Nonverbal behaviors have a significant impact on human communication. In fact, it has been estimated that approximately two-thirds of the perceived meaning in any communication situation is likely to be stimulated by nonverbal messages. Mehrabian and Ferris (1967) estimate that on average, 93 percent of meaning in interpersonal communication comes from nonverbal messages. While this estimate may appear somewhat high, scholars and practitioners, agree that much of the meaning a person receives from a message, comes from the available nonverbal messages.
Even if a person is not visible to another (for example, using the phone - the person's voice will send nonverbal cues as to what the person is thinking or feeling). People have had the experience of calling an organization for information, and getting a person with a voice that is monotone, harsh, and/or unpleasant sounding. Usually, these types of vocal tones result in a negative reaction, and do not encourage a person to carry on a conversation, or to call back for more information. Our negative reactions (to the person on the phone, and the organization he/she represents) can be entirely produced by the nonverbal messages we receive.
Nonverbal communication is the process of a person - or persons - (such as a manager) stimulating meaning in the mind of another person, or persons, In talking to people in organizations, using words mandates that we use at least one set of nonverbal messages - vocalic cues, for it is through vocalic cues that words are conveyed to others.
SIGNIFICANCE OF NONVERBAL COMMUNICATION IN ORGANIZATIONS
There are six reasons why we believe nonverbal communication is extremely important in organisations. Each is a sufficient reason to try to better understand nonverbal communicative messages
- The first form of human communication was nonverbal communication. Before the development of formal oral languages, and many additional millennia before such recent developments; as writing, sign language, and e-mail, the human species used nonverbal messages as their only form of communication. Gestures, facial expressions, and vocalic noises were used to convey meanings. We see such communication continuing today in our nearest relatives, other primates. Nonverbal communication is a core behavior in humans (as with other primates) that surrounds our verbal communication. Organizations are made up of human beings (regardless of what we might think some of them descend from). And humans are first and foremost nonverbal communicators - the receptionist who smiles at us when we enter the door often counts for far more in determining how we feel about the organization than all the lofty slogans the bureaucrats bleat in its name.
- Many people fail at communication because they are non-verbally illiterate. It is amazing the number of people who disregard the impact of nonverbal communication on relationships in organizations. Quite simply, many managers and employees fail to become effective communicators because they do not understand that nonverbal communication is an integral and critical part of the total communication process. While people work to perfect their verbal communication, they disregard the impact of the nonverbal. But we can't help but be hesitant to place blame on individuals in this regard. Our educational system puts almost a totally exclusive emphasis on verbal communication, and 99 percent of that on written communication, While every student in primary school and secondary school has been inundated with information about verbal communication (often in multiple languages). It is no wonder that the most common, and destructive, mistakes in communication, which are made in organizations, are nonverbal ones.
- Nonverbal messages are always present. Many communication scholars (and practitioners) realize that nonverbal communication continues, even when the verbal communication has ended. People can communicate with each other non-verbally, even when they are not speaking. For example, a severe look or an overwhelming gesture, may say more than words. And may do so in the complete absence of words.
- Verbal and nonverbal messages work together. It is virtually impossible to find a verbal message that does not have a nonverbal component. Even computer language, e-mail and other non-human technologies, carry a non-verbal component (the symbols used, size of words and so on) are all non-verbal components of a verbal language, for the most part. Verbal, and non-verbal, messages function together, rather than separately.
- Nonverbal messages often are more important than the verbal ones. In some organizational situations, the verbal messages can be more important than the verbal. Verbal messages have their biggest impact on the way people feel about their interaction, and the people with whom they interact.
- Nonverbal communication is believed. In meetings, both managers and employees, look for the true meaning behind the words. Research indicates that humans are terribly bad lie detectors, actually being wrong more often than they would be by flipping a coin. However, if a person feels like another person is not telling them the truth, a feeling which usually comes from nonverbal messages, that person will believe the other is not telling the truth - even if they are.
*ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION FOR SURVIVAL: MAKING WORK, WORK BY VIRGINIA P. RICHMOND, JAMES C. MCCROSKEY AND LINDA L. MCROSKEY; PGS. 33-35*
END
|
No comments:
Post a Comment