study the example of
my friend. Sheis a very hardworking person, and she never liked to
sit without a work. Hermanager always gave her as little work as
possible, because he always thoughtthat my friend didn’t like to do
much work. Even after she told him that it wasquite opposite he
didn’t believe as he misinterpreted the emotions of myfriend. And
finally my friend gave up the work and moved to another firm.
Thisexample shows that in this case giving more relevance to
non-verbal behaviourwas wrong and because of that suffered both my
friend and the firm. (Hogan,2010)
Otherstatement that shows the irrelevance of non-verbal behaviour
is that duringinterviews and employee estimation verbal behaviour
is much more important thannon-verbal. The aim of the interviewing
for a job or evaluating existingemployees is to find out if the
applicant is «hireable» or qualifiedenough for the specific job. In
such cases most managers give more relevance toverbal behaviour
than to non-verbal, because the qualification and thereadiness to
answering questions is sometimes more important for a job.(Riggio,
Feldman, 2005)
For example,once I was watching a television show about dress-code
in organizations. It wastelling about a woman who was working in a
bank but she liked to dresscolourful dresses, and as she was very
high qualified professional themanagement excused her colourful
appearance in the bank.
Summarizingthe above mentioned we can see that non-verbal
communication has aspects thatmake it to become irrelevant both
during every day life and within anorganization.
Conclusion
Looking at allthe above mentioned points of relevance and
irrelevance of non-verbalcommunication, we can come to a
conclusion, than verbal and non-verbal communicationbehaviour can
not be separated from each other.
Though we saythat non-verbal communication has a cultural meaning
we also know that bodylanguage has universal components and there
are signs and gestures than do notvary from culture to culture.
Though we saythat non-verbal behaviour can be interpreted wrong, we
also can say thatwithout them people would misunderstand each other
much more frequently.
And though wesay that during evaluating or interviewing employees
verbal behaviour is muchmore important, we can say for sure that
though some employers can excuse thedress-code violations, no
employer will excuse more serious non-verbalmisbehaviours such as
talking on phone during the interview even to the bestqualified
employee.
In my opinionnot only in the context of managerial communication
but also in our everydaylife non-verbal communication can be
considered more relevant than irrelevant,because it helps to
understand each other more frequently than brings
tomisunderstanding. As it is always good not to be very extreme
let’s always try toremember about negative results of non-verbal
communication.
References and Bibliography
References
1. HamiltonC., 2008, Communication for results: a guide for
business and the professions,8th edition, Belmont, Tomson
wadsworth
2. HargieD. W. O., Dickson D., & Tourish D, 1999,
Communication in management,Hampshire, Gower Publishing Limited
3. RiggioR. E., Feldman R. S., (ed.), 2005, Application of
nonverbal communication,Mahwah, New Jersey, Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates Inc.
Electronic sources4. Besson C., Graf D., Hartung I.,
KropfhäusserB. and Voisard S., 2005 TheImportance of Non-verbal
Communication in Professional Interpretation, retrieved on June 18
from
5. HeathfieldS. M., n.d, Listen with your eyes, retrieved on
June 18 from
6. HibbittsB.J., 1992, Coming to our senses: Communication and
Legal Expression inPerformance Cultures, retrieved on June 17
from
7.HoganK., 2010 Secrets of Reading Body Language, retrieved on June
18 from 8. Khan A. A., 2001, Non-Verbal Communication: Fact
andFiction, retrieved on June 15 from
9. Non-verbalcommunication in building relationships, n.d.,
retrieved on June 18 from
10. Theimportance of Nonverbal Communication. N.d., retrieved
on June 18 from
Bibliography
Widdowson H.G., 2001, Teaching language ascommunication, 12th
impression, Oxford, Oxford University Press
Electronic sources
Stagl H., n.d., Monitor Your Organization’s
«Non-Verbal»Communication, retrieved on June 18 from
Non-Verbal Communication Skills, n.d., retrieved onJune 18 from
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